“The ancient Celts and Britons were quite barbaric really - the view was that the skull contained the power and the soul was in the eyes, so kicking around the head broke the power of the enemy,” Festival co-ordinator and Celtic Crone, Joanne Cause said. “It was an ancient form of de-stress as well.”

For the less aggressive, there’s another new tradition - a prayer tree, onto which people can tie their prayers or wishes which will be burnt in the ashes of a bonfire lit the night before. (Prayers can be placed on the tree at the Railway Nursery this week, or at the Standing Stones over Saturday and Sunday).

The events are part of an expanded weekend program to celebrate the shortest day of the year, a time when Celtic cultures would ask the Oak King to defeat the Holly King and ‘call back the sun’.

Once again at the Standing Stones, the two kings will meet for a fight, and artists will fire pottery works in a bonfire, to be lit on Saturday evening. Then on Sunday, a family fun day will follow a dawn service, where, if the morning is clear, the sun will strike the base of the Solstice Stone in the stone circle - a true working calendar, Ms Cause said.

Crofters Cottage will be open for breakfast, and around 9:30am, Leonie Starr-Price will demonstrate the narrowness of natural energy lines in the stone circle because of the solstice. Nursery owner Toni-Lynne Whelan will talk about the Celtic tree calendar, around 11:00am there will be a Harry Potter fancy dress parade for children, followed by the opportunities for visitors to vent their aggression by kicking cabbages. A croquet match and then the offering of prayers into the last of the bonfire, will conclude the festival.

In the lead up to next weekend, the Celtic Soul Art and Craft Exhibition will be on show in the former Schmidt’s Jewellers shop, and Brisbane’s Mic Travers Band will play at the New England Club on Friday night.

“It’s an important time for Celtic culture. There are lots of activities and it would be great to see people dress up - cloaks, medieval clothes and sheepskin are much warmer than polyester,” she said.