Editing Wicker man (section)

{{EngvarB|date=July 2023}}
{{short description|Effigy for burning in pagan ritual}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:The Wicker Man of the Druids crop.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|An 18th-century illustration of a wicker man. Engraving from ''A Tour in Wales'' written by [[Thomas Pennant]].]]

A '''wicker man''' was purportedly a large [[wicker]] statue in which the [[druid]]s (priests of [[Celtic paganism]]) [[Human sacrifice|sacrificed humans]] and [[Animal sacrifice|animals]] by burning. The primary evidence for this practice is a sentence by [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] general [[Julius Caesar]] in his ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico|Commentary on the Gallic War]]'' (1st century BC),<ref>"Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames." {{cite book |last=Caesar |first=Julius |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10657/pg10657-images.html#id00302 |title=Caesar's Commentaries (De Bello Gallico, 6.16) |year=1915 |translator-last=Macdevitt |translator-first=W. A. |access-date=6 July 2020}}  </ref> which modern scholarship has linked to an earlier [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] writer, [[Posidonius]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9gMHcZCi1IC&pg=PA187 |last=Ellis |first=Peter Berresford |title=The Ancient World of the Celts |pages=64, 184, 187 |publisher=Barnes & Noble |year=1998 |isbn=0-7607-1716-8 }}</ref><ref name="Davidson">{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=60}}</ref>

There is some archaeological evidence of human sacrifice among [[Celts|Celtic peoples]], although rare.<ref name="koch687-690">{{Cite book |last=Koch |first=John |author-link=John T. Koch |title=The Celts: History, Life, and Culture |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1598849646 |pages=687–690}}</ref> The ancient Greco-Roman sources are now regarded somewhat sceptically, considering it is likely they "were eager to transmit any bizarre and negative information" about the Celts, as it benefited them to do so.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter S. |last=Wells |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vru5XzGXkuAC |title=The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1999 |pages=59–60 |isbn=0-691-08978-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1291/did-the-celts-burn-human-sacrifices-in-a-huge-wicker-man/ |title=Did The Celts Burn Human Sacrifices In A Huge 'Wicker Man'? |work=[[The Straight Dope]] |year=1998 }}</ref>

The British horror film ''[[The Wicker Man (1973 film)|The Wicker Man]]'' (1973) brought the wicker man into contemporary [[popular culture]]. In the latter half of the 20th and early 21st centuries, a wicker man (without human or animal sacrifices) has been burned at some [[neopagan]] ceremonies and festivals such as [[Burning Man]].<ref name="Jordan">{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Body |encyclopedia=Religion and American Cultures |year=2003 |last=Jordan |first=Mark |editor=Gary Laderman |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=341}}</ref> It has also been referenced in music and art.