A Druid was a member of the priestly and learned class active in Gaul (Western Europe more or less), and perhaps in Celtic culture generally, during the final centuries B.C. They were suppressed by the Roman government (then again, who wasn't?) and disappeared from the historical record by the 2nd century. Because they didn't have any typewriters or computers, they passed everything down through oral tradition. Therefore we basically know almost nothing about them, except what we can deduce from digging up (or accidentally cutting up, as it were) disgusting, amazingly well-preserved bog bodies found in wet, peat mossy, Druidy places, like England and Ireland.
Neo-druidism, on the other hand, is a fake religion for new age hippies who like drawing pagan symbols on things to look cool, dressing up in ye olde days clothes and getting together and worshipping the sun and Mother Nature and talking about how awesome Renaissance Festivals are, at places like Stonehenge.
Stonehenge is one of the most important pilgrimage sites for neo-druidism, which, if you think about it, is pretty dumb, because if you were going to make up a religion based on an ancient class of people you knew nothing about, wouldn't you at least make the pilgrimage site at a nice, sunny, warm island instead of in the middle of the freezing cold windswept English countryside next to a giant highway?
Incidentally, the above text is a transcription of the introduction to the Stonehenge audio guide, which Matt, Lucy and Alan are shown listening to here:
STONEHENGE
Followed by another ancient Druid ritual, the sacrificing of the maltodextrin, known in modern times as "eating Tic Tacs."
Really though, Stonehenge was pretty super. It looked smaller than I expected, but then again I do live in a skyscraper. It would be interesting to see it during the solstice, but for the aforementioned neo-druid situation. They were already gearing up for the traffic as early as June 10.
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