Seasons of the Witch – Legends and Lore, Ancient Holidays And Some Not So Ancient!

Today Is …

Day of Rauni, Finnish Goddess of the Rowan Tree. Find a Rowan tree (Mountain Ash) or any tree/bush with red berries and ask the tree permission to make yourself a crown of it’s leaves.

The birth of the God Set (or Seth) is celebrated by many pagans. Set is an ancient God of Darkness and the Magickal arts.

In China, this day is sacred to Ti-Tsang, the rule of the dark Underworld. He is honored with an annual Festival of the Dead.

St Swithin’s Day – St Swithin was an early Saxon Bishop of Winchester. On his death bed, he asked to be buried among the poor in the common churchyard, but later, after many miracles at his gravesite, the monks moved his body inside to a splendid shrine, whereupon the saint wept in protest, causing a continuous downpour for forty days. Thus he came to be associated with weather charms like this:

St Swithin’s Day, if it does rain

Full forty days, it will remain

St Swithin’s Day, if it be fair

For forty days, twill rain no more

Rain on St Swithin’s Day blesses the apples which should not be picked or eaten before his feast. All apples growing at this time will ripen. Kightly, Charles, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames & Hudson 1987

Gorestnici, Fire Festival – July was called the “hot month” in Bulgaria, partly because the people celebrated a fire festival of three days duration beginning on the 15th. Nilsson, Martin P, Primitive Time Reckoning, Oxford University Press 1920

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Remember The Ancient Ways and Keep Them Holy!

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Courtesy of GrannyMoonsMorningFeast