Seasons of the Witch – Legends and Lore, Ancient Holidays And Some Not So Ancient!
Today Is …
Celebration of Diana and Hecate. Leave a harvest offering at a place where three roads or paths meet.
Egyptian; Day of battle between Horus and Set
Rome: From ancient times, Vertumnalia was celebrated as a festival to the god Vertumnus and the Goddess Pomona, the patrons of orchards and gardens. Vertumnus was a shapeshifter, and the seasonal changing of fruit trees reflects the many aspects of Vertumnus. Pomona’s name is derived from the Roman word ‘pomus,’ or fruit. She is the Goddess of the Cultivated Garden, the Goddess of Apples, the Goddess of the Tree of Life.
Greece: In celebration of the birth of the Goddess Athena.
Feast of Greek Deities Aphrodite and Eros–Day to honor love and passion
Festival Of Isis
Greek Festival of Hecate, Goddess of the Crossroad and Patron of Witches. On this date, the major Pagan festival of Hecate is traditionally held at moonrise. Hecate, the mysterious Goddess of Darkness and Protectress of all Witches, is a personification of the Moon and the dark side of the female principle.
1818 – Birth of Lucy Stone, feminist theorist. Pioneer feminists, “Lucy Stoners” kept their maiden names
Lefthander’s Day
Festival Of The Volcano – Antigua, Guatemala
Nemoralia of Diana, Festival of Torches – The Romans took the Greek festival honoring Artemis and Hecate (see August 11) and gave it a fixed place in the solar calendar on this date. It was also known as Diana’s Feast of Torches. Roman women marched in torchlight processions to the temples of Diana and Hecate. They also visited the groves of Diana with their hunting dogs on leashes to offer her thanks.
The temple of Diana on the Aventine was an asylum for runaway slaves and on this day all slaves of both sexes had a holiday. All women made a point of washing their hair on this day.
The mention of ritual hair-washing seems to connect this holiday with the prohibitions on washing and beautification which begin at the start of the month of Av in the Jewish calendar (July 28) and at the start of August (see August 1) for the Greeks. The full moon of Av (August 11 this year) was celebrated with torchlight processions, bonfires and dancing.
Sacrifices were also made on this day to Vertumnus (an ancient Etruscan God associated with change, especially the seasons), Fortuna Equestris (in honor of a battle won by a cavalry charge), Hercules, Castor and Pollus, the Camanae Goddess of springs, later identified with the Muses–they also had their own holiday in October) and Flora. Blackburn, Bonnie & Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999
August 13 – 15 O-Bon – The Japanese celebrate the Days of the Dead in the middle of summer, on either July 13-15 or August 13 – 15. On the first day of the festival, they decorate the graves of their ancestors with fruit, cakes and lanterns. On the second day, people set up spirit altars called tamadana in their homes. They set the memorial plaques of their ancestors on a rush mat, surrounded by vegetarian dishes and cucumbers carved to resemble horses on which the spirits can ride. The third day is the day for the bon-odori, a slow hypnotic dance performed in concentric circles or multiple lines. At evening, tiny lanterns are set adrift on rivers or seas, to light the way for the souls returning to the other side. Rufus, Anneli, The World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994
St. Radegund – St Radegund is one of the saints who took the place of the goddess as grain protectress, as described by Berger. Married to the brutal and philandering Merovingian King Clotaire, she fled from her husband after he murdered his brother. He tried to track her down but she was miraculously protected, in a story similar to those told about Mary. She came upon a farmer sowing his field and instructed him to tell anyone asking that he had not seen anyone pass by since he sowed his oats. Whereupon the oats grew so abundantly that she could hide among them and when the farmer duly reported her message, her husband gave up his pursuit. Her unofficial feast day is in February when oats are sowed but it also seems significant that she should be honored at the time of the harvest and in the same month as Mary in her guise as Harvest Goddess.
She was the patron saint for women afflicted with the pox, who were supposed to apply the skin of a black lamb to their skin, then send their husbands on a pilgrimage to St Radegund.
Radegund founded a monastery at Poitiers which became famous for the quality of the meals she served, thus she is the patron saint of female cooks. Her chaplain, Fortunat, the patron saint of male cooks, wrote her a letter praising a meal she prepared for him:
Next, a superb piece of meat, arranged in the shape of a mountain and flanked by high hills, the spaces between which were filled with a garden of various stews that included the most delicious products of earth and water….A black earthenware jar provided me with milk of the utmost whiteness: it was quite sure to please me.
Berger, Pamela, The Goddess Obscured: Transformation of the Grain Protectress from Goddess to Saint, Beacon 1985 Blackburn, Bonnie & Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999 Larousse Gastronomique, entry on the Chef
St. Cassian- Patron saint of schoolteachers; his pagan students stabbed him to death with their pen nibs. Hoever, Rev Hugo, Lives of the Saints, Catholic Book Publishing Company1955
15: Sproshinki – Serpen An agricultural holiday celebrating the end of haymaking. People have a good time, feasting, boxing, and much more. 15: Birthday of Charles Leland, folklorist and author, 1824 20: Full Moon – Corn Moon 29 August 2015 20: Birthday of author Ann Moura in 1947 31: Birthday of author Raymond Buckland
GrannyMoon’s Morning Feast Archives Remember the ancient ways and keep them sacred! )0( Live each Season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. ~Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)
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