Tag: Gospel of Matthew

April 27 – Daily Feast

April 27 – Daily Feast

Forgiveness seems to be continually with us – the need to forgive, to be forgiven, is directly tied to loving and being loved – or lovable. We sometimes love better at a distance. Time and space have a way of putting things into perspective so that we can see the right and the wrong to be able to forgive or ask forgiveness. We never gain ground as long as we are obstinate about forgiving. A grudge is a stone wall that forbids us to move in any direction. The Cherokees have labored long to understand the reason for the Trail of Tears – the same way other tribes have tried to understand. Life has a way of working itself out to certain ends, a time for everything, and what has been lost will be regained many times over. When? There is an exact moment. Yoweh knows.

~ When we are at peace we hunt freely, our wives and children do not stand in want….We sleep easy. ~

CHEROKEE

‘A Cherokee Feast of Days’, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*

December 28th – Childermas

 

Childermas

(Old English) Childermas (Mass of the Holy Innocents) (Bloody heath, Erica cruenta, is today’s plant, dedicated to the innocents massacred by King Herod)

Matthew, ii, 16-18: Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

“… Herod’s massacre of the innocents. It used to be the custom on Childermas to whip the children (and even adults) that the memory of Herod’s murder of the Innocents might stick the closer’. This practice forms the plot of several tales in the Decameron.” (Evans 1988) King Herod, having heard that a god-child had been born, put thousands of babies ton the sword. Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt with the baby Jesus.

Childermas is supposed to be a day of bad omen, and one should never marry on it. Nor put on new clothes, pare the nails, or begin anything important. The coronation of King Edward IV was postponed till the following Monday.

It was considered once to be about the unluckiest day of the year. No work or undertakings were begun today, and one was not to marry.

Cornwall: housewives and cleaners refrain from scrubbing on this day, as late as 1860s.

France: people believed that spectral huntsmen in the sky on stormy evenings (a motif found throughout Europe, known in Britain as the Wild Hunt) were the spirits of the Holy Innocents being pursued by King Herod.

Belgium: Children play all sorts of tricks on their elders, including stealing their keys and locking them up.

GrannyMoon’s Morning Feast and Wilson’s Almanac