In southern England, Saint Distaff’s Day was when work began again after the Christmas holiday. Saint Distaff’s Day was not a saint’s day at all, but rather a tongue-in-check commemoration of the day on which women returned to their distaffs of unspun wool.
In Australia this day was dedicated to the Aborigine Mother Goddess Nungeena. According to her legend, evil spirits destroyed the earth with insects. Nugeena then created the most beautiful birds of all: lyre birds. These magnificent creatures in turn made other birds, who assisted with the work of clearing away the insects and restoring the world to its original beauty.
To the ancient Romans, the Goddess Concordia was the personification of concord (an agreement between members of the state or between members of groups within a guild) and sometimes associated with the Greek Goddess Homonoia—the incarnation of harmony.
On this day considered to be the center-post of the first month of the new year, Concordia was petitioned to help with the formation of favorable partnerships with business as well as with love and friendship.
January 15th
According to The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore by Charles Kightly, from the Markham County Contentments (1615), this day was reserved for taking care of one’s hounds. It seems that when the hounds were done with the hunt, one was to immediately wash the animals’ feet in hot butter and beer, beef broth, or a brew of mallows and nettles. Once properly cleansed, the hounds were to be allowed to rest before the fire for several hours. When the hounds were rested and refreshed, they would be rousted and turned out to find their own housing.
The ancient Greeks set this day aside to honor Callisto, the moon Goddess who was loved by Zeus. Callisto bore Zeus a son, Arcas, and was then changed into a bear either by Zeus, wishing to hide her, or by Hera herself. As a bear she was shot by Artemis in the forest, who then placed her among the stars as the She Bear connected with the Ursa Major constellation.
In Greek Callisto was also called Helice, which means both “that which turns” and “Willow branch”-a reminder that the willow was the sacred tree favored by Helice and Callisto.
Annually on this day in Iran, huge bonfires are ignited as the sun sets to exemplify how the power of light can overcome the power of darkness. As the fires burn, the evil influences that linger among the shadows of darkness are dispelled, thus allowing people to overcome obstacles and reach their fullest potential in the seasons to come.
It was on the hill of Tepeyac, just north of Mexico City, in 1531, that an Indian named Juan Diego saw an apparition he believed to be the Virgin Mary. The vision instructed him to have a church built on the spot, which had formerly been the cult-site of the Aztec Mother Goddess Tonantzin. At the time, the bishop disbelieved him, until the Virgin appeared for a third time and miraculously produced roses that Juan Diego presented to the bishop. As he did, the portrait of the Virgin appeared on Juan’s cloak. The shrine was built and is still a famous place of pilgrimage.
November 9th
Loy Krathog is the traditional wishing festival of Thailand. On this day, small boats are fashioned from banana peels and lotus leaves. When the sun sets, people take their boats to the shore, where they fill them with offerings of incense and gardenia petals. A white candle is then placed in the boat along with a wish. The boats are then set adrift on the water. It is believed that if the candle in the boat stays lit until its owner can no longer see, then the wish will be granted.
After the calendar reform of 1752 the Lord Mayor’s Day was moved from October 28 to November 9. It is on this day that “Mock Mayors” are elected in many of the poorer English towns. The elections are designed to poke good-natured fun at some of the more prestigious municipalities and their sometimes times pompous politicians. Of course, the more offensive the candidate is, the more joy in having him take the podium, whereupon a cabbage stalk is presented to him to serve as hiis mayoral mace. The festivities are usually followed by somewhat raucous behavior and of course the usual drinking and feasting.
The Ludi Victoriae Sullanae were the games held on October 26 to honor the Goddess Victoria. This festival was established in 81 B.C. to celebrate Sulla’s victory over a large army of Sammites at the Porta Collina in Rome.
Victoria was the Goddess of victory, and her temple was on the Palatine Hill in Rome. She was the equivalent of the Greek Goddess Nike and was pictured with wings. Victoria was an important Goddess to the Romans, and she appears regularly on coinage from the late third century B.C. Victoria came to be regarded as the guardian of the empire, and her altar became a symbol of Paganism.
Seasons of the Witch – Legends and Lore, Ancient Holidays And Some Not So Ancient!
Swedish Midsummer Bride Festival. Celebrate the lusciousness of Summer with another.
Bawming the Thorn. On this date in Appleton, England, the boughs of a large and very old hawthorn tree are decorated with flowers, flags, and ribbons as part of a centuries-old Pagan tree-worship ritual known as Bawming the Thorn.
Papa Legba. This is a sacred day to Papa Legba, a powerful loa in the Voodoo religion. Originally a Dahomean sun god, Papa Legba is worshipped as the spirit-master of pathways and crossroads, and is the most important deity of the Vodoun pantheon.
Sts. Peter and Paul/Elegba – Midsummer and St Petertide are the favorite seasons for “rush-bearing”in England: rushes or new-mown hay are brought in to be laid on the floors of churches. In northwestern England, rushcarts with towering flower-bedecked loads of plaited rushes are the focus of processions.
Good Day to you, you merry men all
Come listen to our rhyme
For we would have you not forget
This is Midsummer time
So bring your rushes, bring your garlands
Roses, John’s Wort, Vervain too
Now is the time for our rejoicing
Come along Christians, come along do.
Bishop’s Castle Rushbearing Song, Shropshire
Photographer Jeffrey Bezom describes the way the festival is celebrated in Poroa de Varzim in Portugal where St Peter is honored as a fisherman. The houses are decorated with garlands of lights, nautical banners, tinfoil boats and colorful ribbons. Stages are trimmed with nets, oars and rigging for life-sized paper-mache Peters in fishing boats. At sunset, the townsfolk, dressed in black, march to the beat of drums, following an empty coffin draped with flowers and lace. Some carry candles and others poles topped with large realistic wax heads representing the beloved dead of the town. Onlookers strew their path with rushes and mint and thyme. Later, they drink green wine, run about with torches, dance around huge bonfires and jump through the flames, feast on fresh grilled sardines and set off fireworks.
Obviously this celebration has acquired some of the aspects of midsummer as well as acknowledging St Peter’s role as the gatekeeper of Heaven. He is often shown holding two crossed keys. The primula veris is also known as St Peter’s wort because it is said to resemble a bunch of keys. He is also associated with the yellow rattle and wall-barley which is called St Peter’s corn in Germany.
In the Vodou tradition, Elegba is honored on the same day since he is also a messenger between the two worlds.
This is another day for weather oracles. A French proverb says that if it rains on this day, it will rain for thirty more dangerous days. Folklorist Alexander Carmichael who collected folk customs from the Scottish Highlands and compiled them in a book called Carmina Gadelica records a saying used by fishermen to predict the weather from the winds on this day:
Wind from the west, fish and bread;
Wind from the north, cold and flaying;
Wind from the east, snow on the hills;
Wind from the south, fruit on the trees.
Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc, Holford-Strevens, The Oxford Book of Days, Oxford University Press, 2000
Kightly, Charles, The Perpetual Almanack of Folklore, Thames & Hudson 1987
Teish, Luisah, Jambalaya, Harper & Row 1985
NOTE: Because of the large number of ancient calendars, many in simultaneous use, as well as different ways of computing holy days (marked by the annual inundation, the solar year, the lunar month, the rising of key stars, and other celestial and terrestrial events), you may find these holy days celebrated a few days earlier or later at your local temple.
Remember The Ancient Ways and Keep Them Holy!
• • • •.
Courtesy of GrannyMoonsMorningFeast
Witches Of The Craft® 