Today Is …

 

Day of Devi-Hindu Goddess of all force and form. Use Her to bring clarity of vision and organization to your life.

Fire-Walking Festival – In certain villages in northern Greece, on the feast day of Saint Constantine, the Anastenarides (the groaners) dance barefoot on hot coals for hours at a time. It is said that the Saint protects those men who he summons to this dance.

After the dance, a black bull is sacrificed on the steps of the church and the raw, still-steaming meat is distributed to all. The strips of hide are given out as well to be made into sandals. According to Blackburn, these rituals “are opposed by the Church as survivals from the ancient worship of Dionysos, the God of wild Nature in such manifestations as plant growth, wine, and ecstasy, but are stoutly defended by their practitioners as Christian defenses against the Devil.” [p. 216] Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999 Rufus, Anneli, The World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994

St. Elena – While discussing the link between bread and religion that runs so deep in Italy, Waverley Root comments on a ritual that takes place at Quartu Sant’Elena, near Cagliari in Sardinia on May 21st. The people dress in traditional costumes and make an offering to St. Elena of eight large loaves of bread, which contain wine and honey, and are sweetened with jam. Root, Waverley, The Food of Italy, Scribner 1971

St. Rita – This 14th century Italian woman is the patron saint of the unhappily married, due to her sufferings at the hands of a vicious husband, and after his death in a vendetta, her two sons who had inherited their father’s tempers. Only after their deaths, was she free to enter an Augustinian convent and dedicate her life to ministering to the sick. Blackburn, Bonnie and Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Oxford Companion to the Year, Oxford University Press 1999

Rome: The Agonalia of May – dedicated to Vediovis, a personification of Mars as a protector.

 

Courtesy of GrannyMoonsMorningFeast