Our BetterMost Community > The Holiday Forum
Celebrating the Winter Solstice
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: CellarDweller on December 17, 2024, 10:41:58 pm ---I enjoy marking the time like that as well, Jeff.
I may not know all the holidays like Imbolc or Beltane, but I do always make note of the solstices and equinoxes.
--- End quote ---
Apparently there were two cycles of festivals.
This one is easy to understand:
Yule (winter solstice)
Ostara (spring equinox)
Litha (summer solstice)
Mabon (fall equinox)
The other is
Imbolc (Feb. 1)
Beltane (May 1)
Lughnasadh (Aug. 1)
Samhain (Nov. 1)
In each cycle the holidays are three months apart.
I'm guessing these festivals in the second cycle started the night before these dates, thus we have Samhain (Halloween) on Oct. 31, and the Wiccans and Neopagans I knew had their "fertility rites" April 30.
This article on the Wheel of the Year is very interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year#:~:text=Autumn%20Equinox%20(Mabon),-Main%20article%3A%20September&text=The%20holiday%20of%20the%20autumnal,neo%2Ddruids%20is%20Alban%20Elfed.
Front-Ranger:
Thanks! This is a good refresher. Offline Chuck and I pruned a large number of ash and buckthorn saplings out of the cotoneaster bushes on Monday and we could make a smashing good bonfire out of them. But, probably not allowed in these suburbs. So, I'm going in search of my scented candles...I have a Krampus one somewhere that would be excellent for the Solstice.
serious crayons:
Chrissi and I invented the holiday Longerdays, celebrated on Dec. 22. We both crave sunlight at this time of year. I don't know where Chrissi is in Germany, but in Berlin sunsets at the solstice are more than half an hour earlier and sunrises are almost a half an hour earlier than Minneapolis. Or, to put it more simply, Berlin has 7:39 hours of daylight and Minneapolis has 8:46.
Which is still not nearly enough light for me. I literally count the days until Longerdays -- last weekend I thought, welp, we're heading into the darkest two weeks of the year.
I bought a SAD lamp for about $20 and try to turn it on each morning but I don't know if it's doing any good.
I sure can see why this is the time of year to celebrate with a nice, brightly lit festival!
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on December 18, 2024, 05:04:39 pm --- thus we have Samhain (Halloween) on Oct. 31.
--- End quote ---
Subject of my first published article, "Celebrate Halloween the way the Druids did!"
CellarDweller:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on December 18, 2024, 09:54:38 pm ---Subject of my first published article, "Celebrate Halloween the way the Druids did!"
--- End quote ---
;) :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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