It's Almost Solstice!, only 11 more shopping days left Options

the evergreen promise-tree had been hunted and killed and dragged into the house and hung with the glittering wish-spells of the family members for the new year

the presents, like morel mushrooms, lay under the tree awaiting the solstice and the warm gifting reminiscent of sun and earth's exchange (and daughter moon!)

i've gathered my gifts for the trees (eggs, cookies, milk duds, even a whole candy bar or two for my really special friends) and some tobacco for the fairies, elves and trolls that live in the woods down the lane

the yule log is ready to be baked (bread log this year as we dont have a working fireplace boo hoo, but we'll throw the spices on it in turn as its baking)

the groceries for the feast are in the fridge and freezer, i've dried the special corn for popping (bought some made just in case this time - we learn through our mistakes), there's baskets of dried leaves and evergreen branches from where we cut the tree

i think we're ready for solstice!

yay!

This post has been edited by esoterica: Dec 5 2006, 07:53 AM

Do you know, I am never ready until the last minute.

Then I go out and just gather whatever I can from wherever I happen to be and its usually on the actual day.

This one seems to come unexpectedly as you are looking at Christmas and New Year and trying to manoeuvre round these other celebrations and see which ones you can get out of lol

Last years was great, I ritualled and made a special meal and got out the big heavy winter woollens in rich winter colours and bought a new red jumper for it too.

Oooh, quite looking forward to it now (IMG:style_emoticons/default/partytime.gif)

Ill take any of the pagan holidays over the sickness and materialisation of christian holidays.

Ill take any of the pagan holidays over the sickness and materialisation of christian holidays.

Greetings Enochian,

Actually I have read from many Pagan sources that the Christian Holidays such as Christmas, actually started from the Pagan Holidays. Of course the Church had to add their own symbology to the Holidays to reinforce their Doctrine upon the masses.

One of the Reasons many Christian Holidays were originally formed from Pagan Holidays is that when the Early Church began conquering other lands, the Church Fathers found that by implementing Pagan Holidays as Christian Feasts, and Holy Days gave the conquered peoples a chance to still practice a type of their own beliefs under the umbrella of the Churches accepted Holy Days. This also made it easier for the early Christian Church to gain converts since many of the cultures they absorved through force could still practice a form of their original beliefs, albeit even if it were slightly different.

Take for instnace Voodo with its Orisha's which ultimately have been identified in modern times with the Christian Saints. These Pagan and Older Cultures have found ways to adapt and conform in times not to distant that they were torn from their original Religious Practices.

Christmas came from Yule, Yule of course being the return of the Light, Christian symbology Christ born as the Light of the World.

Easter Came from Ostara, a time for new beginnings.

All Souls Day or Halloween came from the Pagan Autumnal Festival of Samhein were the Spirits of the Ancestors were said to intercede to God for their descendants still on Earth, at a time when the veil between worlds is supposed to be the thinnest.

So if these sources are correct then the Pagan Traditions still live in some semblence even in the Christian Holy Days. Of course then there is the modern day commercialization of the Holidays. And I agree they have been entirely to Commercialized as Materialistic Western Society alters the meanings even further for generations of younger people who have lost any sense of the Original Meanings of these Days.

Respectfully,
Helel (Joseph)

This post has been edited by Joseph: Dec 5 2006, 03:01 PM

Greetings !

Good post Joseph. I think we must also add the astronomical reality of these festivals. They tend to divide the year in seasonal quarters and eighths and are an attempt to reconcile the cycles of of the sun and moon into a luni-solar calendar.

It is also interesting to note that the beginning of Christmas is Christmas Eve which corresponds to the end of solstice. For most cultures solstice was a several day event corresponding to the period when the sunrise and set positions did not appear to change hence “sol+stice" (derived from the latin “solar standstill”). If we observe the movement of the sun year-round (north-south cycle made by the solar arc) we notice that the sunsets/rises reach an extreme northern position during the December solstice and do not shift position for about 3 days. Usually this period runs from Dec21 to Dec 24, and thus Christmas Day (Dec. 25) does indeed represent the return of the light since it is the first day that the sun appears to visibly move back towards the northern half of the sky, bringing with it the period of longer days, shorter nights, and warmer months. The 12 days of Christmas to January 6 (the traditional day of the three Magi) corresponds to the period when an observer will see the first new moon of the year.

Similar astronomical realities can be found with almost all the major holidays. Easter for example it is always celebrated near the moon closest to equinox. In the end it is the patterns of the sky that govern our life on earth and thus cultures around the globe have turned these patterns into sacred events to celebrate the order of the cosmos. Thus, as traditions change (i.e pagan beliefs give way to Christian) the astronomical realities do not but instead are given different names to reflect the mythology of the new tradition .

This post has been edited by Faustopheles: Dec 5 2006, 04:58 PM

Almost all holidays are drived from the pagan holidays. All i was saying is i would rather celebrate the real deal than the materialistic no meaning holidays.