Origins of Mother’s Day

Dear Wordmeisters,
According to the www.care2.com website:

Mother’s Day celebrations date back at least as far as ancient Greece, where worshipers observed a spring day in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the gods.

In 17th century England, Christians celebrated “Mothering Sunday,” the fourth Sunday in Lent, to honor the Virgin Mary and other faithful Moms.

The first Mother’s Day celebrations in the USA took place in West Virginia in 1908, at the urging of Ana Jarvis. Ana’s own mother had passed away several years earlier, and it had been her dream to reunite families divided by the Civil War with a day dedicated to Mothers.

The idea quickly caught on, and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday of May to be the official Mother’s Day.

To put it simply, Moms are the BEST!

Huge hugs,
Diane T. and furfamily

Blessed Beeee this May Day (Beltane)

Wade and I wanted to be married on May 1st, an ancient celebration of love, but that week in 1990 it fell on a Monday, so we were married on Saturday April 29 so that all our guests could attend.

We usually go to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire on May Day to celebrate our nuptials. But this year we couldn’t go because I’ve got some problems with my feet, so we stayed home for our 22nd wedding anniversary (and our 27th year living together!)

Here is some info on Beltane:

Beltane/ May Day/ May 1st
by Gabrielle Diana Laney

In the ‘Wheel of the Year,’ a concept that is becoming a tradition among neo-pagans, much has been written on the ‘cross-quarter’ days. These are the festivals that fall between the solstices and equinoxes. While the solstices and equinoxes mark the sun’s place in the wheel, the cross-quarter days, which were more important to the ancient peoples, are not merely halfway marks in the sun’s progress through the year.

Beltane is celebrated on May first, (in Scotland May 15th) but sometime between May 5th-11th, the goddess Brigit brought in the fire of rebirth, fertility, courtship, and the opening of Summer.

In his book “The Living World of Faery”, R.J. Stuart states: “The rising and setting of the small star group, the Pleiades, is used worldwide to mark the pivot of the year, when they rise in the Northern Hemisphere they are setting in the southern hemisphere and vice versa. The modern dates for this relativistic event are close to May 1st and November 5th, the Celtic feasts of Beltane and Samhain, or May Day and Halloween, the two portal fire-festivals. These pre-Celtic festival dates are not, as is often stated incorrectly, solar events. The Celts did not use a solar calendar but a lunar one. Nor did the pre-Celtic and megalithic people base their time patterns on the seasons and the sun, but upon stellar and planetary patterns linked together.”

To read the whole article go to:
www.avalonvisions.com/beltane.html

Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet again!

Happy Eostre Egg Hunting All!!

The ancient origins of Easter/ Eastre/Eostre

According to http://www.care2.com:

The name Easter comes from Eastre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honor. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals. Others come from the Passover feast of the Jews, observed in memory of their deliverance from Egypt. The resurrection of Jesus took place during the Passover. In the early days of Christianity Easter and the Passover were closely associated.

Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. They issued the Easter Rule which places Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (first day of Spring). Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.

The Easter Bunny
The Easter Bunny also originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The Goddess, Eastre, was worshiped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.

The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

The Easter Egg
The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians. The egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.

Happy Eostre Egg Hunting All!!

Are you an April Foole?

The origins of April Fool’s Day are a bit unclear, but it seems that the fun may have started in 1582 in France. In that year, King Charles IX decreed that France would switch to the Gregorian calendar (from the lunar calendar to the solar calendar), thereby moving “New Year’s Day” from March 25 to January 1. Those people who forgot about, or chose to ignore, the date change were sent foolish gifts and invited to imaginary parties. The butt of these jokes was called a “poisson d’avril” or “April Fish”.

source cited: http://www.care2.com/gates/holidays/aprilfools/aprilfools.html

Happy Spring Equinox!

Blessed be this Imbolc Day/Feast of Brigid/Candlemas Day

Blessed be this Imbolc Day/Feast of Brigid/Candlemas Day!!

“The First of February belongs to Brigid, (Brighid, Brigit, Bride,) the Celtic goddess who in later times became revered as a Christian saint. Originally, her festival on February 1 was known as Imbolc or Oimelc, two names which refer to the lactation of the ewes, the flow of milk that heralds the return of the life-giving forces of spring. Later, the Catholic Church replaced this festival with Candlemas Day on February 2, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and features candlelight processions. The powerful figure of Brigid the Light-Bringer incorporates both pagan and Christian celebrations.”

To read more about this fascinating feast day, go to:
http://www.chalicecentre.net/imbolc.htm

BTW, current tradition has changed this feast day into the contemporary holiday, “Ground Hog Day”. As with most ancient holiday traditions, the original meanings have been changed and the original deities co-opted to fit the current faith of contemporary people.

Have a Hopi Holiday

Have A Hopi Holiday!
By Diane Tegarden

It is true, much time has passed,
a year has flown away.
The season changes colors,
with red, greens and gold,
the festival of lights hold sway.

Yuletide is upon us, time to think of friends,
to be thankful for all of
our lucky happenstance.
To remember good times
in grateful abundance.

I wish you all a Heartfelt Holiday,
no matter what you are calling it,
anyway!
Be it a Holy Hanukkah,
a Spiritual Soyal,
a Captivating Christmas,
a Kickin’ Kwanzaa, or
the most wondrous
Winter Solstice!

If you live in Australia,
it’s summer solstice,
the longest day of the year.
If you live in the northern climes
the night is longest here.

But no matter where you are,
whether
planetside
or
star……

All I could wish for you
is
peace
(internally),
and a larger worldwide view!

Author’s Notes on Holidays:

Hanukkah is the annual Jewish festival celebrated on eight successive days beginning on the 25th day of Kislev, the third month of the Jewish calendar which corresponds approximately to December in the Gregorian calendar.  Also known as the “Festival of Lights”, the “Feast of Dedication” and the “Feast of the Maccabees”, Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by Judas Maccabee in 165 B.C. (Source:http://www.history./minisites/Hanukkah).

Soyal is the winter solstice ceremony of the Hopitu Shinumu, which means The Peaceful Ones, also known as the Hopi Indians. Soyal is held on December 21st, the shortest day of the year. The main purpose of the ritual is to ceremonially welcome home the Kachinas, or spirit teachers for the first half of the Wheel of the Year, which begins on Dec 21- June 21st when the Kachinas will return to their ancestral home in the mountains. Pahos, or prayer sticks, are made prior to the Soyal ceremony, to bless all the community, including their homes, animals, and plants. Sacred underground ritual chambers, called kivas, are ritually opened to mark the beginning of the Kachina season. Night Dances for Kachinas are held, a great pageant of men and women in ceremonial dress representing the spirit teachers and guides. (Source: Bahti, Tom. “Southwestern Indian Ceremonials”. KC Publications.1970.p36-40.)

Kwanzaa, which begins on December 26th and goes to January 1st , is the African American tradition of family and principles, created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga to “introduce and reinforce seven basic values of African culture which contribute to building and reinforcing family, community and culture” according to the official Kwanzaa website at: http://www.officialKwanzaawebsite.org.

Winter Solstice or Yule (Dec 21st -22nd) is celebrated in the northern hemisphere as the longest night of the year, the shortest day of the year, and is the turning point in winter, when the temperatures begin to break from freezing and the earth slowly begins to warm up.

12 Ways to Avoid the Christmas Crunch- tips 4 & 5

4.  Before Christmas, have a lottery where all the family’s names are placed in a bowl and each member of the family draws one name to buy a gift for (this reduces the number of gifts you have to buy). Set a dollar limit on the gifts and make everyone stick to the limit!

5.  For friends and co-workers, give gifts of home-made food (jam, cookies, brownies, etc.) in an attractive basket. My specialty is homemade cranberry sauce (killer-good!)

12 Ways to Save at Christmastime (2&3)

2.  Have the kids create short Christmas plays to entertain everyone.

3.  Copy the lyrics to Christmas carols and have a sing-along.

Enjoy!

The Big T-Day countdown

Well, the turkey’s in the oven, the Waldorf salad is chillin in the fridge, and my infamous homemade cranberry sauce is defrosted. (I make huge batches of it at Christmas time for family gifts, and there’s always one left over for the next year’s Thanksgiving meal.)

I’ll be adding to this post as dinner is being prepared!

The rest of the menu is… gravy, stuffing, baked yams, crescent rolls, and for dessert…pumpkin pie, of course!

yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm  ;>