We shall hear
The rain and wind beat dark December
--- Shakespeare, Cymbeline

December is the tenth month of the old Roman calendar. The Saxons called it Winter Monath and, after the conversion to Christianity, Heligh Monath -- Holy Month.

Festival of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea and rebirth.

( October 11 )

( October 8 )

Nones of October/Pallas Athena/Victoria/Our Lady of VictoryPallas Athena,patroness of Athens, was later worshipped in Rome as the goddess Victoria, the divine personification of success and triumph. In the Christian era she was transmuted into St. Victoria, or Our Lady of Victories. With the fashion for triumphal architecture, her image was placed ( Read more... )

Egyptian Day

Walnut vinegar. Put green walnut shells into a brine of salt and water strong enough to float an egg. Remove after ten or twelve days and lay them in the sun for a week. Then put them in a jar and put boiling vinegar on them. In a week or so pour off the vinegar, boil it, and pour it back. This will be good to eat in about a month ( Read more... )

On the second day of the Mania, the Mundus, the passage to the underworld, was believed to be open, allowing passage of spirits up into our middle world, and the journeys of the shamans down into the underworld and back. It is a festival when departed ancestors are remembered.

( Writing letters to rats )

Egyptian Day

Day of St. Francis of Assisi

( In honor of Egyptian Day )

Dionysus/St. Dionysius/Goddess month of Hathor commencesThe Grecian divinity Dionysus (and Roman Bacchus) was god of wine and revelry -- so this is a time of celebration after the harvest. Old and new wine are mixed together, and the goddess Medetrina is also invoked: "Wine new and old I drink, to cure me of illnesses new and old." St. Dionysius ( Read more... )

Goddess month of Mala ends/Holy Guardian Angels ( Read more... )

Kalends of October/Fides

Fides was the personification of faithfulness, worshipped as a goddess in Rome.

October 1 and May 1 are the most popular days for moving into new houses in the United States.

First agricultural fair held in America, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1810.