[Spirit] 30 Days, 8: Holidays
Holy days are here again!
While I could ramble forever on this topic, I'll just leave you with a link, and commentary
I made a calendar in which to put my Vanic holidays. It's obviously a little outdated, and only has Germanic deities, but quite serviceable. And the 2011 Lulu version is pretty! (the cover art is mine)
In general, I have four major holidays - Midsummer, Lammas, Hallows and Yule. I had stopped doing anything for Imbolc, but I think I'll start again. For me, the eight "pagan" holidays make sense in a Waincraft paradigm, though the mythic cycles are often different from the traditional ones. I also like having a themed celebration on the full moons of each month, and a deity or deities connected with each moon.
I, of course, do follow the Ghastly Wheel of Torture the Year ;) :
Ghoul - the midwinter festival in which sacrifices are made in dark cellars and lonely moors to appease the Dark Ghouls of the Neverwinter Nights.
Cursing of the Plow/Orcmilk - a northwestern European fastday in which all farm implements and animals are stricken with rot and disease, and any milk produced comes out already curdled. The southern European equivalent is Lupercuus, the deadly night when werewolves stalk the countryside.
Oh, spare us! - the three-day Feast of the Vampires, when no town or village is safe from their gaudy attire and sparkling personalities champagne skin.
Bell-town/Mayday! - another northwestern European festival, this one wishing away the denizens of the night air - belfry bats, evil sprites, and feline cauterwauling. No air travel is safe during the month of Mayday!
Leave Us! - the day of the dead rats, millipedes, centipedes, and all other manner of vermin that come back to life and haunt the pantries and cupboards of good folk.
Loath-mass - the year's grand festival of the Old Ones. Does anything more need to be said?
Madmen/Soul Harvest - the festival of the Reapers and Mind-flayers.
Harrows/Soul's End - the second great festival of the year, when all the dead are ripped from their graves to wander the earth until Ghoul.
1. Beliefs - Why Paganism/Waincraft?
2. Beliefs - Cosmology
3. Beliefs - Deities
4. Beliefs - Birth, death and rebirth
5. Beliefs - Sacred sexuality
6. Beliefs - Magic and spellcraft
7. Beliefs - The Power of the Holy
8. Beliefs - Holidays
9. Waincraft and the Environment
10. Patrons - Earth Mother
11. Patrons - Lord of the Green
12. Pantheon - High Ladies
13. Pantheon - Calmer
14. Pantheon - Weird Sisters
15. Pantheon - Other Gods
16. Pantheon - Tribes
17. Nature spirits and ancestors
18. My ways of worship
19. Rethinking Community
20. Language
21. Syncreticism
22. Other paths I've explored
23. Paganism and major life events
24. Ethics
25. Personal aesthetics with magic and ritual
26. Any "secular" pastimes with religious significance, and why
27. How your faith has helped you in difficult times
28. One misconception about Paganism you'd like to clear up
29. The future of Waincraft
30. Advice for seekers
This entry was originally posted at http://nicanthiel.dreamwidth.org/98470.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
While I could ramble forever on this topic, I'll just leave you with a link, and commentary
I made a calendar in which to put my Vanic holidays. It's obviously a little outdated, and only has Germanic deities, but quite serviceable. And the 2011 Lulu version is pretty! (the cover art is mine)
In general, I have four major holidays - Midsummer, Lammas, Hallows and Yule. I had stopped doing anything for Imbolc, but I think I'll start again. For me, the eight "pagan" holidays make sense in a Waincraft paradigm, though the mythic cycles are often different from the traditional ones. I also like having a themed celebration on the full moons of each month, and a deity or deities connected with each moon.
I, of course, do follow the Ghastly Wheel of Torture the Year ;) :
Ghoul - the midwinter festival in which sacrifices are made in dark cellars and lonely moors to appease the Dark Ghouls of the Neverwinter Nights.
Cursing of the Plow/Orcmilk - a northwestern European fastday in which all farm implements and animals are stricken with rot and disease, and any milk produced comes out already curdled. The southern European equivalent is Lupercuus, the deadly night when werewolves stalk the countryside.
Oh, spare us! - the three-day Feast of the Vampires, when no town or village is safe from their gaudy attire and sparkling personalities champagne skin.
Bell-town/Mayday! - another northwestern European festival, this one wishing away the denizens of the night air - belfry bats, evil sprites, and feline cauterwauling. No air travel is safe during the month of Mayday!
Leave Us! - the day of the dead rats, millipedes, centipedes, and all other manner of vermin that come back to life and haunt the pantries and cupboards of good folk.
Loath-mass - the year's grand festival of the Old Ones. Does anything more need to be said?
Madmen/Soul Harvest - the festival of the Reapers and Mind-flayers.
Harrows/Soul's End - the second great festival of the year, when all the dead are ripped from their graves to wander the earth until Ghoul.
1. Beliefs - Why Paganism/Waincraft?
2. Beliefs - Cosmology
3. Beliefs - Deities
4. Beliefs - Birth, death and rebirth
5. Beliefs - Sacred sexuality
6. Beliefs - Magic and spellcraft
7. Beliefs - The Power of the Holy
8. Beliefs - Holidays
9. Waincraft and the Environment
10. Patrons - Earth Mother
11. Patrons - Lord of the Green
12. Pantheon - High Ladies
13. Pantheon - Calmer
14. Pantheon - Weird Sisters
15. Pantheon - Other Gods
16. Pantheon - Tribes
17. Nature spirits and ancestors
18. My ways of worship
19. Rethinking Community
20. Language
21. Syncreticism
22. Other paths I've explored
23. Paganism and major life events
24. Ethics
25. Personal aesthetics with magic and ritual
26. Any "secular" pastimes with religious significance, and why
27. How your faith has helped you in difficult times
28. One misconception about Paganism you'd like to clear up
29. The future of Waincraft
30. Advice for seekers
This entry was originally posted at http://nicanthiel.dreamwidth.org/98470.html. Please comment there using OpenID.