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Midwinter, or midsummer?

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FourWinds F
FourWinds Jun 25, 2005 10:35:36
Replying to FourWinds

Apologies. 24th June signifies the Birth of JoB. Job was beheaded on August 29th, which hints of sacrifice to the harvest to me.

The Ascension (40th day after Easter Sunday - inc the Sunday). This is also German Father's Day.

Also Whit Sunday (2 Sundays after the Ascension), which marks the Pentacost when the disciples started talking in tongues because they were possessed by the holy spirit (or something).

The Catholics have Mary's Ascension too. 15th August.

St. Brigit's day is July 23rd. She maintained the Eternal Flame at Kildare (which Cromwell's men eventually extinguished). Intrestingly St. Mary Magdalene's day is 22nd July. Brigit is also given the role of Mary's midwife in the Irish church.

The Eastern church oddly starts its year at the beginning of September. This is marked by Mary's birthday on the 8th Spetember. The mother's birthday is after the harvest. I can't work this quote out from the Byzantine stuff: "Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father's immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse"

"The barren Anna" probably refers to the same goddess that became Ainné one of the Celtic mother goddesses.

Summer is quite eventful if you take the important Xtian festivals. A lot of these weren't chosen randomly. Like Xmas and Easter (first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox) they were carefully chosen to replace other festivals.

The ancients must have considered many events sacred throughout the year. Midwinter would be a time of worry - worrying whether the sun would come back. Missummer would have been a time of celebration - the sun at it's most glorious, when it was providing the most food etc.

We can't say which was the most sacred. We can only guess.

F follow that cow
follow that cow Jun 25, 2005 22:35:42
Replying to FourWinds

>We can't say which was the most sacred. We can only guess<

Very, true.

Yet I believe that where objective reasoning finishes, subjective feeling begins.

My subjective view is that high summer with its long hot nights and abundance of resources was the season to make babies, feast, fight and play. In effect the time to partake of life. Busy, happy, healthy people have no real need for religion.

But midwinter would have been a time for reflection, with thoughts of those who have passed on, a marginal time, where the past present and future all marry together. This would have been a time when 'the soul' would need the sustenance and succor community and religion.

As a Scot, I know that the world associates the Scottish Hogmanay (New Year) with riotous and drunken revelry, a time of wanton excess, however, the reality is that most Scots quite dread that time of year, as it is a dark time full of pathos and melancholy ......... that's probably why most of us get pissed from Hogmanay to Burns Night ..... keep the party going.... blot out the literal and metaphorical darkness.

I feel this would have been true for many past generations who have inhabited the north and west!