Monthly Archives: January 2016

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The tenth day of Christmas (Jan 3) is Snow Day. On this day we pay our respects to snow. No depiction of Christmas and Midwinter celebration is complete without it. Snow has so many qualities and so many aspects that it is not surprising that the Inuit people have literally hundreds of words that describe its variety of colors and texture.

So today let us devote ourselves to the contemplation and honoring of the million small crystals that drift across the lands of the Northern hemisphere at this time of the year. And, if we have no snow to look at and celebrate, let us at least remember it in all its fine whiteness, cancelling out the darkness of Midwinter and transforming even the grayest and bleakest of scenes into a place of magic.

Source: The Winter Solstice

e6b13dec32c89ebbd13d29ea8ac39093According to Scottish custom, the first Monday of the new year was the time to give children and servants a small gift, or handsel. Literally something given into the hands of someone else, the gift itself was less important than the good luck it signified. The handsel was popular as a new year’s gift from the 14th to 19th centuries, but it also had a broader application to mark any new situation. It continues today in the form of a housewarming gift to someone moving into a new home.

Source: Almanac.com

The Kalends of January (Jan 2nd, the 9th day of Christmas) was a significant part of the Roman Midwinter celebrations, and has lent its name to Midwinter festivals all over the Western world. For example, in Provence in France the festival is known as Calendas, in Poland it is called Kolenda, and in Russia, Kolyada. In the Czech Republic it is called Koteda, in Lithuania, Kalledos, and in Wales and Scotland, Calenig and Calluinn respectively – all these names derived from the Latin Kalendae, and all referring to the festival of midwinter.

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Initially the Kalends followed Saturnalia, beginning a few days of rest to allow aching heads and stomachs to recover! At this time new consuls were inducted into office, and for at least three days a high festival took place.

Houses were decorated with lights and greenery and gifts were exchanged. It was also the custom to give special presents to the emperor. These, called Votae, were left in the porch of the imperial palace, and it is recorded that the Emperor Calligula not only demanded these gifts from everyone, but also stood in the porch to collect them personally!

It may have been the memory of this that prompted the 4th century writer Libanius to describe the festival in terms that might be easily applied to the modern celebration of Christmas as to the celebrations in ancient Rome:

The impulse to spend seizes everyone..

People are not only generous themselves,
but also towards their fellow men.
A stream of presents pours itself out on all sides.

The Kalends festival banishes all that is 
connected with toil, and allows men to give
themselves up to undisturbed enjoyment.

From the minds of young people it
removes two kinds of dread:
the dread of the schoolmaster and 
the dread of the pedagogue.

The slave also it allows, as far as possible,
to breathe the air of freedom…

Another great quality of the festival
is that it teaches men not to hold too fast
to their money, but to part with it
and let it pass into other hands.

Source: The Winter Solstice

What follows is a list (in alphabetical order) of the names given to the January moon. Also listed is the tradition and/or origin of that moon name:

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  • Avunniviayuk ~Inuit
  • Big Cold Moon ~Mohawk
  • Chaste Moon ~other
  • Cold Meal Moon ~Natchez
  • Cold Moon ~Cheokee
  • Cooking Moon ~Choctaw
  • Dark Moon ~Janic
  • Disting Moon ~other
  • Flying Ant Moon ~Apache
  • Great Spirit Moon ~Anishnaabe
  • Her Cold Moon ~Wishram
  • Ice Moon ~San Juan, Neo-Pagan
  • Icicle Moon ~Medicine Wheel
  • Joyful Moon ~Hopi
  • Little Winter Moon ~Creek
  • Man Moon ~Taos
  • Moon After Yule ~Cherokee
  • Old MoonAlgonquin
  • Quiet Moon ~Celtic, Janic
  • Snow Moon ~other
  • Storm Moon ~other
  • Strong Cold Moon ~Sioux, Cheyenne
  • Whirling Wind Moon ~Passamaquoddy
  • Winter Moon ~Algonquin
  • Wolf Moon ~Medieval English, Janic

Source

meteor-shower-2016

The Quadrantids is an above average meteor shower, with up to 40 meteors per hour at its peak. It is thought to be produced by dust grains left behind by an extinct comet known as 2003 EH1, which was discovered in 2003. The shower runs annually from January 1-5. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Bootes, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

Source: SeaSky

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To celebrate the New Year fireballs swing in Stonehaven, Scotland.

The ceremony consists of mainly local people of all ages swinging flaming wire cages, around their heads. Each cage is filled with combustible material (each swinger has their own recipe) and has a wire handle two or three feet long, this keeps the flames well away from the swinger, but spectators can be vulnerable! At the end of the ceremony, the fireballs are tossed into the bay.

The event starts at midnight and is watched by thousands. The idea behind the ceremony is to burn off the bad spirits left from the old year so that the spirits of the New Year can come in clean and fresh.

From current research the ceremony would seem to go back from a hundred to a hundred and fifty years, but it could easily be much older.

The ceremony today lasts only around twenty to thirty minutes but in the past it could last an hour or more. Then, some of the swingers would swing their fireball for a few yards and then stop outside a house that was occupied by someone that they knew. They would drop their fireball at the curbside and pop in for their ‘New Year’! After a while they would come out, pick up their ‘ball’ and swing on down to the next house, and so on. As quite a number of the swingers would have had many relatives and friends staying in area it could take some time to get from one end of the street to the other!

In the early years, according to the newspaper reports, it would seem that it was mainly the male youths of the older ‘fisher’ town that were involved in the custom but once into the sixties the newspaper reports are of older men and women being involved as well.

If an image has posted without permission please leave a comment and I will happily remove it, replace it, give credit, link love ~ whatever you prefer.

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I think it's time to go shopping... maybe even buy some really cool stuff at my online shops!!

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