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Celebrating Ostara With Kids
This is an article that originally appeared on my old About.com page and was eventually moved over to LearnReligions, but now it’s been deleted, so I’m going to share it with you here. Since Ostara comes to the Northern Hemisphere on the 20th, I thought it was a good time to talk about how you can celebrate the season if you’ve got small humans in your house. Ostara is the season of the spring equinox, and falls around March 20 in the northern hemisphere (it’ll be somewhere near September 20 if you’re one of our readers below the equator). This the time when spring begins anew, and much like Mabon, the…
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Celebrating the Floralia
The Romans had a celebration for just about everything. Certainly, any Roman deity worth their salt got a holiday of their own, and Flora was no exception. Because FLOWERS AND SEX WORKERS, y’all. I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Flora. She was the goddess of spring flowers and vegetation, and one of many fertility goddesses. In fact, she was so well respected as a fertility deity that she was often seen as a the patron deity of Roman prostitutes. You guys, she was the goddess of sex workers! How cool is that? Flora’s holiday, the Floralia, originated around 235 b.c.e. It was believed…
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Celebrate Beltane With a Giant Pole
The maypole dance is a spring ritual long known to Western Europeans. Usually performed on May 1, which is Beltane, or May Day, the folk custom is done around a pole garnished with flowers and ribbon to symbolize a tree. Practiced for generations in countries such as Germany and England, this tradition dates back to the dances ancient people used to do around actual trees in hopes of harvesting a large crop. The pole was erected on the village green or common, or even a handy field—thrust into the ground either permanently or on a temporary basis—and brightly colored…
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Beltane is Coming!
Beltane is coming soon, and most of you know that it’s my second favorite holiday (Samhain for the win!), so I wanted to share some really cool stuff about this spring Sabbat. I know we’re all stuck inside, isolated right now, thanks to social distancing, but even if you’re not carousing and doing ritual with a hundred other people, it’s still valuable to get outdoors and look at the history of this significant celebration. It’s a time of year when we’re celebrating the fertility of the earth, as the land returns to blossoms and blooms. The soil is beginning to warm, and the gardens are greening again. It’s like everything…
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Forsythia Folklore
Sometime between Ostara and Beltane, you’ll probably start to see the bright yellow blooms of forsythia plants appearing. This early spring flower is associated with the sun, thanks to its yellow flowers, and it seems to have an uncanny ability to blossom without any care or tending whatsoever–it’s not uncommon to find random forsythia plants in full bloom at properties long since abandoned. According to some legends, once the forsythia flowers begin to bloom, it means you’ll still have three more snowfalls before the winter is truly over. During the Victorian era, flowers were assigned special meanings, as part of a “secret language of flowers.” The forsythia is associated with…
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Honoring the Green Man at Beltane
For our ancient ancestors, many spirits and deities were associated with nature, wildlife, and plant growth. After all, if you had just spent the winter starving and freezing, when spring arrived it was certainly time to give thanks to whatever spirits watched over your tribe. The spring season, particularly around Beltane, is typically tied to a number of pre-Christian nature spirits. Many of these are similar in origin and characteristics, but tend to vary based on region and language. In English folklore, few characters stand out as much–or are as recognizable–as the Green Man. Learn more about this ancient archetype here: The Green Man, Spirit of the Forest
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Spring Full Moon Ritual
Spring done sprung, and flowers done riz, so it’s a perfect time to hold a spring full moon ritual! The Wind Moon of April is rolling in on the 19th, so why not hold an outdoor celebration? This month is chock full of rain — remember that old chestnut about April showers? Along with the sun, water helps bring life back to the earth. It is the source of much of our existence and helps to cleanse and purify us. It can both destroy us and heal us. In ancient times, the well or spring was often seen as a sacred and holy place — a place in which we…
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Celebrate Beltane with a Maypole Dance!
The maypole dance is a spring ritual long known to Western Europeans. Usually performed on May 1, which is Beltane, or May Day, the folk custom is done around a pole garnished with flowers and ribbon to symbolize a tree. Practiced for generations in countries such as Germany and England, this tradition dates back to the dances ancient people used to do around actual trees in hopes of harvesting a large crop. The pole was erected on the village green or common, or even a handy field—thrust into the ground either permanently or on a temporary…
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Beltane is Coming!
Okay, y’all, I know I’ve been a bit slack on the blogging lately, but I’ve been super swamped with my Real Job plus family stuff and Life Things, but here I am, back and as sassy as ever. First and foremost, I wanted to let everyone know that if you’ve been following my About Paganism page on Facebook, you may have noticed a lack of activity since about March 4. That’s not because I’ve been busy, it’s because those rat bastards at Facebook disconnected my admin privileges, and I’m still trying to get them back. Trying to get in touch with a real live person in Tech Support at FB…
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Floralia: The Roman May Day Festival
The Romans had a celebration for just about everything. Certainly, any Roman deity worth their salt got a holiday of their own, and Flora was no exception. Because FLOWERS AND PROSTITUTES, y’all. I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Flora. She was the goddess of spring flowers and vegetation, and one of many fertility goddesses. In fact, she was so well respected as a fertility deity that she was often seen as a the patron deity of Roman prostitutes. You guys, she was the goddess of sex workers! How cool is that? Flora’s holiday, the Floralia, originated around 235 b.c.e. It was believed that…
