Browsing the archives for the Calendar Myths category
A Time magazine article this week notes that traditional ink-and-paper paper books are seeing a surprising spike in sales this year, as they did last year, despite the meteoric rise in popularity of ebook readers. The article flails for causes: “The holiday spike may reflect this year’s partial lifting of economic gloominess.” If that’s true, why was there one [...]
I love both the old Celtic holiday of Samhain and the modern secular holiday of Hallowe’en, despite the over-commercialization of the latter. They are two different holidays. For me, they are both magical. Personally, I celebrate Samhain by honoring my ancestors: I light a candle and spend some time remembering my Nana, my other relatives, [...]
Set your calendars, Egypt. No, not for 2/11/2011. (Congratulations and good luck!) I’m talking about August 2nd, when a very old Egyptian goddess is set to rise. Like most agrarian societies, the Egyptians watched the skies closely. They needed some sort of calendar to tell them when to plant and plan their harvests. The regular [...]
Groundhog Day Ceremony Photo Credit: Aaron E. Silvers, CC America’s Groundhog Day, February 2nd, is a puzzling, fascinating, contradictory calendrical festival whose roots may go back to pre-Christian European traditions — and then again, they may not. What fascinates me about Groundhog Day is that it seems to follow the same pattern as many ancient [...]
2011 is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit; the year is 4709 in the Chinese calendar. It starts on February 3rd by our calendar, which falls on the feast of Brigid in the Celtic calendar. I told you the myth of the Chinese New Year in 2008, but it’s time to revisit! In brief, the [...]
The Cornucopia, or Horn of Plenty, is actually the horn of the goat Amalthea, the nurse of baby Zeus in Greek mythology. Zeus, ruler of the Greek pantheon, had a rough upbringing. His father Cronos knew that a son was destined to depose him, just as he had deposed (and castrated!) his father Ouranos. Cronos, [...]
Thursday marked the beginning of the Chinese year 4706, the Year of the Rat. That means it’s time to share one of many versions of the myth about… The Rat Race Once upon a time, the Jade Emperor (or Buddha, some say) was holding a casting call for the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. The [...]
Lady Brigid, the “exalted one” as your name says, I’m afraid I’m a few days late. Your feast-day’s just past. But I’ll probably be late for my own wake, so let me start Mythprint on Imbolc — or thereabouts — with your blessing.
Caesar called you Minerva, assuming you were the same goddess worshiped under a different name. After the Romans divided Gaul, the Celts used Minerva too, or sometimes Sulis. Caesar said they worshiped you as the goddess of…