All Hallows

Now begins the big feast of All Hallows, which seems to be a very good generic word for this holy tide. From today thru 5 November, this is the time to remember the ancestors and call to mind their gifts to us and what kind of stewards we are of those gifts.

Ordinary Time/Frithmaking

I, along with my partner Skallabjorn, have come up with a slighty smaller holy tide for this time of year. The harvest is mostly in by now, and come late Oct/early Nov, people would start slaughtering the animals that would not make it through the winter. This might be a good period for reaching out to one's neighbor and making frith/peace. It's sort of like Yom Kippur and Lent in the Jewish and Christian calendars. I think the holy tide color here should remain grey and possibly incorporate black. This will need some ironing out.

Second Harvest/Autumn Equinox

The harvest season continues with this festival of the second harvest...this is like a big pagan Thanksgiving-tide. This festival also marks the balance between light and dark, with a focus on coming darkness - from here on out, the daylight hours will be noticeably shorter, and the temperatures will start cooling down markedly. Happy Harvest Home!

Happy Loafmas!

Now begins the side of the year when we start offering thanks for the wonderful harvests of all varieties in our lives, and this is a very long season - in my calendar, I'm having it run at least through the autumn equinox, if not past it.

The most obvious manifestation of the gifts from the earth is the bread, from the grain that has been harvested from the fields. This is a good time to make offerings of bread and beer to Freyr. Happy Loafmas!

Ordinary Time

Today is the first day of ordinary time between Midsummer and Loafmas. This period will run until 30 July.

Midsummer

Hail Sunna, bright lady of the Sun! It's Midsummer! And damn, it's HOT OUT THERE in central Florida at this time of year! Sometimes I think the best way to celebrate Midsummer is by going to the beach and swimming, it's so dang hot. So maybe I should turn the liturgical color here to aqua and other oceanic colors! Relief from the HEAT! Haha! Happy Midsummer!

Ordinary Time

Now that we have welcomed May and the bright side of the year, we are back to Ordinary Time.