Okay, so apparently I fail intensely hard when it comes to this meme. In any case! Three days ago (on the solstice) I was supposed to talk about Pagan festivals (including the solstice). ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
justhuman prompted: What's pagan holiday do you feel most connected to and how do you observe/celebrate?
Firstly, in brief, the 8 Pagan Festivals or the Wheel of the Year features two groups of four festivals interspersed evenly throughout the year. Four are dependent on the relationship of the Earth to the sun, the solstices and equinoxes, and in between those are four farming year festivals linked to life on the land and significant changes in the seasons (Imbolc, Beltane [May Day], Lughnasadh, and Samhuinn [Halloween]). They all have a very different feel and a different setting, as we are experiencing the passage of time throughout the year and the seasons in a much more conscious way by observing these days and marking the year out in this fashion. I kind of dig this hugely from the perspective that modern life is "Christmas Christmas Christmas!" and I think this makes the year horribly uneven. So it's a healthier way of looking at the world and registering the passage of time. Connecting with different cycles at work in the world. It makes you stop and look.
First thing I'd have to admit is that it can be fiendishly difficult to actually mark these days considering I'm living among everyone else who doesn't, and I can book them off work and plan to do something and then family stuff happens and other arrangements happen and I end up not being able to do very much at all. For eg, my extended family decided to take over the winter solstice just gone and make that day the big family get-together over in Leeds. The day after, my parents decided I was hosting for them to come over. So while I called that a Solstice celebration meal, I still haven't actually done anything else due to general exhaustion.
I do go to a local pagan moot where sometimes we decide to do things together. Last Imbolc that was a candlelit vigil where we took turns throughout the night, and I'll probably do something like that again for the one coming up in a month's time, whether the group scrapes something together on it or not (we're a disorganised bunch), because that was quite an intense experience and it really felt right to do it.
Solo, I'd have to say that the holiday I feel most connected to is Lughnasadh. Partially this has probably developed because I usually have my own time and space to actually observe it at that time of year. It's probably the most cheerful time of the year for me and this marks the harvest and the summer. I don't work with many pagan deities - or however you may want to name or visualise them - but Lugh is one of the major two I do, so I also feel more involved in this festival on that account.
My usual method of observing the day is to bake bread with honey and oats if I have time, or otherwise take some other offering and go spend some time outdoors under the sun and climb up to a high place. There's an ancient beacon hill just outside the town where I live which has a spectacular atmosphere. (Then I come home and eat the rest of the bread. Mmm.)
justhuman prompted: What's pagan holiday do you feel most connected to and how do you observe/celebrate? Firstly, in brief, the 8 Pagan Festivals or the Wheel of the Year features two groups of four festivals interspersed evenly throughout the year. Four are dependent on the relationship of the Earth to the sun, the solstices and equinoxes, and in between those are four farming year festivals linked to life on the land and significant changes in the seasons (Imbolc, Beltane [May Day], Lughnasadh, and Samhuinn [Halloween]). They all have a very different feel and a different setting, as we are experiencing the passage of time throughout the year and the seasons in a much more conscious way by observing these days and marking the year out in this fashion. I kind of dig this hugely from the perspective that modern life is "Christmas Christmas Christmas!" and I think this makes the year horribly uneven. So it's a healthier way of looking at the world and registering the passage of time. Connecting with different cycles at work in the world. It makes you stop and look.
First thing I'd have to admit is that it can be fiendishly difficult to actually mark these days considering I'm living among everyone else who doesn't, and I can book them off work and plan to do something and then family stuff happens and other arrangements happen and I end up not being able to do very much at all. For eg, my extended family decided to take over the winter solstice just gone and make that day the big family get-together over in Leeds. The day after, my parents decided I was hosting for them to come over. So while I called that a Solstice celebration meal, I still haven't actually done anything else due to general exhaustion.
I do go to a local pagan moot where sometimes we decide to do things together. Last Imbolc that was a candlelit vigil where we took turns throughout the night, and I'll probably do something like that again for the one coming up in a month's time, whether the group scrapes something together on it or not (we're a disorganised bunch), because that was quite an intense experience and it really felt right to do it.
Solo, I'd have to say that the holiday I feel most connected to is Lughnasadh. Partially this has probably developed because I usually have my own time and space to actually observe it at that time of year. It's probably the most cheerful time of the year for me and this marks the harvest and the summer. I don't work with many pagan deities - or however you may want to name or visualise them - but Lugh is one of the major two I do, so I also feel more involved in this festival on that account.
My usual method of observing the day is to bake bread with honey and oats if I have time, or otherwise take some other offering and go spend some time outdoors under the sun and climb up to a high place. There's an ancient beacon hill just outside the town where I live which has a spectacular atmosphere. (Then I come home and eat the rest of the bread. Mmm.)