To me, this was just a term at uni!Michaelmas, 29th September, and the customs and traditions associated with Michaelmas Day
Michaelmas
Michaelmas
I cant help but feel modern folk have been robbed somehow. We miss out on so much feasting and tradition, we dont know what the good life REALLY means anymore!! 
To me, this was just a term at uni!
Michaelmas, 29th September, and the customs and traditions associated with Michaelmas Day
To me, this was just a term at uni!Michaelmas, 29th September, and the customs and traditions associated with Michaelmas Day
~Quoth the Raven, Nevermore!~
Michaelmas
Michaelmas - the Feast of St Michael and All Angels
An awesome festival!! I named my son Michael, though his birthday is one of the few family ones not in September!!
This is not exactly on topic - but I spent a few days in the country recently and there were two young professional women there who were evidently deeply committed Christians - but they'd never even heard of the monastic traditions, or the contemplative life, of silence and stillness. The University terms are named after spring etc here, so maybe they haven't heard of Michaelmas at all. It seems a pity to miss out on the symbolism and richness of the turning seasons of the Church year.
An awesome festival!! I named my son Michael, though his birthday is one of the few family ones not in September!!
This is not exactly on topic - but I spent a few days in the country recently and there were two young professional women there who were evidently deeply committed Christians - but they'd never even heard of the monastic traditions, or the contemplative life, of silence and stillness. The University terms are named after spring etc here, so maybe they haven't heard of Michaelmas at all. It seems a pity to miss out on the symbolism and richness of the turning seasons of the Church year.
"Life is too short to ski with ugly men"
Michaelmas
Actually it's not off point at all! Maybe we no longer celebrate our feast days, because we are no longer tied to the land. We no longer live our lives around the natural order. Electricity allows for a 24/7 culture. And thats just not right! Look at what we have become! 
~Quoth the Raven, Nevermore!~
Michaelmas
It's a traditional pagan festival hijacked by the christians-like christmas and easter.
It's the turn of the season people would gorge on the food they knew they couldn't keep over winter and eat the last of the fruits. I think you have to live in the north or maybe just not in a big industrial city to really get that sense of change when it's only daylight for a few hours and stays that way till the new year when the last of the animals were slaughtered and people knew they had survived the winter. The festivals celebrating the return of the sun were turned in to christmas by the chrustians who were unable to curb the natural urge to oparty at that time of year. I don't know whether it's actually true or not but decorating Christmas trees seems to stem from a german custom of draping the entrails of the slaughtered animals over evergreen trees-just the kind of thing that seems good clean fun when you are pissed. Makes a lot more sense than
It's the turn of the season people would gorge on the food they knew they couldn't keep over winter and eat the last of the fruits. I think you have to live in the north or maybe just not in a big industrial city to really get that sense of change when it's only daylight for a few hours and stays that way till the new year when the last of the animals were slaughtered and people knew they had survived the winter. The festivals celebrating the return of the sun were turned in to christmas by the chrustians who were unable to curb the natural urge to oparty at that time of year. I don't know whether it's actually true or not but decorating Christmas trees seems to stem from a german custom of draping the entrails of the slaughtered animals over evergreen trees-just the kind of thing that seems good clean fun when you are pissed. Makes a lot more sense than
Michaelmas
gmc;1255726 wrote: It's a traditional pagan festival hijacked by the christians-like christmas and easter.
It's the turn of the season people would gorge on the food they knew they couldn't keep over winter and eat the last of the fruits. I think you have to live in the north or maybe just not in a big industrial city to really get that sense of change when it's only daylight for a few hours and stays that way till the new year when the last of the animals were slaughtered and people knew they had survived the winter. The festivals celebrating the return of the sun were turned in to christmas by the chrustians who were unable to curb the natural urge to oparty at that time of year. I don't know whether it's actually true or not but decorating Christmas trees seems to stem from a german custom of draping the entrails of the slaughtered animals over evergreen trees-just the kind of thing that seems good clean fun when you are pissed. Makes a lot more sense than
Grin. Yes, the yule log, taking greenery inside to symbolise life and fertility in the dark cold of winter. Saturnalia. Christianity borrowed or hijacked if you like loads of things from the old religions.
The very popular cult of Diana of Ephesus (St Paul had a few goes at that) - the black madonna - switched very easily into worshipping the Virgin Mary. Maybe this was a sort of antidote for the perceived patriarchal masculinity of developing Christianity - the old countryside (pagan means countryside) religions worshipped the earth mother after all, the goddess of creation, fulness and fertility.
I was walking in the hills above Greve, a village a bit to the south of Florence. I came to a crossroads - five dirt paths in fact, and in the middle was a gnarled old oak tree... and wait for it.. high up nailed to the trunk was a painted terracotta Madonna - but she was dark and mysterious and in your face, not modest at all.. Round the tree trunk were bunches of fresh flowers. I couldn't believe my luck. Here, close to a great centre of art and culture, was the ancient witch goddess, the goddess of the crossroads, or hunting, childbirth, marriage, virginity, female mystery - being venerated in the countryside and no doubt prayed to for the fertility of the olive crop and the animals and to cure someone of boils.
It's the turn of the season people would gorge on the food they knew they couldn't keep over winter and eat the last of the fruits. I think you have to live in the north or maybe just not in a big industrial city to really get that sense of change when it's only daylight for a few hours and stays that way till the new year when the last of the animals were slaughtered and people knew they had survived the winter. The festivals celebrating the return of the sun were turned in to christmas by the chrustians who were unable to curb the natural urge to oparty at that time of year. I don't know whether it's actually true or not but decorating Christmas trees seems to stem from a german custom of draping the entrails of the slaughtered animals over evergreen trees-just the kind of thing that seems good clean fun when you are pissed. Makes a lot more sense than
Grin. Yes, the yule log, taking greenery inside to symbolise life and fertility in the dark cold of winter. Saturnalia. Christianity borrowed or hijacked if you like loads of things from the old religions.
The very popular cult of Diana of Ephesus (St Paul had a few goes at that) - the black madonna - switched very easily into worshipping the Virgin Mary. Maybe this was a sort of antidote for the perceived patriarchal masculinity of developing Christianity - the old countryside (pagan means countryside) religions worshipped the earth mother after all, the goddess of creation, fulness and fertility.
I was walking in the hills above Greve, a village a bit to the south of Florence. I came to a crossroads - five dirt paths in fact, and in the middle was a gnarled old oak tree... and wait for it.. high up nailed to the trunk was a painted terracotta Madonna - but she was dark and mysterious and in your face, not modest at all.. Round the tree trunk were bunches of fresh flowers. I couldn't believe my luck. Here, close to a great centre of art and culture, was the ancient witch goddess, the goddess of the crossroads, or hunting, childbirth, marriage, virginity, female mystery - being venerated in the countryside and no doubt prayed to for the fertility of the olive crop and the animals and to cure someone of boils.
"Life is too short to ski with ugly men"