A bit of a discourse from my usual subject matter, but I felt I had to address this.
This past 4th of July, I had dinner with my dad - a thankfully much less awkward encounter than I thought it would be, with lots of laughter and good feelings all around. After we had dinner, he had to rush home to pack and rest up (being that he had to get up and get on the road around 4 am the next day), leaving Warden and I to our own devices for the evening. There weren’t actually any fireworks shows within a convenient driving distance (go figure) but we decided that some sparklers would be good enough for two people, since all we were going to do was cook hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire.
We hit Meijer’s first - “no,” we were told, they “don’t sell sparklers. Sorry.”
I insisted we go to Krogers instead: I distinctly remembered my friends’ parents purchasing fireworks (whoo black cat!) there when I was in high school. Again, no - and this time, we were told, it was illegal for them to sell sparklers. A quick run to a Rite Aid down the street (since we both figured maybe the drugstore would have some) was fruitless.
In the next neighborhood over, we heard the occasional pop and whistle of festive explosions going off: but in our own yard, we sat quietly beside the fire, considering the holiday and where it is today.
Thinking of what we’d been told at Krogers, I did some googling.
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Remembering the Snakes in Ireland
I know I haven’t posted in forever - but I also know that no one probably actually reads this blog, so I’m not completely concerned. My attention has been held by work and some personal questions about my ’spiral path’ that came to a head with the discovery of the well written and often educational blog Native Appropriations (I highly recommend checking it out, regardless of what ethnicity you may claim).
Still, it being St. Patrick’s day here in the US, I felt I should recognize the history behind this holiday and it’s relation to my current leanings.
While in America it’s a holiday for vaguely celebrating (for most Americans, at least) Irish heritage via drinking, consuming boiled beef, and excessive wearing of the color green, it is important to remember that this is a Catholic Saint’s holiday - St. Patrick. He is venerated for having ‘driven the snakes out of Ireland.’ What a lot of people don’t realize is that those ‘snakes’ were actually heretical or pagan practices and beliefs held by the natives of Ireland, doggedly oppressed or co-opted by the Christian church in order to convert the pagan populace.
While the years of his birth and death are still debated, and records confuse whether or not the man ever actually existed (or was even multiple figures sort of crammed into one) If historians have it right, the man who became St. Patrick actually started his life as Maewyn (or Gaewyn, depending on your source), himself a pagan. In his teens he was sold into slavery by raiders who had taken him from his village, and during his six years of slavery began having spiritual dreams, one of which is alleged to have shown him how to escape and led him to seek service to the church.
While he may have established schools and churches, according to legend he was just as willing to raise a hand to bless and aid as he was to curse and destroy. He did so in the name of driving out the pagan beliefs of the country and while I have yet to find a source to confirm it, I keep seeing again and again that he admitted to being 'forced' to:
In the name of converting them to Christianity, of course - since much of the population initially resisted conversion, even under penalty of death. He even altered pagan symbols in his efforts at winning converts.
The three leafed clover, the Shamrock, was already a sacred symbol when he arrived: it symbolized the Morrigan, a goddess with three aspects. He used it instead as a symbol of the Christian trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We remember him on his believed death date, March 17 - and even after his death, his legend hid Pagan beliefs behind the stories of the Church. His funerary shroud is said to have been made by St. Brigit - the Christian colored version the Celtic Goddess of the same name.
From what I’ve encountered, there are a handful of stories describing St. Patrick ‘driving out the snakes.’ Among others, one involves drumming, another involves leaving a single snake, and the last involves tricking a snake into a box. The drumming story involves a sermon on a hill (yay Christ imagery!) and an angel coming down from heaven to repair the drum which Patrick was using to drive out the snakes. In the second story, an old snake living in Lake Dilveen was so difficult to drive out that the Bishop let him be and promised to return on Monday to finish him off. According to legend, every Monday the snake rises up to look about for the long dead bishop and declare, “it’s been a long Monday, Patrick.” The last story I’ve mentioned has St. Patrick presenting a box for a snake to get into so that he can be sealed away. When the serpent says it is too small for him to fit, St. Patrick convinces him to prove it is too small by climbing in anyway. When the snake does, the box is closed around him and cast into the sea.
Remembering that these ‘snakes’ represent the nature worshipping people and their beliefs, many of the almost whimsical legends about St. Patrick driving out the snakes become a bit morbid.
While pagan civilizations throughout history actively oppressed and executed Christians (remember the early Romans?) there aren’t a lot of holidays celebrating the act - and St. Patrick’s day is all about a man who led a crusade to convert (often forcibly) all manner of Irish people, and contributed to the murder of Irish Pagans and Druids, men, women and children alike.
While looking for information on this holiday, I stumbled on a facebook post comparing celebration of St. Patrick’s day to commemorating the death of any major Bishop in a position of power during the Spanish Inquisition. A different situation - but not by much.
I can’t speak for the Irish - my step-grandmother’s family on one side can claim Irish heritage, and it definitely influenced some or my memories of my childhood with her. But I can speak as someone who has been exploring a decidedly pagan path, and my take on the holiday is this:
While I’ll probably enjoy a beer tonight (I just turned 21, after all), I won’t be raising my glass in the name of St. Patrick, once Maewyn. Rather, I’ll be celebrating the approach of spring, the celebration of good times with friends, and the sprawl and mingle of all manner of cultures with one another. I’ll be remembering the culture, history and people wiped out and hidden during the spread of Christianity through Ireland and Scotland, and the many generations after. Or, should I say, incompletely wiped out: the ‘snake’ at Lake Dilveen might approve.
Overall, though, I'll be celebrating. We all want an excuse to have a good time, and I'm not going to get high-and-mighty or defensive over this holiday. There is so little known about true druid traditions (which should say something about how effective the Church was in its conversions), and most of what exists today under the term of 'celtic' or 'druid' is either reconstruction or pure fantasy. While I try not make light of the oppression and murder of any people, It's hard to defend respect for traditions that can no longer be verified as traditional, and no matter what, this is a Christian holiday. In the end, what I've learned through my experience on this side of the ocean is that, what with Shamrock shakes and green beer, it's best to not take it too seriously and just try to have fun. After all, if the majority of the people this holiday is 'holy' to don't treat is as such - should I?
Still, it being St. Patrick’s day here in the US, I felt I should recognize the history behind this holiday and it’s relation to my current leanings.
While in America it’s a holiday for vaguely celebrating (for most Americans, at least) Irish heritage via drinking, consuming boiled beef, and excessive wearing of the color green, it is important to remember that this is a Catholic Saint’s holiday - St. Patrick. He is venerated for having ‘driven the snakes out of Ireland.’ What a lot of people don’t realize is that those ‘snakes’ were actually heretical or pagan practices and beliefs held by the natives of Ireland, doggedly oppressed or co-opted by the Christian church in order to convert the pagan populace.
While the years of his birth and death are still debated, and records confuse whether or not the man ever actually existed (or was even multiple figures sort of crammed into one) If historians have it right, the man who became St. Patrick actually started his life as Maewyn (or Gaewyn, depending on your source), himself a pagan. In his teens he was sold into slavery by raiders who had taken him from his village, and during his six years of slavery began having spiritual dreams, one of which is alleged to have shown him how to escape and led him to seek service to the church.
While he may have established schools and churches, according to legend he was just as willing to raise a hand to bless and aid as he was to curse and destroy. He did so in the name of driving out the pagan beliefs of the country and while I have yet to find a source to confirm it, I keep seeing again and again that he admitted to being 'forced' to:
"…curse their fertile lands, so that they became dreary bogs; to curse their rivers, so that they produced no fish; to curse their very kettles, so that with no amount of fire and patience could they ever be made to boil; and, as a last resort, to curse the Druids themselves, so that the earth opened and swallowed them up."
The three leafed clover, the Shamrock, was already a sacred symbol when he arrived: it symbolized the Morrigan, a goddess with three aspects. He used it instead as a symbol of the Christian trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We remember him on his believed death date, March 17 - and even after his death, his legend hid Pagan beliefs behind the stories of the Church. His funerary shroud is said to have been made by St. Brigit - the Christian colored version the Celtic Goddess of the same name.
From what I’ve encountered, there are a handful of stories describing St. Patrick ‘driving out the snakes.’ Among others, one involves drumming, another involves leaving a single snake, and the last involves tricking a snake into a box. The drumming story involves a sermon on a hill (yay Christ imagery!) and an angel coming down from heaven to repair the drum which Patrick was using to drive out the snakes. In the second story, an old snake living in Lake Dilveen was so difficult to drive out that the Bishop let him be and promised to return on Monday to finish him off. According to legend, every Monday the snake rises up to look about for the long dead bishop and declare, “it’s been a long Monday, Patrick.” The last story I’ve mentioned has St. Patrick presenting a box for a snake to get into so that he can be sealed away. When the serpent says it is too small for him to fit, St. Patrick convinces him to prove it is too small by climbing in anyway. When the snake does, the box is closed around him and cast into the sea.
 |
| Also, put on some pants. |
While pagan civilizations throughout history actively oppressed and executed Christians (remember the early Romans?) there aren’t a lot of holidays celebrating the act - and St. Patrick’s day is all about a man who led a crusade to convert (often forcibly) all manner of Irish people, and contributed to the murder of Irish Pagans and Druids, men, women and children alike.
While looking for information on this holiday, I stumbled on a facebook post comparing celebration of St. Patrick’s day to commemorating the death of any major Bishop in a position of power during the Spanish Inquisition. A different situation - but not by much.
I can’t speak for the Irish - my step-grandmother’s family on one side can claim Irish heritage, and it definitely influenced some or my memories of my childhood with her. But I can speak as someone who has been exploring a decidedly pagan path, and my take on the holiday is this:
While I’ll probably enjoy a beer tonight (I just turned 21, after all), I won’t be raising my glass in the name of St. Patrick, once Maewyn. Rather, I’ll be celebrating the approach of spring, the celebration of good times with friends, and the sprawl and mingle of all manner of cultures with one another. I’ll be remembering the culture, history and people wiped out and hidden during the spread of Christianity through Ireland and Scotland, and the many generations after. Or, should I say, incompletely wiped out: the ‘snake’ at Lake Dilveen might approve.
Overall, though, I'll be celebrating. We all want an excuse to have a good time, and I'm not going to get high-and-mighty or defensive over this holiday. There is so little known about true druid traditions (which should say something about how effective the Church was in its conversions), and most of what exists today under the term of 'celtic' or 'druid' is either reconstruction or pure fantasy. While I try not make light of the oppression and murder of any people, It's hard to defend respect for traditions that can no longer be verified as traditional, and no matter what, this is a Christian holiday. In the end, what I've learned through my experience on this side of the ocean is that, what with Shamrock shakes and green beer, it's best to not take it too seriously and just try to have fun. After all, if the majority of the people this holiday is 'holy' to don't treat is as such - should I?
 |
| "Everybody's Irish on St. Patrick's day!" Even those from a galaxy far, far away. |
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Just a few days until Halloween
It’s only a few days before Halloween, and as I contemplate what the season means to me, I’m glad I grew up with friends and family that were big about celebrating Halloween. Carved pumpkins every year, trick-or-treating, then sorting the candy at home - depending on how cold it had been that year, probably with hot chocolate and maybe some late night horror movies. Even when I was 16 and my best friend and I swore we were too old to trick-or-treat and spent the night passing out candy, we couldn’t help grabbing some pillow cases and doing a quick run around the neighborhood afterward. It wasn’t a lot - but we DID get candy… and so did her brother who, in a fit of trying to be mature, had also sworn off Halloween that year.
I always felt bad for my friends at school who had to stay home that night. Their families, typically for religious reasons, kept them home. For them - or at least their parents - this was a time to hide inside with the lights off on the front porch to discourage trick-or-treaters. They didn’t even pass out candy. They were told it was a time of devil worship, that people ran rampant in the streets with demons, and that someone would poison them or hurt them. I remember a kid telling me that his mom had taught him that by dressing up in a scary costume, he'd be inviting demons to posses him. I don't know if that was true or not, but I know lots of families view Halloween with a wary eye, casting it at its best as a time for drunks and vandals, and at its worst, a night of evil.
At the very least, many kids I grew up with were told it was anti-Christian.
For the kids that couldn’t gather it themselves, it wasn’t unusual for a few of us who did to share our haul the next school day.
Halloween - the day, the season - has been warped from a solemn celebration of life and death to a time of fear and paranoia, perverted with consumerism, and demonized by scared parental concern groups.
I always felt bad for my friends at school who had to stay home that night. Their families, typically for religious reasons, kept them home. For them - or at least their parents - this was a time to hide inside with the lights off on the front porch to discourage trick-or-treaters. They didn’t even pass out candy. They were told it was a time of devil worship, that people ran rampant in the streets with demons, and that someone would poison them or hurt them. I remember a kid telling me that his mom had taught him that by dressing up in a scary costume, he'd be inviting demons to posses him. I don't know if that was true or not, but I know lots of families view Halloween with a wary eye, casting it at its best as a time for drunks and vandals, and at its worst, a night of evil.
 |
| pictured: a Satan-worshiper in the making. |
At the very least, many kids I grew up with were told it was anti-Christian.
But we kids all new better: this holiday had nothing to do with what you believed in, at least when you’re a child. It was about being scared for fun, about dressing up as anything you wanted to be, running from door to door and demanding free candy from strangers… and then getting it.
For the kids that couldn’t gather it themselves, it wasn’t unusual for a few of us who did to share our haul the next school day.
Halloween - the day, the season - has been warped from a solemn celebration of life and death to a time of fear and paranoia, perverted with consumerism, and demonized by scared parental concern groups.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Dreaming of Halloween
I had another one of my strange dreams last night. It was kind of funny to me in that it was seasonally appropriate.
I was walking alone at night, down a small paved road with trees on either side. There were bright lights strung up all around - orange, white and yellow. All the trees were beautiful shades of red and orange.
There was a cottage at the end of the path, decorated with fall wreaths, Indian corn, pumpkins, squash, etc. I knew that I was supposed to go in, so I did.
Inside, the house was decorated for Halloween, and there were bowls of candy out. I didn’t see them at first, but there were a bunch of other women in the house with me - some little girls, some teenage girls, some women (who I somehow knew were the mothers of the children) and a very old woman who seemed to be in charge of everyone. EVERYONE was wearing a costume - the little girls were dressed mostly as fairies and imps, and older girls were dressed mostly in fantasy costumes - goddesses, witches, queens, etc. Everyone was laughing and working on small crafts, or cooking.
But something strange was going on in the back of the main room.
I was walking alone at night, down a small paved road with trees on either side. There were bright lights strung up all around - orange, white and yellow. All the trees were beautiful shades of red and orange.
There was a cottage at the end of the path, decorated with fall wreaths, Indian corn, pumpkins, squash, etc. I knew that I was supposed to go in, so I did.
Inside, the house was decorated for Halloween, and there were bowls of candy out. I didn’t see them at first, but there were a bunch of other women in the house with me - some little girls, some teenage girls, some women (who I somehow knew were the mothers of the children) and a very old woman who seemed to be in charge of everyone. EVERYONE was wearing a costume - the little girls were dressed mostly as fairies and imps, and older girls were dressed mostly in fantasy costumes - goddesses, witches, queens, etc. Everyone was laughing and working on small crafts, or cooking.
But something strange was going on in the back of the main room.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Up and Running
I've been meaning to get this blog up for a couple months now, so here it finally is. Over the past year, I've been mostly looking into Vodun/Voodoo/Hoodoo, and brushed up a bit on Buddhism. Right now, I'm looking into more 'earth' based religions, specifically, Wicca.
Just the other day, August 1st, I celebrated "Lammas" with my boyfriend - First Harvest, the end of Summer and the very beginning of Fall. According to what I've read about the Wiccan faith, a time to celebrate the bounty of the earth, to consider regrets from the past year, and to begin gathering the fruits around you.
I don't exactly live on a farm, but there is a nice field nearby, and a very nice garden which I've been invited to share. I collected little bouquets of Queen Anne's Lace, Wormwood, mint, tansy and Rosemary, for use later*, and in the evening we made harvest bread. I just used regular dough with chopped up herbs and garlic kneaded in. The dough was a bit thick and I didn't feel like making little figures or separate rolls, so I just made it into a braided loaf. We shared the first two bites, and celebrated being together for the past six months. We also celebrated looking forward to future harvests. Overall, it was a very nice day, and a nice 'holiday.'
For those of you questioning the collection of the toxic plants (Wormwood and Tansy), they're not for consumption - their for use in gris-gris/mojo bags and satchels. Some might dismiss it as superstition, but I like making and carrying these at times, putting them under a pillow, or putting them in a drawer with my clothes. If nothing else, it sure makes things smell nice.
Just the other day, August 1st, I celebrated "Lammas" with my boyfriend - First Harvest, the end of Summer and the very beginning of Fall. According to what I've read about the Wiccan faith, a time to celebrate the bounty of the earth, to consider regrets from the past year, and to begin gathering the fruits around you.
I don't exactly live on a farm, but there is a nice field nearby, and a very nice garden which I've been invited to share. I collected little bouquets of Queen Anne's Lace, Wormwood, mint, tansy and Rosemary, for use later*, and in the evening we made harvest bread. I just used regular dough with chopped up herbs and garlic kneaded in. The dough was a bit thick and I didn't feel like making little figures or separate rolls, so I just made it into a braided loaf. We shared the first two bites, and celebrated being together for the past six months. We also celebrated looking forward to future harvests. Overall, it was a very nice day, and a nice 'holiday.'
For those of you questioning the collection of the toxic plants (Wormwood and Tansy), they're not for consumption - their for use in gris-gris/mojo bags and satchels. Some might dismiss it as superstition, but I like making and carrying these at times, putting them under a pillow, or putting them in a drawer with my clothes. If nothing else, it sure makes things smell nice.
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