Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 24

The Kalends of January

Happy New Year and Kalends of January. The Kalends of January are associated with three deities in Roman lore:

Cardea [goddess of hinges] is associated with two otherwise unknown deities who preside over doorways: Forculus, from fores, “door”, plural in form because double doors were common on public buildings and elite homes (domūs); and Limentinus, from limen, liminis, “threshold” (compare English “liminal”). … Modern scholarship has pointed out that this particular set of divinities b...

Context is everything

I know that some people use “there’s only one race, the human race” to erase the existence of racism. However, race is a socially constructed category based on the idea that there is more difference between ethnic groups than within them. The fact that race is a socially constructed category doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have real effects. Racialized people are treated differently and it affects their health, employment, housing, access to education, justice, and life chances generally. Racism is...

The holly and the ivy

Pagan version by Yvonne Aburrow, 2022

The holly and the ivy
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown

Chorus: O, the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The bright fire on the hilltop
At the turning of the year.

The holly bears a blossom
As white as lily flower
And the sun breaks through the dolmen
At the magic golden hour.

Chorus

The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood
And the wren waits in the thicket,
For the trees to be...

Romjul and intercalation

The business of calculating years and dates is complicated, since calendars need to reconcile solar and lunar cycles. Different calendrical systems use different methods of reconciling the two cycles, inserting a day (February 29th in the Gregorian calendar), a week, or even a month in some calendars. This practice is called intercalation. It has also been suggested that the time between Yule and New Year is an intercalation.

Yum

In Norway, the time between Yule and New Year is called Romj...

New Year Customs

There are many different New Year’s traditions from around the world, which can be categorized as taking the omens for the following year; seeking to ensure that you will have luck for the year; sending the spirit of the old year away, and welcoming in the new.

Auld Lang Syne and Hogmanay

Many people sing Auld Lang Syne at New Year (especially if they have a connection to Scotland). I wonder how many of them know all the words though!

Hogmanay is the Scottish celebration of New Year...

Bridge of Light

A rainbow of candles, each one representing an aspect of consciousness, kindled in the liminal time between the end of the one year and the beginning of the next. A space for the celebration of queer spirituality, queer lives, and queer joy. That is the celebration known as Bridge of Light.

Bridge of Light was founded by Joe Perez in 2004, and further developed by Kittredge Cherry. Kittredge Cherry is a minister in the Metropolitan Community Church (a church founded by and for LGBTQ+ peop...

Mōdraniht

This year, for the second year running, we will celebrate Mōdraniht, the Night of the Mothers.

This is a quieter and simpler practice than Yule, which is all about feasting and the drama of the light’s returning and liminality.

Mōdraniht involves communing with the Dísir, the Matronae (ancient European mother goddesses), and our own female ancestors. (If you are alienated from your biological ancestors, there’s always ancestors of spirit — people you admire.)

If you have an ancestor...

Reflections on Yule

Yule is a turning point in the year. In a way, this is true of every festival in the Pagan wheel of the year, but it is said that the word Yule means a turning point.

There are many facets of Yule. There is the anarchic element of mumming, Saturnalia, the bean king, boy bishops, the lord of misrule, the inversion of the usual order of things. This aspect seems to be inspired by the concept of turning, and of liminality: being on the threshold, being neither one thing nor the other.

I ...

Anarchic Yule

Yule is a distinct festival, often overshadowed by its younger sibling, Christmas. If you’re a Pagan or have Pagan leanings, the chances are that everything you love about Christmas is actually because it’s a Yule thing. If you love the tree, the holly, the greenery being brought into the house, the feasting, and the reciprocity of thoughtful gift giving (as opposed to obligatory gift giving dictated by social norms), then you love Yule. Yule is not “Christmas with the serial numbers filed off”,...

Growth of Paganism in England and Wales

This chart compares my analysis of the UK data for 2001, 2011, and 2021. The 2001 and 2011 data includes Scotland; the 2021 data does not include Scotland.

Wikipedia gives the following breakdown for the 2011 census.