Infidels of Every Denomination

Holiday Guide

This article in the Daily News out of Jacksonville, NC is a pretty simple one-- just a column with a brief rundown of the winter holidays of various religions, each of which includes links to sites with more information.

It's not exceptionally comprehensive, since it doesn't even include some of the Christian feasts surrounding Christmas nor does it touch on festivals like the Zoroastrian mid-winter festival of Sadeh or the Buddhist Bodhi Day (which is unrelated to other winter holidays but is celebrated in December). I'm going to give the writer the benefit of the doubt and guess, though, that her intention was to create a primer for the holidays that her readers would be most likely to encounter.

The reason I point this article out is that it includes a paragraph about Yule as a Pagan holiday, and the information link it includes is from Circle Sanctuary (definitely a reliable source for information about Paganism). I was pleased to see it included alongside the Big Three without any qualifiers or judgments. It was also nice to see the mention of some of the historical facts around the evolution of Christmas, including the fact that it assimilated some pagan customs and the fact that Dec. 25th was set as the date for the holiday in the 300's CE.

Considering all the intolerance and acrimony that's getting slung around this holiday season, it's refreshing to see someone writing for the mainstream press with a goal of real information, understanding and tolerance.

Little Angels

Today marks the first of the Dias de los Muertos in Mexican tradition, the annual festival celebrating the memory of those who have gone before. On this day, All Saint's Day, the angelitos are remembered, the children who have died; tomorrow, on All Soul's Day, adult loved ones are honored. Celebrated as a Christian holiday, it has its roots in the indigenous tribal practices of Mexico and has become as much a cultural celebration as a religious one.

I am not Mexican, but the customs and spirit of the Day of the Dead are an important part of my Samhain celebration. The building of a tiered altar, the offerings of copal and flowers and food to the visiting dead, the colorful and even festive imagery, these all speak to me on a deep, intuitive level. This year I baked pan de muerto and molded sugar skulls to decorate with my admittedly limited skills. Kitchen witch that I am, the tangible acts of kneading dough, grinding incense, squeezing out frosting served as a spiritual practice in their own right, a meditation in motion, a joy tinged with pensiveness at the festive preparations to welcome our "guests".

Happy Birthday Autumn!

My personal calendar of holidays observed is, you might say, eclectic. I was definitely influenced as a baby-pagan by the Wiccan wheel of the year (Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, Mabon), but having always been more of a mystic wanderer and eclectic than a die-hard adherent to any one path, I didn't feel a need to celebrate all of them. I honor Diwali and the Day of the Dead alongside Samhain; I still essentially celebrate Christmas because it's a family holiday; Valentine's Day has a special place alongside Rosalia and the Inebriety of Hathor in my heart; and as an American Pagan, Independence Day does have a deeply spiritual side for me. When I learned somewhere that many tribes of Rom tend to adopt the holidays of the cultures they travel through as it feels meaningful to them, I completely understood that. (It doesn't hurt that I'm glad of any excuse for a party!)

The autumn equinox, also called Mabon or Harvest Home by some modern Pagan traditions, has always been meaningful to me on a rather instinctual level. It affected me before I was even Pagan, and I cherish it in a way I can't really describe, one that has little to do with established Pagan tradition and much more to do with a wordless inner state.

The celebration of the equinox in many cultures and religions around the world centers on the conclusion of the harvest, the gathering of the grapes for wine, the preparation for winter, in some cases (as in Japan) the honoring of the dead. It is the dawning of the sun in Libra (my birth sign-- maybe that's what draws me!), the balance of light and dark following the first harvests of the sun in Virgo the grain maiden. Given that few of us in modern Western culture do any serious farming outside of perhaps tending a small garden, most modern Pagan tradition around the autumn equinox is symbolic-- the pause in labor to celebrate accomplishments and give thanks for the year's "yield" be it financial, artistic, domestic, industrial. Because Samhain is widely recognized as the Pagan new year, the equinox calls for introspection, assessment, the tying-up of loose ends. (See also The Wildhunt Blog for a roundup of commentary on Equinox and its meanings and traditions.)

Rocky Mountain Low

I think Chas S. Clifton's friend had it right when she said, "Doesn't it seem that Crazy Season is starting a little early this year?"

For those readers who are unfamiliar with Paganism and Wicca, every year those of us who are practitioners look forward to the Halloween season with a mix of enthusiasm and dread. Enthusiasm, because Samhain is one of the biggest across-the-board holidays (in my experience at least) for pagan/witchy types-- I've heard casual adherents referred to as "Samhain and Beltane Pagans"-- and there tend to be an explosion of celebrations especially in urban areas, ranging from Witches' Balls and masquerades with rituals at nightclubs, to more private ordeal or healing rites, to very intimate and quiet house blessings and dumb suppers to remember the dead. Some groups incorporate elements of Mexican Day of the Dead festivals, and this year, Hinduism's Diwali falls on Nov. 1st as well. It's a deeply meaningful and intensely celebratory time for many of us.

And dread, because with the approach of Halloween comes the annual running of the bullshit-- the gag-worthy media "lifestyle" profiles and hushed-toned melodramatic television specials claiming to answer the question, "is witchcraft REAL?!" and to unmask the great spooky secrets of Halloween, in which they dig up the weirdest, most outre goth-looking Wiccan witch they can book (Laurie Cabot is a favorite) to try to explain witchcraft to the masses. (I'm pretty outre and goth looking myself much of the time-- my objection is purely to the stupid sensationalism of it, like the media is some kind of Jane Goodall trying to communicate with the primitive punk-pagans.) And then you have the churches and "family" groups bitching about local Samhain festivals, some more bizarrely than others. And don't even get me started on the annual debate over whether the stereotypical green, warty, pointy-hatted witch/hag icon of Halloween is the Pagan equivalent of pickaninny art.

In any case, it IS pretty early for Samhain madness to descend, which is perhaps the only thing I found really surprising about this article. Apparently, in a very small town area of Colorado, a woman named Jerusha Doucette-Johnson rented the American Legion hall in the tiny town of Ramah on behalf of her group, Secret Garden Coven, to hold a Samhain festival as a fundraiser for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. And another woman, Annette Manchego, along with others including Baptist minister Rev. Tim Tucker, is trying desperately to oppose it-- collecting signatures on a petition, threatening to stage a protest, complaining to local officials. Manchego's objection?

“We have vulnerable young people that don’t need this put upon them,” she said. “The festival is a pulling to get people in. Then they can work with the devil himself, which they worship. It is powerful, believe me. They can brainwash you, and before you know it, you’re staying for the midnight ritual.”

All together now: BUT WHAT ABOUT THE **CHILDREN**?!?!