Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
It's been a week... And I am trying to figure out how to use WordPress in its "new and improved" format. So here are some photos to make you happy. As you might have guessed, these are all from Brooklyn Botanic Gardens holiday lights. I figure this is more needed now than in December. Though...… Continue reading The Daily: 17 January 2025
In my town, it has snowed every day but one in 2025, not that you'd know it by looking at the weather forecast, nor the officially "recorded" conditions. For example, yesterday it was supposed to be sunny with a high of 34°F. I thought I might finally be able to shovel my walk and maybe… Continue reading The Daily: 14 January 2025
Plough Monday Plough Monday is an ancient rustic holiday that became attached to the Christmas holiday tradition. Plough Monday may trace its descent back to the Roman Compitalia, celebrated by slaves when plowing was over. But by the mid-15th century it became the traditional end to the Christmas season, the end of the season of… Continue reading The Daily: 13 January 2025
Distaff Day, or St. Distaff’s Day, is an obscure and faded custom that has rather a bit more weight behind it that one might expect. The day is observed most often on January 7th, the day after Epiphany, the last day of the winter holidays. Less commonly, Distaff Day falls on the first Tuesday after Epiphany, being known as Distaff Tuesday in keeping with Plough Monday.
It is Epiphany, 6 January, the close of the Christmas season and the beginning of mundane time, a shift to Imbolg and the hope of spring — after we, hopefully, survive the worst of the winter weather. This is the date the Catholic Church assigned to the arrival of the Magi and also, later, the… Continue reading The Daily: 6 January 2025
Tonight is Twelfth Night, the last night of Christmas and the long night before Epiphany, the festival of the Wise Men. This is the night when all the drummers show up, along with a veritable cacophony of birds; a party of lords, ladies and colorful others; and quite a few cows. I'm not sure I… Continue reading The Daily: 5 January 2025
New Year's Day is misplaced. This date has no real significance. It is tied to nothing in the solar year nor in the cultural year. It is historically wrong. When the Romans created these two new months in their calendar, January and February, and set their state calendars to begin on 1 January, that date… Continue reading The Daily: 1 January 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 