Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Today is the last Monday before Easter. Many spring traditions have migrated to this holiday, including the name of the holiday, which has nothing to do with the Christian story. (Though what is does mean is a subject of debate.) Today it is traditional to bake simnel cake for Easter morning. Simnel cake is a… Continue reading The Daily: 14 April 2025
Today is Palm Sunday and this coming weekend is Easter. There are palm parades and processions all over, and today is a traditional day for Pace Egg plays, a sort of mumming that features St George and the Dragon. Bake a Pax cake (which are shortbreads with springy decorations in jam or frosting) or figgy… Continue reading The Daily: 13 April 2025
The Greenleaf Moon is full today at 8:22pm. I haven't said much about this moon cycle because it hasn't felt very accurate this year. In the past, you could count on the sugar season ending when this moon is new and new leaves washing the bare trees in spring green. Some years there are apple… Continue reading The Daily: 12 April 2025
National Dandelion Day When the dandelions bloom,time to plant potatoes. — Old Farmer's Almanac The Old Farmer’s Almanac claims that April 5th is Dandelion Day. I’m fairly certain this is not a thing, but it should be. Dandelions are pleasurable in so many ways. Just imagine an early summer lawn dotted with bee-covered smiling suns! And when… Continue reading The Daily: 5 April 2025
The Daily for 1 April 2024: a high probability of pranks
Lady Day March 25th is Lady Day. This is another Marian holiday which incorporated older pagan traditions — in this case the New Year celebrations which fell on 25 March before Julius Caesar shifted the Roman observance to the beginning of January. Lady Day is nine months before December 25th, so you can probably figure… Continue reading The Daily: 25 March 2025
The Season of Renewal This year, the Vernal Equinox happens on March 20th at 5:01am. This is, I think, the most nebulous of the solar festivals. Yes, it does mark an actual solar event, but it’s not the one we typically hear about. It’s not much of an event at all. This festival is less… Continue reading The Daily: 20 March 2025
St Joseph, Patron of Fatherhood To me Christianity seems to be rather quiet on Joseph, the husband of Mary and the step-father of their deity. That may be because I've never lived in an Italian neighborhood where Joe is the patron saint of roughly half the male population (though I did get a faint whiff… Continue reading The Daily: 19 March 2025
If you see that some aspect of your society is bad, and you want to improve it, there is only one way to do so: you have to improve people. And in order to improve people, you begin with only one thing: you become better yourself. — Tolstoy in his Calendar of Wisdom on 17… Continue reading The Daily: 17 March 2025
The fifth moon of my solar year is the Sap Moon, which was spectacularly full in full eclipse at 2:55am this morning. The fifth moon is new between 24 February and 24 March, full between 10 March and 7 April. This is a period of rapid change. The Sap Moon rarely sees the same weather from… Continue reading The Daily: 14 March 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 