The Daily: 1 November 2024

It is the first Friday and the first day of the eleventh calendar month, named for the ninth. Today the Hunter's Moon goes dark at 8:47 am. In my calendar, the old year ended last night, and the season of early winter is ushered in tomorrow. So here is another reminder of what all this… Continue reading The Daily: 1 November 2024

The Daily: 31 October 2024

Today is All Hallows' Eve, Hallowe'en, the first night in the ancient new year's festival that Celtic language speaking people called Samhaine. We hardly remember that it was once a sacred festival, celebrating endings and beginnings, nor that it was converted by the Catholic Church into a day for honoring the dead. It's possible that… Continue reading The Daily: 31 October 2024

The Daily: 30 October 2024

All Hallows: An Entanglement It's the most wonderful time of the year... Tomorrow is All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, a new year's eve in former days with all the sweet treats, riotous good fun, and debauchery that entails. Friday is All Saints Day, All Hallows, the ancient new year festival called Samhaine, which is usually translated… Continue reading The Daily: 30 October 2024

The Daily: 28 October 2024

I'm not feeling it this year... I have the hat. I have the broom. I have a house full of actual pumpkin spice from the bread in the oven. But... the trees are all bare... it's snowing... and I just feel grey... Hallowe'en was the best holiday of the year when my kids were young.… Continue reading The Daily: 28 October 2024

The Daily: 21 October 2024

We had our first frost on October 18th, which is the beginning of St Luke's Little Summer, the traditional name for a warm string of days that usually fall around the Feast of St Luke (October 18th). This always has me asking: Do we get a St Luke's Little Summer if we haven't had winter… Continue reading The Daily: 21 October 2024

The Daily: 17 October 2024

The Hunter's Moon is full at 7:26am today. This is the last full moon of my calendar. In two weeks the annual lunar cycle begins anew with the Winter Sleep Moon. This is a time of reconciliation and reckoning. It is time to say goodbye to the growing season and to turn to the resting… Continue reading The Daily: 17 October 2024

The Daily: 11 October 2024

Yom Kippur begins at sundown today. This is the holiest of holy days in the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement, or more precisely, the Day of Cleansing. As this is traditionally thought to be the day when God writes down a person’s fate for the coming year in the book of life, it is… Continue reading The Daily: 11 October 2024

The Daily: 4 October 2024

October 4th is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi. You might know him as the irreverent but apt moniker, St Francis of the Birdbath, because that is where many of us encounter him. Bare-headed with the monk's tonsure, dressed in rough robes and coarse rope belting, he stands with one palm out, feeding… Continue reading The Daily: 4 October 2024

The Daily: 1 October 2024

The Harvest Moon goes dark tomorrow at 2:49pm here. The Hunter's Moon is new on Wednesday. However, there is an annular solar eclipse with tomorrow's dark moon, so I thought I would get the new moon post done early. Not that the eclipse is all that exciting. The moon is too close to earth right… Continue reading The Daily: 1 October 2024