Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
Saturnalia Saturnalia begins today. This year Saturn is sharing the night sky with the much brighter upstart planetary deities, Venus and Jupiter; but Saturn is still brighter than any star in the sky, shining to the south for several hours after sunset. In my part of the world, the earliest sunsets, 4:11pm have already passed… Continue reading The Daily: 17 December 2024
“We’ll stop them,” Collum said. “They’ve always invaded and we’ve always stopped them. There has to be a way.” “Not this time,” Morgan said. “Because they’re not invading.” “Well, what the hell do you call it?!” “Emigrating,” Morgan said. “Fleeing. They can’t stay in Saxony. The sea there is rising and flooding their lands, and… Continue reading The Daily: 14 November 2024
Neptunalia Today (or tomorrow, or both) is the ancient Roman (or Phoenician) holiday of Neptunalia, one of three obscure Roman festivals that honored watery deities in the last days of July. Neptune was the Roman god of both freshwater and the seas, but this festival, which shares many similarities with the Jewish Sukkot, is focused… Continue reading The Daily: 23 July 2024
Shortly after the Ides of July (Tacitus claims the date is July 18th), sometime around 390BCE (Plutarch says 387, Polybius says 393), a small (or medium, or large) force of the Gallic people known as the Senones (possibly intermingled with Etruscans), fought a battle at the River Allia where it flows into the Tiber and… Continue reading The Daily: 18 July 2024
June 15th, the Ides of June, was the last day of Vestalia. With great ceremony, the sanctuary of Vesta was cleansed and closed to the public for another year, the sustaining Vestal hearth-flame hidden behind walls that no man was allowed to pass. This is a slack time, a time when heat is intolerable and… Continue reading The Daily: 15 June 2024
The Daily for 23 May 2024: The Full Flower Moon and the Matter of Britain...
Floralia Cosiddetta Flora from the Villa di Arianna in Stabiae near Pompeii, 1st century Roman fresco The festival of Floralia is another very old holiday. It honors Flora, the Roman idea of fertility that is embodied in spring flowers. Flora is one of the oldest deities in the Roman pantheon. She is older than Rome,… Continue reading The Daily: 26 April 2024
Tax Day April 15th is Tax Day for the United States. In most years taxes are due on this date, though exceptions are made for weekends and recently COVID seems to have added on extra days now and then. I don't know anyone who puts it off that late because the penalties for missing the… Continue reading The Daily: 15 April 2024
Participatory Democracy Today is Town Meeting day in Vermont. For the uninitiated, this is the day when Vermonters pack themselves into school gyms and various meeting halls to vote on town governance for the upcoming year. Officials are elected. Laws are debated and passed. Budgets are assigned. If there are complaints or disturbances, these are… Continue reading The Daily: 5 March 2024
February First Fruits & Quirinalia To highlight just how different the seasonal cycle is depending on latitude, mid-February, the last ides period of the ritual year in Rome, was a festival of the first-fruit offerings. While here in Vermont we are barely thinking about the growing season, never mind able to see actual earth, during… Continue reading The Daily: 16 February 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 