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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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I don't see that Groundhog day is any worse than the other days associated with weather:
St Swithin's Day - 15th July
St Swithin's day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St Swithin's day, if thou be fair,
For forty days will rain nae mair.
Sts. Gervasius and Protasius - 8th June
Apparently there is a similar legend attached to this saints day in France, perhaps Bel knows if it celebrated in Quebec?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Well, not midsummer if you mean what we normally call midsummer on or about June 22 (hello, Helen).
If you do a count of the days from equinox to solstice you will find that the days normally associated with the Christian celebrations, Mayday and All Saints' Day* to be as much as a week off. The dating of the winter to spring cross quarter day is the closest, being sunset Feb 3rd to sunset Feb 4th this year. It has been my theory that this discrepancy is due to the fact that the Christian calendar was slowly losing synch with the solar year because of Julius Caesar's lack of precision in assigning leap years to every fourth year with no exceptions. The amount that the cross quarter days are off from reality would be a measure of the date that the Pagan holiday was pegged to the Christian calendar. Unfortunately I have not been able to get accurate information as to the dates that these connections were made and it is also confused by the fact that the quarter days were originally normalized, at least in the Roman calendar, to the 25th.
*The summer to fall cross quarter day is not celebrated by any "official" holiday. There are some harvest festival celebrated around that time, but, aside from a Scottish bank holiday, nothing as universal as the other cross quarter days.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
No, mid summer is not in June--It is August 1st, Lughansa (as in the play, Dancing at Lughansa)
All four cross days (Feb 1/May 1, Aug 1 Nov 1) are Irish year markers-- Birth of Spring, Birth of summer, mid summer, and death of summer(and year)-- and all 4 are associated with the crossing over of spirits to from the other world to this world-- On Halloween, all the souls of everyone who has died in the past year, must leave this world for the other world--All of the other holidays are associated with the gods coming to earth-- gateways opening as it were-- between this world and the other world. and mystical messages (like forecasting weather!)
Lughansa was still celebrated in Ireland in the 30's-- Lugh was one of the pagan gods of ireland.
--my mother was displeased that i was born May first, but one of my aunts, (Nov 1st) always said we were both blessed with second site being born on such important holidays!
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I agree that the middle of summer as we count summer would be early in August, but the days traditionally known as midwinter and midsummer are the days of the solstices. The Old Way considered the seasons to change on the cross quarter days. Lughnasadh was considered, in many cultures, to be the date of the death of the King and his supplanting by his son.
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
The only "non-commercial, non-traditional" day we celebrate is St-John the Baptist day (June 24th), which, over the years has gone from being a religious celebration to a celebration of uniqueness of the Québec people.
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
In reply to:
what is exactly "mas"?
A suffix, shortened from "mass", as in Christmas = Christ mass, or the feast day of Christ. There is also the somewhat archaic Martinmas = Martin mass, or St. Martin's feast day (Nov. 11, I believe -- it's not a red letter day in the U.S.) So Candlemas = candle mass, the feast day on which candles are blessed for the coming year, actually the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or The Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (it has been called by both names).
And before you ask, a red-letter day is a major church holiday. It comes from the way the church Kalendar was printed in missals and prayerbooks. The major feasts were printed, like the rubrics, in red, the others in black; hence, a major feast was often referred to as a red-letter day. A rubric, by the way, is a directional note concerning what is to be done in, before, or after a ceremony or rite, and is printed in red rather than black to indicate it is not part of the text of the rite.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
And St Michaelmas-- the date is forgotten, but there is a variety of asters called "st michaelmas daisy's"
the feast of St Michael is September 26th (or is it 24th?) Lets say end of September-- just when asters are begining to bloom anyway.
I vaguely remember getting my throat blessed on Candlemas day-- (some patron saint of not choking?) as blessing and invoking protection from Strep throat? It wasn't a Holy day of obligation-- but it was always a formal uniform day-- which meant Blue anklet socks, not knee highs--and chapped skin from the cold on your shins- and going to church and getting your throat blessed.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
I vaguely remember getting my throat blessed on Candlemas day-- (some patron saint of not choking?) as blessing and invoking protection from Strep throat?Patron saint of throat diseases is St. Blaise (there may be others). I googled him and discovered that his day of memorial is Feb. 3 - my birthday! Also the winter to spring cross quarter day this year (feels like there should be a hyphen or two in that phrase, but out of respect for stales, I've abjured). I found this info at the following site, which provides ample evidence that there is a saint for everything ( patron saints against nettle rash, for speleologists, and no less than eight patron saints of tertiaries)  : http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/patron00.htm
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>there is a saint for everything...
not quite; there doesn't seem to be one for lexicographers, or verbivores or logophiles. we should start a campaign.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
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In reply to:
and no less than eight patron saints of tertiaries
and by tertiaries-- you mean? I looked it up and i'm guessing the idea of filtering water. (froggies do like clean water)
I know the word tertiary as "third" (ordinal?) as"i live on a tertiary street for plowing, and while NY didn't get much snow in yesterdays storm, I was unable to make it to my door, since my street was not plowed when i got home at 7 PM." M-W 10th also talks about a tertiary order of Monks, and of manmals, and of rocks. and there at the very botton of the page has something about water filtation..
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