Sunday 29 November 2009

Beaker Folk wisdom

Her Reverence the Archdruid Eileen has posted a marvellous exposition of how the Christians "stole" the Pagan festivals - including some less well known ones like the feast of the Norse god of hangovers, Bleindin.
January 1 - "The Feast of the Holy Name" was originally a feast dedicated to the Norse god of headaches, Bleindin. Believers would stay in their houses, with the blinds down and the lights off. A day of fasting and silence - the fast only broken by special ceremonial food such as raw egg yolks with Worcestershire sauce, and fry-ups.
Anyone who still thinks that the Christians stole the Pagan festivals would do well to read the excellent book Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton, which carefully examines the evidence for the origins of the modern Pagan festivals. It's a lot more complicated than you think.

It's also worth reading the following articles from the Association of Polytheist Traditions:

Ritual and Festivals

4 comments:

Titus said...

Lovely first sentence. Most cheering.

Archdruid Eileen said...

I'm touched. You've been added to the list of people we light a tea light for.

Yewtree said...

Thanks Archdruid Eileen. You know, it occurs to me that you missed out a festival: the birth of the Kwisatz Haderach.

Anonymous said...

Intelligent Thinks with a nice helping of Humor - here's to more people trying this diet!

(bows)