Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

[GabrielWithoutWings]

Especially you Recons? Any of you celebrate non-Wheel holidays? If so, could you give a short description?

[Dez]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

That's an interesting question...

Not a recon, but I started a thread in the heathen section about similar issues recently that might interest you.

[GabrielWithoutWings]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

That's an interesting question...

Not a recon, but I started a thread in the heathen section about similar issues recently that might interest you.

Danke.

[Jembru]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

Must they be Pagan? If not, there are a few Shinto festivals I still kind of keep because they made such an impression on me when I lived in Japan. I wouldn't say they are anywhere near as important to me as the sabbats, but the Japanese celebrate the equinoxes and soltices anyway, and have holidays so similar to the fire festivals, that I am often able to blend them together. Basically, I take inspiration for celebrating my own festivals, from the ways the Japanese keep theirs.

[habbalah]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

I don't follow the Wheel, but I do light a candle for every solstice or equinox.

As for ones I celebrate (besides American calendar holidays), my path is very heavily involved in angel veneration. So, I stole the Feast of All Angels from Catholicism. I don't celebrate it as they do, but it's mine now.

[Ophidia]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

I've kind of thrown the traditional Wheel out. It's too agrarian for me. Pretty soon I'm probably going to add the rest of the holidays to the heap of 'stuff I don't celebrate'.

If I want to do something special, or give someone a present, it's going to be because I want to do it, not because the calendar or the sun or the moon tells me to do it (with some notable exceptions, as in when Luna Herself asks me to do it). I like Hallowe'en/Samhain, but the rest of the year can go hang :P

And no, it's not because I'm cheap or a humbug. Most modern holidays are for kids, Christians & patriotic folks, and the solstices/equinoxes are astronomical thingies.

[GabrielWithoutWings]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

I don't follow the Wheel, but I do light a candle for every solstice or equinox.

As for ones I celebrate (besides American calendar holidays), my path is very heavily involved in angel veneration. So, I stole the Feast of All Angels from Catholicism. I don't celebrate it as they do, but it's mine now.

Interesting. I'm pretty familiar with Catholicism and I don't remember this particular holiday. Is this celebrated in the Fall along with All Saints and All Souls Day?

---------- Post added at 05:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:32 PM ----------

Must they be Pagan? If not, there are a few Shinto festivals I still kind of keep because they made such an impression on me when I lived in Japan. I wouldn't say they are anywhere near as important to me as the sabbats, but the Japanese celebrate the equinoxes and soltices anyway, and have holidays so similar to the fire festivals, that I am often able to blend them together. Basically, I take inspiration for celebrating my own festivals, from the ways the Japanese keep theirs.

I didn't know Shinto celebrated the quarters. That's interesting. Don't they venerate ancestors and Kami/Nature Spirits?

[Jembru]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

The Japanese do indeed celebrate the quarter festivals. Shunbun no hi and shubun no hi are the Spring and Autumn equinoxes are are actual national holidays. The Summer solstice wasn't as I remember, but was celebrated with nice rituals such as one I witnessed in which fireflies were released into a woodland at midnight. I don't actually remember there being any Winter Solstice celebrations but they have emperor day around then so it might have been too much. New Year is such a huge deal there too. The famous Golden Week happens around Beltane, Hanami is rather Beltanish too. Setubun happens the day after Imbolc and celebrates the same thing. That is as much as I can think of. There were way too many holidays and festivals for me to keep up with and I never got the day off anyway because they were our busiest times.

I was amazed to learn all of this and it makes one think, are these really just arbitrary festivals with no significance, or is there a reason why similar nature orientated religions would reach the same conclusion, centuries apart, on which days are sacred? (One could argue that the japanese have so many festivals that cross over is bound to occur of course).

[Dez]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

Jembru, I know you lived there for a bit, but my husband is vehemently disagreeing with you over here. I'm really, sorry, but I'm going to throw his two cents in for him.

Shubun no hi and Shunbun no hi are recent developments, dating from the Meiji Restoration. They are ultimately secular, and were created in imitation of Western festivals, which might explain the timing.

Emperor Day just happened to fall around the solstice--it's the birthday the current emperor, Emperor Heisei. That's it.

While Golden Week might *happen* to fall around Beltane, it is the combination of several chance dates: Constitution Day (when Japan signed their constitution at the end of WWII), Green Day (the birth of the last Emporor, who loved growing things and passed away in 1988), and Children's Day (5/5, so it has more to do with the numerology of the day then anything, since 5 is a lucky number).

Hanami is just going to see the cherry blossoms...so it can happen whenever they're in bloom.

Setsubun is the only one he can see being maybe, sort of, related, since it is recognizing the start of spring, like most cultures do in some form.

Despite all the festivals, Japan is a predominantly secular nation. The things that are usually most important with Shinto are small, local events celebrated in individual little cities. The date they're celebrated varies enormously, as is evidenced by Obon falling all over the summer calendar depending on where you are.

Make sense?

[habbalah]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

Interesting. I'm pretty familiar with Catholicism and I don't remember this particular holiday. Is this celebrated in the Fall along with All Saints and All Souls Day?

If memory (and a quick check of Wikipedia) serves, All Saints and All Souls day are the first and second of November, respectively. The Feast of All Angels is also called the Feast of the Archangels and Michaelmas (which is probably the name you'd be most familiar with) and is celebrated on the 29th of September. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are all honored on that day; they had their own days before the Church started limiting the angels they venerated and the days dedicated to them (in an attempt to try and crush angelolotry and praying too much to the angels for intervention).

I'm fairly certain that all information here is correct, but please bear in mind that I'm not, and was not raised, Catholic.

[Caelia]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

It would just be easier for me to link to some of the holidays especially since I don't observe the Wheel of the Year. Start with page 181.

[Jembru]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

Thanks for the info Dez, I did think about googling before I posted, to ensure accuracy, but decided it was late, I was heading to bed, and it would have been a lie because I'd have changed my story to fit! I don't personaly feel your husband is disagreeing though, just offering more information. I guess I wasn't very clear but I most certainly was not implying that the festivals in Japan WERE the sabbats. Simply that from my own experience (not sure where your husband is from/lived, but I was in Kanagawa, dunno if this helps?), there were themes, foods or whatever, that I was sometimes able to adopt and of course, I used these days as a chance to celebrate my own festivals. I knew many festivals were later creations, hense my 'centuries apart' comment, and most certainly was not suggesting Emperor day was Yule. Even an idiot like me, knew what this day was (one is constantly reminded). I was simply saying it could explain why nothing happened on Yule.

Really though, I don't believe we are disagreeing. I just take some things from those festivals that appeal to me. I studied Shinto a little (all by asking my Japanese friends, so I take what I know with a pinch of salt too), and have since taken a mild interest in Zen buddhism, but I am one of those who has to be near the deities, to feel a connection to them (one of the reasons why I struggled with the Goddess Isis in the end), so although I speak with the Kami whenever I am staying with my friends, I have no interest in practicing Shinto as an actual religion.

Hope I didn't offend your husband with my cultural blending!

[GabrielWithoutWings]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

I suppose I could link the gigantic calendar from Neos Alexandria, couldn't I?

I really should sit down and make a liturgical calendar for myself, sometime.

[Dez]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

Lol, no worries at all...I was worried about offending you!

I thought that his comments might add to what was being said, and clear up some potential misunderstandings.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Any non-Wheel holidays you celebrate?

Just pretty much the regular Canadian secular holidays....Christmas (which I know used to be religious but a lot of non-Christians celebrate it and I consider it a secular holiday), Canada Day, Thanksgiving (in October, the Canadian way), Victoria Day...