FEBRUARY, 2008

 

 

January 31 - February 9:

 1/31 - 2/3 (3 days):   

In calendars throughout the Northern hemisphere, this is the time of one of the eight great festivals in the solar year. This one, midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, is the feast of mid-winter best known in the west as Imbolc or Brigantia. The rites of fire and purification that are performed now clear the way for returning light and resurgent vitality.

2/1 - 14 (two weeks):

 

Greek festival honoring Dionysos, god of wine and of all passionate, ecstatic experience, in anticipation of the moment when Dionysos re-emerges from his winter phase as Hades/Plouton, king of the underworld, and is reborn in the Spring as the young god of male sexuality and ecstatic love. During this festival the vines are pruned and sprinkled with old wine, thus symbolically using the old blood to refresh the ever-renewing young blood of new life.

2/1 (Fri):

Feast of St. Bridget, Christian counterpart to the ancient Gaelic goddess Brigit, or Bridhe (See Jan. 23), whose feast is still commemorated each year with the weaving of green reeds into a design combining the features of the cross, the spiral and the swastika, symbolizing the eternal recurrence of new life.
2/1 - 2 (2 days):

In the Khemitian calendar, feast and birthday of Nut, the primordial sky netert who was said to hold all souls within her womb, and was the mother of Ausar (Osiris), Aset (Isis), Hor or "old Horus"--that is, Hor as light being, before his birth as son of Ausar and Aset--Set and Nebt-het (Nephthys). (Month of Pamenot, days 18 and 19)
2/1 - 5 (five days):

In a lively dance rite similar to the Japanese Setsubun on Feb. 3 (see below), Tibetan monks costumed as reindeer enact the Vajrakilaya Puja, which aims to destroy the demons of ego attachment.

Unlike the rituals of Imbolc time, however, the timing of this Buddhist feast is not keyed to the mid-season rhythm of the Earth year, but rather to the Asian lunar year. Now, just prior to the Losar New Year that comes on Feb. 6, it is time to purify the community of all illusions of separateness by invoking in each one the pure heart of the deer.

Candlemas, feast of the purification of the Virgin on the day when Mary took the boy Jesus to the Temple for the first time. As the first presentation of the child in the temple and the ritual purification of the mother were always done 40 days after the birth of a boy (80 days for a girl), Candlemas always comes 40 days after Christmas. Since the Christian middle ages, candles blessed at the church on this day have been used the next day for the feast of St. Blaise, and are kept throughout the year for protection against dark forces.

Also the Festival of Februalia, honoring the old Roman goddess Februa, mother of Mars, later merged with Juno to become Juno Februa, so called because expiatory offerings called februa are made to her now, in the time of purification. This festival thus embodies the transition from the latent vitality of late winter to the awakening of spring, symbolized in many cultures by weather rituals -- such as Groundhog Day -- in which sun or rain, light or shadow, indicate whether winter will continue to rule, or yield soon to spring.

 

 2/2 (Sat):

The Yoruba and Santeria peoples of Africa and the Americas honor Oya, the Orisha of death and rebirth, one of many manifestations of the one God Olodumare, bringer of life and death.

In the Mayan calendar systems, this day begins the Uinal of Death, the sixth of the 20-day Uinals in the current cycle of the Tzolkin, or 260-day calendar (10 Imix, Tzolkin 101). This Uinal is ruled by Mictantecuhtli, the Lord of darkness from which new life must proliferate in the next uinal. The Owl is the symbolic bird.

2/3 (Sun): In the Roman Catholic calendar, feast of St. Blaise, whose efficacy in the prevention of throat diseases inspired rituals like those of the preceding day, Candlemas. Crossed, unlighted candles, symbolizing purification of speech, are held at the throat of those receiving the blessing.

In Japan, the joyous festival of Setsubun, in which the people cast out evil spirits from their homes and other places by throwing dried beans out of doors while chanting the words "Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi" -- "Out with the devil, in with the good". In the comic ritual plays of the season, children in the crowds of shrinegoers throw the dried beans at devil dancers carrying grotesque weapons. In the annual Setsubun dances at Heian Shrine in Kyoto -- where this shot of the author wielding a big tsubo, or iron club, was taken -- the chief oni sings the ancient Tsuina, one of Japan's oldest surviving ritual melodies. It, and the Setsubun rite itself, comes from an older Chinese practice called Ta Nuo, the cleansing of the field to prepare it for the spring thaw and planting time.

In the Roman Catholic calendar, this is Transfiguration Sunday, commemorating the occasion on which, just prior to the time of his own purification that is now observed as Lent, Jesus manifested to his closest disciples as a being of light.

2/5 (Tue):

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the licentious and ecstatic all-nighter that culminates Carneval week (1/30 - 2/5), just before Ash Wednesday.

In the ancient western world, this is one of the most important days of the year for all forms of prophecy and divination, sacred to the goddess Tyche and her counterparts: Fortuna in Rome and Wyrd among the Celtic peoples. All were superseded in medieval Christian Europe by St. Agatha, whose feast is celebrated on this day.

In the Buddhist calendars of many East Asian countries, 2/5 is the last day of the old lunar year. It is observed as Sojong Day, when rites of fasting and self-purification, of asking and giving forgiveness are played to clean old uneasy energies from the soul and prepare for the New Year. In this year's Chinese Taoist calendar, this is the last day of the old lunar year of 2007 - 2008. It is called The Day for all Gods to descend to Earth -- and thus to be present and in union with humankind for the beginning of the New Year on Feb. 7.

2/6 (Wed):

In the Greco-Roman calendar, this is the feast of Aphrodite and Venus, goddess of love. This is the day for poetry, drama, comedy, music and pictures in honor of the paragon of Beauty.
For Roman Catholics, this is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the season of austerity leading to Holy Week from Palm Sunday to Easter. On this day the priest draws crosses of black ash on the third eye chakras of the faithful to remind them of the vanity of all worldly pleasures, and ask them to turn inward to cleanse the soul of all impurities in the weeks before the solemn rites of sacrifice and redemption are enacted. Ash Wednesday is yet another Christian adaptation of an earlier festival: the Adonia, a time of mourning for the Syrian demigod Tammuz, whose rites were observed at this time all over the eastern Mediterranean, especially at Byblos and the other major cities of Syria.
2/6 (Wed), 5:46pm HT; 2/7 (Thu), 3:46am UT:
 New Moon in Leo conjunct Sun in Aquarius. The special quality of this New Moon is that the Sun is "in detriment" - that is, limited and weakened in his usual exercise of power - in Aquarius, so that the emphasis of the time tends to be upon the lunar and traditionally feminine areas of hearth and home, and the protection of children from winter illnesses, especially as this is Imbolc, the time of the mid-Winter season, when homes are cleaned and purified before the coming of Spring. Powers of perception and observation are high at the Aquarius New Moon, manifesting under the right conditions as a wealth of ideas and ambitious plans, especially as they may involve collaboration with like-minded friends. That is especially true now, as the Sun-Moon at this Full Moon pair anchor an Aquarius stellium consisting of five planets and the Moon's North Node. For more on this see Astral Notes for Winter, 2007 - 2008.
At this New Moon there is also an annular eclipse of the Sun.
In the Celtic/Druidic and Wiccan Calendars, this February New Moon is Hunger Moon, as nature is frozen now in "Great Winter."
In the Beth-Luis-Nion Celtic tree calendar used by devotees of the faerie path, this second New Moon following the Winter Solstice begins Luis, or rowan month. The rowan is considered especially efficacious for protection, healing and divination.
Curiously, a lunar New Year festival period of roughly three days, beginning at the Leo New Moon during Aquarius month, was celebrated in ancient Europe for many centuries before Julius Caesar fixed the start of the New Year at Jan. 1 on a 12-month solar calendar that was the basis of the 16th-century Gregorian calendar, now the standard for time reckoning in Europe, the Americas and other lands colonized by European explorers. The implications of this -- that all the peoples of Eurasia once lived by a single lunar calendar, but were split from each other when the new solar calendar divided West from East, solar from lunar, intellect from intuition, masculine from feminine, etc. -- is at the root of the cultural rift that has separated orient and occident ever since.
In ancient Eurasia, peoples everywhere celebrated this festival as one of the three great turning points in the cycle of the Triple Goddess, the moment when the aged Wise Woman transmutes back into the Virgin who carries new life. Patriarchal religions have since taken over the show, but whether they can long continue to produce it remains to be seen, as the new Aquarian Age favors neither male nor female, but a complementary balance of the two.
2/7 (Thu):

Gong Hay Fat Choy! The Year of the Earth Rat begins. This is Hsih Nien, New Year's Day, in the Chinese lunar calendar. It begins a two-week festival culminating at the Full Moon. The Chinese lunar year, basis of several other Asian lunar calendars, begins on the evening of the first New Moon while the Sun is in what the west calls Aquarius. This new Year of the Rat follows a Pig year that surely affirmed our attachment to pleasure and comfort. The new year of the Earth Rat is auspicious because it begins a new 60-year cycle and thus begins, in effect, a new lifetime for Earth and her people.

In the Vietnamese lunar calendar, which is synchronous with this year's Chinese calendar, this  is Tet Nguyen Dan, first day of the New Year.
This day is the Baha'i feast honoring the Deity as Mulk, Sacred Dominion.
2/7 - 10 (four days):

Losar, the Tibetan Buddhist New Year, is celebrated with joyous performances of light, song and dance, and with butter towers and other ritual sculptures designed to drive out evil and clear the way for abundance and blessing in the coming year. The feast of Losar precedes Monlam Chemno (Feb. 10 - 22), the prayer festival commemorating the miracles and teachings of the Buddha.

While the Tibetans usually prefer to time their sacred year a month behind the lunar calendars of most Asian countries -- thus to keep the Tibetan year distinct from that of the Chinese -- 2008 us one of those years in which some synchrony is unavoidable, as it is here at Losar. Other non-seasonal Tibetan feasts are timed as usual this year. It's best to check each Tibetan festival case-by-case in 2008.
2/7 - 22 (15 days):
 In some Asian Buddhist countries, the two-week period from the lunar New Year to the next Full Moon is called Bumjudawa, or "Buddha's 15-day Miracle Time", when the karmic effects of beneficent actions are said to be multiplied 100,000 times.
2/8 - 16 (9 days):

The Iroquois mid-winter festival, just after the midwinter New Moon when the Sun is in what the West calls Aquarius. This a time of purification and forgiveness is celebrated by burning the offenses and grudges of the old year in tobacco offerings. Newly born children receive their names now, and the year ahead is forecast in dream telling, celebrated in music and dance.

2/9 (Fri):

Feast day of Apollo in his aspect as Helios, god of the Sun. This day, a week after the mid-winter festival, heralds the emergence of new light from the dark and cold of winter.
2/10 - 22 (12 days):
 In the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, these are the 4th through the 15th days of Monlam, the Great Prayer Festival, culminating at the Full Moon following Losar, the lunar New Year. Over these solemn 12 days, the bright, raucous fun of Losar is followed by New Year ceremonies held in the monasteries. Monlam rites are prohibited in Lhasa, and vistors to the unofficial Travel Tibet website maintained by Tibetans will see a moving box with Chinese red letters warming China's citizens of the penalties for visiting Tibetan blogs.

                             

Copyright 2008 Dan Furst. All Rights Reserved.