|
MARCH, 2008
March
22 - 31
|
|
|
The
great spring festival of Cybele and Attis is celebrated in Rome
and major cities throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The rites
of Attis are from Phrygia (in the south of modern Turkey), and
are among the most beloved stories of the passion and resurrection
of the god-king, celebrated annually at the Spring Equinox, or
on the day that would later be called Easter--the Sunday following
the Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. The rites of the festival
are these:
3/22 A
pine tree is cut and on it is fastened an effigy of Attis that
is covered with violets, representing Attis' blood.
3/23 Attis
is borne in procession, to the sound of trumpets.
3/24 Day
of mourning.
3/25 Resurrection
of Attis. Day of joy and universal license.
|
|
|
3/23 (Sun):
Easter, the most joyous of all Christian feasts, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus, and symbolically the victory over death that is now available for all of humankind. Ever since Christianity became the state religion of the late Roman empire, the timing of Easter has been reckoned as the Sunday after the first Full Moon following the Spring Equinox. This means that Easter must always fall between March 22 and April 20, while the Sun is in the sign of Aries, here the sacrificial Ram, the Lamb of God whose suffering will bring, in the view of Christian believers, the redemption of all human beings.
|
|
|
The ancient Mediterranean world celebrated the Adonia, festival of Adonis, the beautiful doomed lover of Aphrodite/Venus, on the day Christians now know as Easter. Adonis is one of many male deities whose annual passion and resurrection is enacted now. The early Christians called March 25 Mors Christi (the death of Christ), in order to avoid having Easter and the Adonia fall at the same time. Later, when established Christianity was able to eradicate most of the ancient Greek religious practices, Easter wound up where it belonged all along, aligned with the timing of the Spring Equinox. |
|
|
Norse festival of
Summer Finding, marking the point just after the Spring Equinox
when the days become longer than the night, and begin to wax
toward the maximum light of the Summer Solstice.
The finding of Summer thus marks the resurgence of nature and
the reclaiming of spiritual initiative and power by human beings.
|
|
|
3/23 - 25 (three days):
On these days, which immediately follows the climax of Holi (see 3/18 - 22) at the Virgo Full Moon, the Sikh community celebrates Hola Mohallah, which Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, founded as a ritual of military preparedness before the coming of Spring. The men enact mock battles, which are followed in the evening by song and music contests.
3/24 (Sat):
In some Christian calendars, this day is the feast of Gabriel, Angel of the Truth.
|
|
|
One of the major festival days of the year, because of its
proximity to the Spring Equinox and its position nine months prior
to the great festival of 12/25. A few of the many feasts held annually
now:
|
|
|
The ancient Greeks and Romans celebrate this day as the festival
of Artemis/Diana, protector of woodlands and animals.
|
|
|
Among the Yoruba and Santeria peoples, this day is the feast of the Orisha Oshun, principle of sexual vitality and fertility. As the main Santeria feasts are aligned with major Christian feast days, it is appropriate that Oshun's festival should fall on Annunciation Day.
|
 |
Among the Christians of ancient Rome, this day is called Mors Christi ("death of Christ"), mourning the martyrdom of Jesus. In later centuries, after Christianity became the state religion of the empire -- thus solving some messy problems of competition among religions -- the passion and resurrection of Jesus were celebrated at the same time as the ancient festival of Adonis. Thus, the festival week began the Sunday before the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox, and climaxed with the rebirth of the god on the following Sunday. This left 3/25 to become what it has been in the Roman Catholic calendar ever since: the Feast of the Annunciation, the moment when the angel revealed to Mary that she was now carrying the Divine Child who was to be born 9 months later, on 12/25.
|
|
|
3/26 (Wed):
While Buddhists normally celebrate Magha Puja on the Full Moon of the third lunar month -- thus on March 21 -- many believers will observe it on this day in 2008.
In the ancient Persian calendar, this day is celebrated as Khordad Sal, the birthday of Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), who is said to have been born to a 15-year old virgin in 660 BCE.
Also the birthday
of mythologist and "Follow Your Bliss" teacher Joseph Campbell
(1910).
|
|
|
A day of mystery in many ancient calendars. It was widely believed in the Hellenistic and early Christian periods that God created the Sun and the Moon on this day. Third-century Christians therefore chose 3/28 as the day of Christ's nativity, and observed it as such until the December Christmas feast was created in the 4th century.
|
|
|
On
this day the ancient Romans hold ceremonies of purification and
sacrifice, including, in later Roman times, gladiatorial combats
at the tombs of their ancestors.
|
|
|
In ancient Mesopotamian calendars, this is the feast
day of Ishtar, goddess of love and war.
|
|
3/30 (Sun):
|
In the six-season calendar of the aboriginal people of Australia, the season of Bang-Gerreng begins about now. This is the shortest of the seasons, lasting only about four weeks, but has the coolest nickname: Knock 'Em Down Storm Season, when the rain and wind, unlike those of the pre-monsoon storm season, are violent enough to blow down trees and almost everything else. No one goes walkabout this month. |
| Please help support the work of the Universal Festival Calendar and Hermes 3. If this site has value for you, you can make a donation, or order UFC subscriptions -- $25 a year, $50 for three years, $100 lifetime (my lifetime, that is!). Just click here. |
|
|
|
The Chiron - Neptune Conjunction of 2009 - 2012:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright 2008 Dan Furst. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
