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artemisdartToday, being exactly 9 months before Christmas, is the Feast of the Annunciation. (Nothing could be more logical, even though it's probably not technically what really happened.)
Per Wikipedia, "The date of the Annunciation also marked the New Year in many places, including England (where it is called Lady Day)."
Traditionally, there were a couple of months of "dead time" between the end of the old year, at the winter Solstice, and the beginning of the new year at the spring Equinox. I know this was true in ancient, pre-Christian Rome before Numa Pompilius's calender reform circa 713 BCE, and it seems that it was true in most of ancient, pre-Christian Europe as well. (Article on ancient Roman calendar here.)
Thinking about that, I was going to write about springtime, seeds, flowers, gardens, new life, and how the hope planted today will bear fruit in the darkest hour of the coming winter. But I'm pretty sure many people have said all that before me much better than I ever could.
So then I was going to post about the role of "Godbearer" (Theotokos / Θεοτόκος) and what that might mean, but that was going to sound way too Christian, even though that's really not how I would have intended it to sound.
So I think I'm going to settle for posting that I think it's pretty cool that this ancient calendar was calibrated to the length of a pregnancy.
Per Wikipedia, "The date of the Annunciation also marked the New Year in many places, including England (where it is called Lady Day)."
Traditionally, there were a couple of months of "dead time" between the end of the old year, at the winter Solstice, and the beginning of the new year at the spring Equinox. I know this was true in ancient, pre-Christian Rome before Numa Pompilius's calender reform circa 713 BCE, and it seems that it was true in most of ancient, pre-Christian Europe as well. (Article on ancient Roman calendar here.)
Thinking about that, I was going to write about springtime, seeds, flowers, gardens, new life, and how the hope planted today will bear fruit in the darkest hour of the coming winter. But I'm pretty sure many people have said all that before me much better than I ever could.
So then I was going to post about the role of "Godbearer" (Theotokos / Θεοτόκος) and what that might mean, but that was going to sound way too Christian, even though that's really not how I would have intended it to sound.
So I think I'm going to settle for posting that I think it's pretty cool that this ancient calendar was calibrated to the length of a pregnancy.
