artemisdart | Entries tagged with wheel of the year

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You may have heard of "Spotify Wrapped," in which the app packages up your stats for the past year in a series of images that you can retweet, or whatnot.

Well, someone made the same for AO3! Details can be found on this comment of a Reddit post.

I went through the exercise, and it spat out these four images! (NOTE: The first image erroneously said "2022" on it, so I had to edit it to become 2024. But the stats are from 2024 only; I had to modify the code slightly to make that happen, but it was very easy to do and there were instructions in that Reddit comment!)

So behold -- my AO3 Wrapped for 2024!

Current Mood: amused

Today, 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.

Today's balanced energies have been bought to you by the letter E and the number 6.

October 15, Ides
Mars

October Horse

"On this day a two-horse chariot race occurred in the Field of Mars in Rome. The horse on the right side of the winning team was sacrificed to Mars in a grisly ritual with both military and agricultural implications."

(from Classical Living, p. 187)

Posted this a day early -- so y'all can get your horses in order for tomorrow. ;-)

September 13, Ides

Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva

"On this day in 509 BCE, the temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus was dedicated. A feast was held that day and repeated in subsequent years to honor Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. The sacred feast, or epulum, followed a sacrifice. Statues of the three honored deities were brought out of the temple dressed for a feast and carried to the banquet. Jupiter always reclined on a couch, while the goddesses sat in chairs. Tables laden with food and wine were placed before them while music played in the background. All the senators gathered for the banquet, making an impressive showing."

(from Classical Living, p. 170)

September 5 - 19 / Nones September - XII Kalends October

Ludi Romani

"The Ludi Romani were the oldest and most famous games, held in honor of Jupiter Optimus Maximus."

(from Classical Living, p. 170)

August 24, VII Kalends September

Mundus Opened

"A strange rite occurred three times a year, today, in October, and in November. It appears to have involved the dead and centered around the mundus, "pit." In fact there were two ritual pits, one that Romulus dug when he founded Rome and the other the mundus Cereris, or Pit of Ceres. The latter mundus, a vaulted ritual pit divided into two parts with a cover, was exposed on these three days. The lifting of the lid was equal to opening the Gates of the Underworld. The spirits of the dead, the manes, could emerge and roam the streets on these days. This was a very holy day and no business could be transacted, no battles fought, no taxes levied, no marriages take place. In most early times the pit may have been associated with harvest, as one author says that the mundus belongs to Ceres. In 1914, a vaulted pit was discovered on the Palatine Hill and may be this ancient and mysterious mundus Cereris."

(from Classical Living, pp. 160-61)

August 21, X Kalends September

Consualia

"The Consualia was held on this day in ancient Rome. Consus, a god of the storage bin of harvested grain, was honored on this day. Consus had an underground altar in the Circus Maximus where the chief priest and the Vestal Virgins officiated at his rite. Once the dirt had been removed from the underground altar, Consus was honored with sacrifice and burnt offerings for the firstfruits. Horses and other animals were allowed to rest on this day, and garlands were hung around their necks. Consus had two other festivals, one in July and one in December, for the winter sowing of grain."

(from Classical Living, p. 159)

August 19, XII Kalends September

Jupiter and Venus

Vinalia Rustica

"At the second festival to wine in the year (the first was held in April) both Jupiter and Venus were honored. The first wine festival celebrated the opening of the fall vintage and tasting. This festival in August, the Vinalia Rustica, held in the countryside, was to protect the growing grapes and announce the upcoming vintage, when it was auspicious to harvest the grapes.

Offerings to Venus included incense, myrtle, mint, and bands of rushes hidden in a cluster of roses. [ . . . ] [O]n this day the goddess is venerated and those who tend kitchen gardens and farm gardens rest from their work, for it is thought that all gardens are under the tutelage of Venus."

(from Classical Living, p. 158)

"August 5, Nones

At Rome, a public sacrifice was made to goddess Salus. Salus is the goddess associated with safety, health, and welfare. An offering on the hilltop shrine to Salus ensured health and safety to the devout. This goddess was in earliest times an agricultural deity, as the health and success of the harvest was crucial to survival.

Salus was shown on coins feeding a sacred snake from a patera, or ritual plate; she held a scepter in her other hand. In some depictions, she is shown holding sheaves of wheat, most likely the more ancient image."

(from Classical Living, p. 153)

I'm a bit late -- this was yesterday.

"August 1, Kalends

On the Kalends in August, a temple to Spes, or "Hope" (which now lies under the church of S. Nicola in Carcere), was dedicated in Rome during the Punic Wars of the fourth century B.C.E., although the cult was older. A public rite to the deity Spes was carried out at the temple every year on this day. She is often referred to as Bona Spes, or Good Hope. "If things are bad now, pray to the goddess Spes, so that in the future they will not be bad" (Latin proverb).

In art, the goddess Spes is shown holding an opening flower while she lifts up the hem of her skirt as if in haste to flee. These images seem appropriate, since hope can also be fleeting."

(from Classical Living, p. 151)

Current Mood: hopeful

July 7 (Nones of July)

FERIAE ANCILLARUM

"The ancient and unusual ritual called Feriae Ancillarum, or Feast of the Serving Women, was so old that its origins were forgotten [even in ancient times]. At the festival, booths made of fig tree branches were set up on the outskirts of Rome. The ancillae, or slave women, dressed in their best, attacked young men of free birth, beating them and engaging in ritualized battles with boughs from the fig tree."

(from Frances Bernstein, Classical Living, p. 135)

"Honor Adonis with all things beautiful. Beside him lie all ripe fruits that the tall trees bear." -Theocritus, Hymn to Adonis

In July, some Romans celebrated the "Adonia" ritual, which went something like this:

"Female members of the household climbed to their rooftops to enact the Adonia and to plant the 'gardens of Adonis.' They placed shallow layers of soil in potsherds or baskets and planted the seeds of such fast-growing crops as fennel, lettuce, wheat, or barley.

"The women tended their 'gardens of Adonis' for eight days. During this time, because the seedlings were exposed to the long sunny hours, they germinated and grew quickly. After the eighth day the women left the gardens unattended, and the young plants soon withered and died under the sun's scorching rays. Women would come together, then mourn the shriveled seedlings, wailing and crying in unison.

"Women in antiquity also made puppets or effigies of Adonis, the God of Living and Dying. They would make small replicas of coffins and place the effigies inside. An ancient Athenian remarked that the streets were lined with these small 'coffins of Adonis' in midsummer."

(from Frances Bernstein, Classical Living: Reconnecting with the Rituals of Ancient Rome, p. 130.)

Did you know that this is National Pancake Week?

Neither did I. Until I found this list of monthly, weekly, and daily observances... all real.

http://www.brownielocks.com/february.html

So, I was inspired to find out what weird "National Such-and-Such Month" January is.

Here's a site that does not make up these things. A link to January's list:

http://www.brownielocks.com/january.htm

Tomorrow is Penguin Awareness Day. Just thought you should know.

Sunday will be Appreciate a Dragon Day.

128) Happy Labor Day to those in America. Here in Seattle it's a gently rainy morning. It feels like autumn to me. The leaves are still green and the weather could clear up and get broilingly hot at any moment, but to me, September is fall. I pay a lot of attention to the changing of the seasons. A lot of my main joys in life have to do with seasonal traditions or with food, of course! And to me, food is associated with the seasons. It wouldn't make any sense to stew up a big batch of Winter Plum Conserve in July. That would just feel wrong, and it would certainly be a chore standing over that hot stockpot while dripping sweat! No, that's a winter recipe.

I've compiled a very personal group of recipes and associations for each season. If you want any of these recipes, just "comment" and say which ones.

( Read more... )