Post by Head Moderator on Feb 4, 2012 11:42:04 GMT -5
The Calendar has a 12 month cycle, corresponding to our mun 12 month calendar. There are celebrations within each month of the calendar year that are observed around the kingdoms of OH.
Seasons:
Seed Time: Spring
Sun Time: Summer
Harvest Time: Autumn
Frost Time: Winter
(January) Month of Braman's Dawn
Sign of the Kraken
1 - Bondsday
4 - Perihelion (world is closest to Bright Eye)
5 - Twelfth Night, Last day of Yuletide
12 - Wolf Moon (unity, oneness, group efforts)
17 - Braman's Festival
20-21 - Fel Tantis Meteor Shower
27 - New Moon
Garden: Prune grapes, also fruit trees. Transplant fruit trees, shrubs etc. Prepare the garden soil deeply with compost.
(February) Month of First Stock
Sign of the Basilisk
1 - Candlemas
1 - 5 Frost Days
10 - Snow Moon (duality and polarity) (Penumbral Lunar Eclipse)
14 - Sweetheart's Day (Valentine's Day)
25 - Dancing Comet
26 - New Moon (Annular Solar Eclipse)
Gardens: Transplant dormant shrubs, fruit and shade trees, roses, hardy perennials, grapes and muscadines. Continue to plant cold-hardy vegetables.
[Seed Time]
(March) Month of Waterboon
Sign of the Beholder
1 - New Year's Day
12 - Chaste Moon (purity, renewal)
20 - Springtide (Equinox)
27 - New Moon
Garden: Plant evergreens. Prune evergreens, and summer flowering shrubs and roses. Can plant frost-hardy vegetables such as sweet peas, beets, carrots, chard, turnips, radish, potatoes. Start tender vegetables in cold frames or indoors.
(April) Month of Second Stock
Sign of the Harpy
1 - Day of Fools
5 - Aurora Borealis
9-12 Danides Meteor Shower
10 Orgy of the Goddess
11 - Seed Moon (the future)
26 - New Moon
30 - Zumyandyn Eve
Garden: Fertilize growing crops. Plant container shrubs, trees, roses and keep well watered. Plant summer bulbs. Set out vegetables.
(May) Month of Heatswell
Sign of the Ettin
1 - Zumyandyn
4-6 - Isentil Meteor Shower
10 - Hare Moon (self-control, personal awareness)
14 - Mother's Day (honoring our maternal figures)
25 - New Moon
Garden: Plant summer grasses, prune and fertilize early spring blooming shrubs. Keep watch in vegetable and flower gardens for pests such as aphids and other insects/diseases.
[Sun Time]
(June) Month of Middleyear
Sign of the Dryad
9 - Rose Moon (time, lifetime, boons)
15-16 - Sapphiriad Meteor Shower
18 - Father's Day (honoring our paternal figures)
21 - Summertide (Solstice)
23 - New Moon
Garden: Continue to plant summer vegetables. Harvest when mature.
(July) Month of Late Stock
Sign of the Stirge
3 - Aphelion (world farthest from Bright Eye)
9 - Mead Moon (fertility, dreams, sexuality)
Varies - Summer Games
23 - New Moon
Garden: Continue to plant summer vegetables as most mature in 90 days or less. Pull up all exhausted plants.
(August) Month of Zumyan's Pyre
Sign of the Wyvern
1 - Lammasa
7 - Thunder Moon (healing, purification) (Partial Lunar Eclipse)
15 - Ghosttail Comet
21 - New Moon (Total Solar Eclipse)
24 - Wine Festival
Garden: Plant bush beans, beets, carrots, etc.. cold weather crops.
[Harvest Time]
(September) Month of Diti's Hammer
Sign of the Dragon
6 - Red Moon (wisdom, knowledge)
6 - Red Moon Festival (god of death, darkness, marked by human sacrifice)
20 - New Moon
22 - Harvesttide (Equinox)
Garden: Fertilize your summer and evergreen lawns. Plant cold weather crops.
(October) Month of Ahalya's Breath
Sign of the Unicorn
5 - Harvest Moon (prophecy, creativity)
10-12 - Vanyid Meteor Shower
19 - New Moon
31 - Thinning of the Veil
Garden: Harvest of autumn vegetables. Plant cold weather crops.
(November) Month of Dannui's Rise
Sign of the Hydra
1 - Soul's Day
4 - Frost Moon (divine connection and purpose)
18 - New Moon
20 - Oracle's Cup Horse Race
27 - Day of Thanksgiving
Garden: Plant fall bulbs. Harvest of autumn vegetables.
[Frost Time]
(December) Month of Kanesh's Veil
Sign of the Chimera
3 - Oak Moon (shapeshifting, rebirth, new beginnings)
12-14 - Icids Meteor Shower
18 - New Moon
21 - Wintertide
25 - First day of Yuletide
Garden: Tidy up the garden, clean up trash, old plants, etc burning those that may carry pests or disease.
Celebrations and Holidays
Springtide (Spring Equinox) - A celebration of the coming of Spring, with rites of blessing upon the earth by the druids and clerics. A time of celebrating the fertility of life. A celebration of balance as it is not winter but not quite spring, a time for inviting energy to awaken the earth.
Associated Gods:
Colors: light green, lemon yellow, and pale pink.
Day of Fools - A fun day of pranks and tricks, where things are never as they seem.
Zumyandyn - A religious celebration led by the druids of the land, the highlight of the celebration has always been jumping through the flames and lighting the bonfires, and the dancing of the maypole. On this day powers affecting love and fertility are at their most potent.
Associated Gods: Zumyan
Colors: Lemon yellow, Warm pink, blue, lavender, white and red
Summertide (Summer Solstice) - The longest night of the year, also a time of celebration for the feykin and faerie folk of the land. Wreaths of red and yellow feathers are braided with ivy, and sun flowers are used for decoration. The power of the sun and light is at their most potent and some say that arcane magic is most potent on this day.
Associated Gods:
Colors: Red, Yellow, Gold, Orange
Lammasa - The beginning of the harvest cycle; the early grains, fruits, and vegetables are harvested. Bread is traditionally baked, and altars are adorned with the first fruits of the field and garden.
Associated Gods:
Colors:
Wine Festival - Trampling the grapes, dancing within the vines under the moon, and tasting the newest wine from the vineyards. Our wine festival is always a fun time, and the drinking contest isn't to be missed!
Mother's Day/ Father's Day - A special day for our mothers and fathers of the land, to show our appreciation. Sometimes a father/daughter dance is held, and mother/son tea party.
Harvesttide (Autumn Equinox) - A day of thanksgiving, with a huge feast, celebrating the harvest. Cornbread, rich thick stews and cider are often made for this festival.
Associated Gods:
Colors: brown, orange, gold or red.
Thinning of the Veil - Celebrated with scrying and fortunetelling, and games such as dunking for apples and pumpkin carving contests. On this night the barrier between the prime material plane and the various other planes is at it's weakest.
Soul's Day - The Day of the Dead, we honor those who have gone on before us. A place is set at the table for our loved ones who are no longer with us, and communication with the souls of the dead is easier due to the thinning of the veil. Black candles are burned to ward off negativity.
Associated Gods:
Colors: Black and White
Oracle's Cup Horse Race - Betting and racing, all for the coveted Oracle's Cup. Come dressed in your best hat, with a picnic.
Wintertide (Winter Solstice) - Our celebration of the longest and darkest night of the year, the midpoint of the dark point of the year, when the sun is reborn. A tree is decorated with things for the "snow angels" - the beasts of field and air-- to eat. A Wintertide poem contest is held. Many burn bayberry candles till they go out on their own, and hang wreaths of holly. On this day powers affecting cold and darkness are at their most potent.
Associated Gods:
Colors: Red and Green
Yuletide
Bondsday is a solemn religious holiday celebrated on the first day of the new year. It is associated with patience, order and honesty. It is also associated with the color red. Traditions include public and private intoxication, annulling of contracts, binding and unbinding of handfastings and signing of documents.
Twelfth Night - A quirky and fun celebration of the ending of the Yuletide Season. A Lord and Lady of Misrule is chosen, there is much drinking and merry-making and silly games.
Frost Days - Cited as the coldest week of the year, these days are holy to all the gods and goddesses of cold, ice and frost.
Candlemas - A time of looking towards the planting in spring, midway between the darkest portion of the year. A barndance is usually held, along with other farm-oriented games. This is a celebration to banish the winter season, celebrate the change of the old to the new, and a celebration of fertility and things yet to be born.
Associated Gods:
Colors: Lavender, White
Sweetheart's Day - A day to celebrate all forms of love, focusing on appreciating friendships and making new friends, and telling those we care about how much we appreciate them.
Braman's Day - This is a holiday celebrated during winter. It is associated with earth, confidence and a reconciliation. Celebrations last four days from dusk till dusk again. Traditions include public contests of strength and dancing. Many sects celebrate it differently.
Meteor Showers
January 20-21 - Fel Tantis Meteor Shower
Typically, 40 or so bright, red and fast (25.5 miles per second) meteors will radiate from the constellation Kraken, some blazing more than halfway across the sky. A small percentage of them leave persistent glittering dust trains. This shower usually has a very sharp peak, usually lasting only about an hour.
April 9-12 - Danides Meteor Shower
The swift and bright silvery Danides meteors disintegrate after hitting our atmosphere at a moderate speed of 29.8 miles per second. They often produce luminous trains of dust that can be observed for several seconds. They are best seen from the western coasts of the mainland.
May 4-6 - Isentil Meteor Shower
These swift and bright yellow meteors blaze through the sky at 41 miles per second. About forty percent often leave long persistent dust trains behind them as they disintegrate. The normal peak rate is about 10-15 meteors per hour. Better seen in the Southern Hemisphere where it is the best meteor shower of the year.
June 15-16 - Sapphiriad Meteor Shower
Brilliant blue fireballs are seen moving quickly across the sky at the rate of about 15 to 25 an hour. They leave large and long white tails behind them.
October 10-12 - Vanyid Meteor Shower
This shower produces about 60 meteors per hour, but rates have climbed as high as 120. They are usually green, dark purple, red or orange. Many folks travel to the highest mountain peaks during this time of the year to see the best show.
December 12-14 - Icids Meteor Shower
This is best seen in the northern hemisphere, where massive blue and white fireballs stream across the sky.