25.03.2013 Views

Pr Ntr Kmt World Religious Calendar Pagan Holy Days

Pr Ntr Kmt World Religious Calendar Pagan Holy Days

Pr Ntr Kmt World Religious Calendar Pagan Holy Days

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

<strong>World</strong> <strong>Religious</strong> <strong>Calendar</strong> 392<br />

Ogham tree calendar<br />

Faern (F)<br />

Alder Moon<br />

Day 16<br />

The Celtic calendar started out as a moon calendar, but was aligned with the solar year during<br />

antiquity. Robert Graves proposed the Celtic tree calendar described here. While widely used by<br />

Neo-<strong>Pagan</strong>s, many critics dispute the authenticity. The Beth-Luis-Nion calendar (the one used here)<br />

starts with New Year on the Winter Solstice. The Beth-Luis-Faern calendar starts with New Year on<br />

Samhain.<br />

Each Celtic tree month (or moon) is named for a Celtic Ogham letter (first line above) and a tree<br />

(second line above). All of the Celtic months also had additional folk names (folk names for this month<br />

listed below).<br />

Polarity: Masculine<br />

Planet: Mars<br />

Archetype: Bran or Arthur<br />

Symbol: pentacle<br />

Folk Names:<br />

Moon of Utility<br />

Moon of Efficacy<br />

Moon of Self-Guidance<br />

Asatru (ancient Norse) information<br />

Month: Ostara<br />

Roman information<br />

a.d. IV Non. Apr.<br />

4 days before the Nones of April<br />

Month: Aprilis<br />

The a.d. IV Non. designation means ante diem or four “days before” the Nones (First Quarter<br />

Moon) of the month. When counting days, the Romans included both the start and end day (in modern<br />

Western culture, we skip the start day). When the Romans switched to a solar calendar, they continued<br />

to use the lunar day names.<br />

The Roman month of Aprilis is named for Aphrilis, a corruption of name of the Greek Goddess<br />

Aphrodite. The Greek Goddess Aphrodite was considered to be the same as the Roman Goddess<br />

Venus. Ovid said “I have come to the fourth month, full of honor for you; Venus, you know both the<br />

poet and the month are yours.” April was sacred to Venus, Roman Goddess of love.<br />

The earliest Roman months were lunar. According to Roman mythology, the ten month solar calendar<br />

aligned to the vernal equinox was introduced by Romulus, the founder of Rome, around 753 BCE. In<br />

Romulus’ calendar, April (the second month) had 30 days. Numa Pompilius, the second of the seven<br />

traditional kings of Rome, added two more months, for a 12 month year. In Numa’s calendar, April had<br />

29 days. Gaius Julius Caesar, as Pontifex Maximus (supreme bridge-builder, a religious title),<br />

392 of 1413 7/14/08 9:29 AM

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!