Canadian Thanksgiving

Second Monday of October.

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia each lay claim to Thanksgiving celebrations even older than the Pilgrims of Massachusetts.

English navigator Martin Frobisher enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal on Baffin Island in 1578, and Samuel de Champlain established an “Order of Good Cheer” in 1606, after most of his men died out the previous winter from scurvy and malnutrition.

But according to Robert Ruby, author of An Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England’s Arctic Colony, neither event can be linked to the modern celebration of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving in the Americas traces its history back to good old England, where Thanksgiving Days were declared not just for agricultural bounty, but for military victories as well. King Henry V held a Thanksgiving after a victory against France in 1415. Queen Elizabeth declared Thanksgiving in November 1588, upon hearing of the destruction of the Spanish Armada near Scotland.

The first annual English Thanksgiving was declared on November 5, 1605 (now Guy Fawkes Day) which celebrated the foiling of the infamous terrorist’s plot to destroy London.

English Puritans meanwhile refused to observe the many Saints Days celebrated in England, which they believed were contaminated by Europe’s pagan past. Rather, Puritans only recognized holy days observed by Jesus, such as the Feast of the Tabernacles in autumn. And they carried this harvest tradition across the Atlantic.

After the Seven-Years War, residents of Halifax declared a Thanksgiving for their victory. This, combined with the influx of Loyalists from the lower 13 colonies during the American Revolution, solidified Thanksgiving’s status as an annual holiday, though the date changed several times.

Thanksgiving was declared a Canadian national holiday in 1879. After WWI, Armistice Day and Thanksgiving merged to form one holiday. The two became independent holidays in 1931.

Uttarayan

January 14

Today is the first day of Uttarayan, the 6-month season which lasts from January 14 to July 14 in India.

The festivals that celebrate the changing of the season go by many names in India. Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Lohri, and so on. They coincide with January 13th/14th in the Gregorian calendar.

The reason why Makar Sankranti is celebrated more than any other is that it marks the day the Sun starts moving north and the auspicious half of the year is characterized by increasing daylight. Of all the heavenly bodies, the Sun is the most glorious and the most important to life – and the Festival Marak Sankranti is one of the most important and happy feasts in its honor. It is the time when winter begins to loosen its grip and the days begin to grow warmer and warmer. — from Indian Festivals and Events

© Achim Pohl

Sankranti means, literally, to change direction, or to go from one place to another, and Makara (a crocodile/snail/elephant hybrid) refers to the Indian predecessor of the Greek constellation Capricorn. Thus, January 14th in India marks the day the sun begins to move from Sagittarius to Capricorn in the north.

The winter harvest festivals are celebrated in different ways among the one-billion plus people who make up the cultures of India. In the south January 14th is only the first day of a four-day holiday known as Pongal, named for the special rice dish associated with the harvest festival.

Indians in Gujarat celebrate with feasts and kite festivals in which the colorful skies help waken the gods who hibernated through winter. The largest of these is the International Kite Festival in Ahmedabad.

satyameva-jayate.org/2008/01/14/makar-sankranti/

Photos of Ahmedabad Kite Festival

High Flyers of Gujurat

Pongal!

January 14

Pongal – Day 1

Day One of Pongal is called Bhogi or Bogi, and is dedicated to the storm god Indra. Indra is the leader of the Devas–the gods and celestial beings that watch over the heavens and control the elements–such as wind, fire, rain, and air. Indra’s weapon is the thunderbolt. In that way he is similar to the Norse Thor, though his status is higher. Indeed, Indra is the subject of roughly 250 hymns and stories in the Rigveda, more than any other deity. He is incredibly handsome, but he has more vices than any other god. (Maybe that’s why he makes for such good stories!) And he never turns down a good cup of soma (the “Red Bull and vodka” of the gods.) Which would explain why the weather is the way it is.

Indra idol

He is known for his strength and smarts in slaying the dragon Vritra, which represents chaos and non-existence. It is one of the most famous battles in Hindu mythology. In defeating Vritra, Indra separates and supports the heavens and earth.

He is not as revered in modern Hinduism as he once was. This is partly attributed to his character flaws–his mistakes catch up to him and his power reduced–and partly due to the rising influence of gods such as Shiva, Vishnu and Devi. (And maybe we just aren’t as at the whim of the weather as we were in Indra’s prime.)

Bhogi is a day for family. Houses are cleaned and scrubbed top to bottom and all extra clutter is set aside, (the original Spring cleaning) and surfaces are prepared for decoration with a specially-prepared rice and paste concoction, Kolam, adorned with red mud.

In the fields freshly-harvested rice is cut with sickles anointed with sandalwood and paste. A bonfire is lit and all aforementioned “clutter” from the house is burned, along with agricultural waste. The fire symbolizes staying warm during the “last lap of winter.”

pongalfestival.org/bogi-festival.html

jnanam.net/indra/

Lohri

January 13

punjab_flag

In Punjab, January marks a lull in the winter wheat harvest. Farmers plant wheat in October and harvest the crops in March or April. By January the wheat has sprung up and farmers rejoice in anticipation of a bountiful harvest.

The traditional Indian calendar has twelve months and two seasons: Uttarayan (January 14 to July 14) and Dakshinayana (July 14 to January 14). Today is Lohri, the last day of Dakshinayana, considered winter in the traditional Indian calendar. From here on out the days grow longer and warmer.

In the morning on Lohri day, children go from door to door singing and demanding the Lohri ‘loot’ in the form of money and eatables like til (sesame) seeds, peanuts, jaggery, or sweets like gajak, rewri, etc. — hinduism.about.com

In the evening people dance around the bonfires, throwing in til, puffed rice, and popcorn into the fire, praying for prosperity and abundance in the coming season, and singing traditional songs:

Who do you have?
The groom with the tandoor
The groom’s daughter got married,
He gave 1 kg sugar!
The girl is wearing a red suit!
But her shawl is torn!
Who will stitch her shawl?!
The uncle made choori!
The landlords ate it!
He made the landlords eat a lot!
Lots of innocent guys came,
Innocent boy got left behind.
The police arrested him!
The policeman hit him with a brick!
Cry or howl!
Give us lohri…long live your jodi!”

Yes, something’s lost in translation. [But imagine what Indians would make of “Hey Diddle Diddle!”] This folk song, sometimes called “Ho’s in the Chorus,” (The word “ho!” is sung after each lyric.) harkens back to the legend of Dulla Bhatti.

Dulla Bhatti was a Muslim “Robin Hood” figure who fought against the Mughal Empire in Punjab, in what’s now the northeast of India. In addition to distributing his loot among the poor, Dulla was famous for rescuing boys and girls who had been sold into slavery or inducted into the Mughal army. Dulla adopted girls who had been kidnapped (“her shawl is torn“) as his daughters, restored their reputations (The lyric “The uncle made choori…He made the landlords eat a lot” refers to the uncle’s responsibility to vouch for a niece’s virginity) and married them off with hefty dowries. (“The groom’s daughter got married; he gave a measure of sugar.“)

Dulla Bhatti was eventually captured and hanged at the emperor’s court in Delhi. But his legend lives on during the Lohri celebration across Northern and Western India.
Lohri is among other things a fertility rite, marking the coming of spring. That may explain why the first Lohri of a newlywed bride is especially auspicious in Punjab. New brides are the center of festivities, dressed immaculately with bangles running up and down their arms; they can expect to be pampered today, as are the mothers of newborn babies experiencing their first Lohri.

Punjab (red), Northern India

Lohri ushers in a host of mid-January celebrations across India, known in various regions as Makar Sankranti, Pongal, and Maghi.

My 1st Canadian Thanksgiving

2nd Monday in October

This weekend I shared something with my one year-old niece: our first Canadian Thanksgiving. She was born just after Thanksgiving last year.

The most glaring difference I’ve noticed between Thanksgiving in the U.S. and in Canada is that Canadian Thanksgiving is on a Monday. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same.

In the process of celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving, I have learned a few other things about our Canuck brethren and sisteren.

1. Conservatives are blue and liberals are red, which when you think about it, makes more sense.

2. Election season in Canada is only SIX WEEKS LONG! Two years less than what we’ve had to endure south of the border.

3. It’s traditional for the Finance Minister to wear brand-new shoes when presenting the new budget.

4. Saskatchewan, despite its reputation as a barren wasteland, is the sunniest province in Canada. (Which is like being the rainiest place in the Sahara.)

5. Ottawa is the second or third coldest capital in the world, tied with Moscow, and right behind Ulan Batar, Mongolia.

6. Terrence & Philip is not a real TV show.

No Thanksgiving would be complete without breakfast at the Dutch Wooden Shoe Pannekoek House

We celebrated like true Canucks, enjoying breakfast at the Dutch Wooden Shoe Pannekoek House. In the afternoon we followed the age old wisdom of Canadian superstar Robin Sparkles…

[published October 13, 2008]

Mabon

Vernal Equinox – on or around September 21 (Northern Hemisphere)
“Blessed be, by the Lady and the Lord, on this Mea’n Fo’mhair. It is the time of the second harvest, one of fruit and wine abundance. Tonight holds equilibrium of all things. Everything is in balance with one another. God and Goddess, Life and Death, Light and Dark.”
Immortal Boundaries, Aubrey Jones

References to the Welsh god Mabon ap Mydron (Mabon, Son of Modron, or ‘Great Son of the Great Mother’) date back well over a thousand years. Today the name Mabon conjures up images of ancient Celtic rituals, of the fruits of the harvest, of flickering flames beneath an autumn moon.  So you may be surprised to learn that ‘Mabon’—in reference to the autumnal equinox—dates not to the Dark Ages, but to the Disco Age (a dark age in its own right), the 1970s.

The holiday Mabon was coined by a grad student, Aidan Kelly, as part of a religious studies project. Kelly was following the Celtic and pagan tradition of naming holy days after gods and goddesses. Lughnasadh honors the Irish sun god Lugh. Beltane is believed to originate from Ba’al. The spring equinox is named for the German goddess Ostara, from which our word Easter also derives.

There was a holiday known as “Mabon’s Day” in Wales in the 19th century. But that holiday was named for William “Mabon” Abraham, a labor leader responsible for improving miners’ working conditions in Wales, (Mabon is a colloquialism for “young leader” in Welsh) and took place on the first Monday of each month.

Since the 1970s, the autumnal holiday Mabon has gained wide acceptance as a Wiccan and neo-pagan celebration in North America. The Celts, however, didn’t observe the autumnal equinox as much as the cross-quarter days of Lughnasadh (early August) and Samhain (Halloween), the latter of which was Celtic New Year.

The “Second Harvest” is known by many names: Cornucopia, Wine Harvest, Harvest Home, and the Feast of Avalon.

Avalon, one of the many Celtic names for the Land of the Dead, literally means the “land of applesCelebrating new-made wine, harvesting apples and vine products, and visiting burial cairns to place an apple upon them were all ways in which the Celts honored this Sabbat.

Edain McCoy, Celtic Myth & Magick

It’s a joyous celebration, but whereas the spring festivals celebrate birth and fertility, at the time of the harvest, Mabon participants remember their ancestors.

A similar tradition exists in Japanese culture. On the equinox, the Japanese visit the graves of their ancestors. It is known as O-higan, or “the Other Shore.” Buddha is said to walk the earth when night and day are equally divided.

Mabon is also known by variants of Fomhair. In Gaelic, the months of September and October are the only two to share a name: Mi Mean Fomhair and Mi Deireadh Fomhair: mid-harvest month and end-harvest month.

Mid-Autumn Festival

September 12, 2011

The Mid-Autumn Festival is known as Eighth Moon because it falls of the full moon of the eighth month. It’s also known as Mooncake Day, because billions of mooncakes are prepared for this holiday. (Though billions aren’t necessarily eaten. It’s more like the Chinese holiday fruitcake.)

For generations, moon cakes have been made with sweet fillings of nuts, mashed red beans, lotus-seed paste or Chinese dates, wrapped in a pastry. Sometimes a cooked egg yolk can be found in the middle of the rich tasting dessert.

www.chinavoc.com – Mid-Autumn Festival

One story of the popularity of mooncakes dates from the 1300’s AD. China was ruled by the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, that overthrew the Chinese Sung Dynasty. To coordinate a secret attack on the ruling power, Han Chinese rebels hid secret messages inside mooncakes, which were then distributed throughout the kingdom. The revolution was a success.

Joyce Hor-Chung theorizes that had mooncakes been more tasty, there would have been no revolution, and the Yuan might still be in power today.

The importance of Eighth Moon in China goes back to the third millennium B.C. The traditional origin story of the holiday revolves around a beautiful young woman of unsurpassed beauty, and a rabbit.

Okay, not what I had in mind.

Getting colder.

No, the woman in question was Ch’ang-O, wife of Hou Yi. Hou Yi, you’ll remember from your textbooks, was the greatest archer in the land, famous for shooting down nine of the ten suns that scorched the earth, back in the Great Deci-Solar Debacle of 2170 BC.

Hou Yi had an elixir, a pill for attaining immortality, but he was told he would have to pray and fast for a year before taking it. His wife Ch’ang-O was as curious as she was beautiful. Finding the pill hidden in the rafters, she swallowed it and immediately began floating toward the moon. She landed on the great white orb, where she’s been stranded ever since. Instead of a “Man in the Moon”, the Chinese refer to Ch’ang-O, the Woman on the Moon.

There on the moon lives the immortal Ch’ang-O, with only a Jade Rabbit to keep her company (and, we can assume, an occasional astronaut). The Jade Rabbit on the moon is an important character in Chinese folklore. His sworn duty is to continually make the elixir of immortality for the Gods.

Origin stories vary, but they say Hou Yi eventually built a house on the sun, (Yang) and visits Ch’ang-O on the moon (Yin) once a year on the full moon of the eighth month, which is why the moon is so full and bright on this night.

Today families and friends gather to share mooncakes, pomelo, stories, and good times. Lanterns are lit, Mid-Autumn trees are planted, dandelions are plucked, and incense is burned in honor of the goddess on the moon, Ch’ang-O, who will increasingly watch over the earth as temperatures drop and summer makes way for fall.

Google Moon

Mid-Autumn Festival

Mid-Autumn Festival

Enjoying the Wind and Moon Together

Lughnasadh

July 31-August 1

Book of Hours, August

Today is Lughnasadh! Not to be confused with Lasagna Day. That was July 29.

Also known by its more Christian name, Lammas, aka “Loaf-mas”, Lughnasadh marked the time of year villagers would celebrate the first Harvest, on or around August 1, by baking and sharing bread from the first grain of the season.

Lughnasadh is a cross-quarter day—days that fall directly between equinoxes and solstices—the others being Imbolc (Candlemas), Beltane (May Day), and Samhain (Halloween).

The holiday would have been celebrated by the Celts starting at sundown (on the 31st) until the following day.

July 31 is also Harry Potter’s Birthday! Coincidence?

Today the ancient pagan tradition is carried on by wiccans and is becoming increasingly popular in neopaganism.

from http://jksalescompany.com/dw/wicca_calendar.html

http://thunder.prohosting.com/~cbarstow/lammas.html

Lughnasadh recipes