Seasons of the Witch

( Some ancient and some not so much!)

Light A Candle Today! 

In many different traditions lighting a candle is a sacred action. It expresses more than words can express. It has to do with gratefulness. From time immemorial, people have lit candles in sacred places. You may want to begin or end your day by the sacred ritual of lighting a candle on this gratefulness. Or you may want to light a birthday candle for a friend. One single guideline is all you need: Slow down and do it with full attention.

Agonalia/Agonia - Ancient Rome
Al-Hijra / Muharram - Muslim / Islamic
Balloon Ascension Day - USA
Bash-a-Pom Day
Chingay Procession in Honor of Kwan Yin - China
Choreographers Day
Connecticut Ratification Day
Dahini Day - Tibet
Dotty Day
Feast Day of Apollo - Greece
Feast of All Fairies (Fairy)
Feast of Raud the Strong (Asatru)
Feast of St. Julian
Feast of the Black Nazarene
Maitlisumtig - Switzerland
Martyr's Day (National Mourning Day) - Palau, Panama
National Apricot Day
National Static Electricity Day
Night of the Dakini Oracle
Play God Day
St. Basilissa's Day (patron against breast-feeding problems)
St. Hadrian the African's Day
St. Philip of Moscow
Stepfather's Day
Virgin Sacrifice Day 

Festival of Janus (Roman) - On this day, Romans honored Janus, the two-faced god of the year, at his citadel on the Janiculum Hill. Its double gate was closed when the land was at peace but remained open in times of war. He was supposedly an old king of Latium whose worship was introduced by Romulus. Farias says that he along with his female counterpart Jana (aka Dianus and Diana) were probably the highest (sun and moon) gods of the pre-Italian peoples, until replaced by Jupiter and Juno. Janus opens the gates of heaven at dawn and closes them at dusk. Like Elegba in the Voodun tradition, he was invoked before any other deity. He is the god of all doors, gates and entrances. Sometimes pictured as a porter or doorkeeper with a staff in one hand and a key in the other, sometimes pictured with an XXX (300) in one hand and LXV (65) in the other. At the time of Hadrian, his image was four-faced. And his temple had four sides with three windows each, four sides for the seasons and 12 windows for the months.Although sanction and luck came from Jupiter, every action, occupation and undertaking depended for its beginning on Janus. As Consivius he presided over the beginning of human life, a role in which he was connected with Juno, with whom he was worshipped at the Calends. Janus was offered grains of farro (a primitive kind of wheat) mixed with salt and iannual, a focaccia made with cheese, flour, eggs and oil, for his help in providing good harvests. The ancient Romans ate enormous focaccia, great disks of bread as round as the sun, on this day in his honor.