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There is a whole gaggle of holidays today that deserve recognition. So, let’s get right to several of them…

Today continues the festival of Saturnalia, and also includes the Divalia or the Angeronalia, the foundation of one of the temples of Hercules Victor, and the Cerialia. These can be read further about here. So, let me give the next verse to my Saturnalia song in honor of these occasions.

Saturnalia Song, Day Five

I’ll sing you this day–
Ave Antinoe!

What sing you this day?
Ave Ave Antinoe
Haec est unde vita venit!

I’ll sing this fifth day–
Ave Antinoe!

What’s sung this fifth day?
Ave Angerona Dea Silentia
Ave Hercules Victor Deorum
Ave Ops Mater Abundantia
Ave Epona, Mater Equorum
Ave Saturne, Rex Sacrorum
Ave Ave Antinoe
Haec est unde vita venit!

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And, of course, today is also the Winter Solstice (which, technically, will be happening after midnight tonight, but still…that’s “today” as far as certain reckonings are concerned), which is the Heliogenna proper, and I personally think it is the birth of Cú Chulainn as well. And it is also the festival of Antinous Epiphanes, and the main festival of the syncretism of Antinous with Dionysos that we reckon in the Ekklesía Antínoou. You can read more about that here. So, I’d like to give you the song that I wrote for that last year, and which was published (recently!) in Devotio Antinoo.

Khaire, Khaire Epiphanes
The god who shows his beautiful face
He brings our cares to close on this night
And with his wines he fires the light
Khaire, Khaire Epiphanes
And now be welcome in this place!

Veni, Veni Antinoe
And come with joy beside you on the way!
In waters cold from depths of dark
May you now rise in fire and spark!
Ave, Ave Antinoe!
You light our year beginning on this day!

With Dionysos on this night
and all throughout the year
Antinous and Hadrian
come banishing all fear
And with Sol Invictus’ light
they dry each mortal’s tear
Haec est unde vita venit!
Vita venit!
Haec est unde vita venit!

*****

Today, under ideal circumstances, would also be the day that I’d hold the feast of the Feis Firchoin, a werewolf-associated mumming. Every time I’ve tried to hold it for the past five years, it has not worked out, and this year looks like it is going to be no exception, unfortunately…However, perhaps later, when it is dark and people might be needing a story to get them through the long and cold night, I might write out the vague outline of the mumming for people to read and enjoy. We shall see!

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Today is also the dies sancti of Nikias, a priest of Antinous in Rome, who created an inscription dedicated to Antinous Neos Hermes. According to Royston Lambert, Nikias seems to have been associated with a guild of Dionysian artists, and thus his dies sancti has been fixed on this day. So, we remember him today–Sing Ignis Corporis Infirmat, Ignis sed Animae Perstat for Nikias, priest of Antinous Neos Hermes and Dionysos!

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And, in Neos Alexandria, today is also the festival of Hathor-Isis:

This Hellenistic festival is celebrated on the Winter Solstice. According to Plutarch on the Winter Solstice a cow was led seven times around the temple of Hathor-Isis in search of the sun, the number signifying the amount of months until its return at the Summer Solstice. Cakes were also made with an image of a cow’s head imprinted on them, and sacrifices were made in honor of Hathor-Isis, Horus, and Helios.

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So, it is a day that is rather packed with significance, and rightly so–it is the darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and therefore the day that we are most in need of comfort, of light, of warmth, of love, and of recognition that no matter how bad things are, the tides turn, the sun returns, and all shall be well in the end. No matter how much our rational brains know that the sun will come up tomorrow, nonetheless there is a part of us that worries it may not do so, and shuns the darkness and the cold and in its fear and lack of hope, it thinks that the dark will persist. And, very happily, it doesn’t…

In pagan inspirational news elsewhere, Star Foster has written something lovely for the day, and Dver has written quite beautifully about how, whether traditions of paganism are revived or continuous, nonetheless the effects they have and the feelings they impart for those of us who participate in them are what is most important, and demonstrates the vitality of the spirit behind them. And meanwhile, the King of Fools and the Lord of Misrule continues to be royally foolish and rules mis-lordingly (?!?).

I shall leave it thus for now–the weather happens to be quite bright and sunny today, and I’d like to actually go out and see some of it before the dark starts to set in slightly more than an hour from now…!

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