#pre-christian

[caedmonofwhitby]

Lucas de Heere (1534–1584)

English: One of the earliest near-accurate depictions of Stonehenge.

Date between 1573 and 1575

watercolor

British Library

[stairnaheireann]

How the Irish Influenced Christmas Traditions

In much the same way that the modern interpretation of Halloween descended from the Celtic pagan celebration of Samhain, several important pre-Christian Irish traditions have been incorporated into the winter holiday season. Prior to the introduction of Christianity during the early 5th century, Ireland was home to the Celts, a pagan civilisation which worshipped many gods and goddesses. Animism…

[thoughtportal]

Shchedryk ("Bountiful Evening") is a Ukrainian shchedrivka, or New Year's song, known in English as "The Little Swallow". It tells a story of a swallow flying into a household to proclaim the plentiful and bountiful year that the family will have.[4] The title is derived from the Ukrainian word for "bountiful". The song is based on a traditional folk chant whose language was thought to have magical properties. The original traditional Ukrainian text used a device known as hemiola in the rhythm (alternating the accents within each measure from 3/4 to 6/8 and back again). The chant based on an ostinato four-note pattern within the range of a minor third is thought to be of prehistoric origins and was associated with the coming New Year which in Ukraine before the introduction of Christianity was originally celebrated in April. Conceptually, the Ukrainian lyrics of this song meet the definition of a shchedrivka, while the English content of "The Little Swallow" identifies it as a kolyadka.

With the introduction of Christianity to Ukraine, the celebration of the New Year was moved from April to January and "Shchedryk" became associated with the Feast of Epiphany also known in Ukrainian as Shchedry vechir, January 18 in the Julian calendar. It was originally sung on the night of January 13, New Year's Eve in the Julian Calendar (December 31 Old Style), which is Shchedry Vechir. In modern Ukraine, the song is again sung on the eve of the Julian New Year (January 13).

[hauntingsoffuturespast]

Damn

Just figured out that I was an early days Christian and was persecuted, arguably psychologically tortured, and enslaved for it and that's why I've always had a hard times believing in/expressing my really weird or fringe beliefs/experiences [Past lives, Spirit Guides, etc.]. Because last time I did that I got murdered. So, yay!

02/05/2024

[squirrelsession]

[die-rosastrasse]

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

British, 1828-1882

Joan of Arc Kissing the Sword of Deliverance (1863) & Joan of Arc (1882)

[fashion-runways]

CHRISTIAN DIOR Pre-Fall 2024 if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

[lionofchaeronea]

Launcelot at the Shrine of the Holy Grail: Study for the Angel of the Holy Grail, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1857

[gingermintpepper]

So, one of the most interesting things that's come from my recent exercises in writing the Olympians as young deities is all of the very fun and somewhat painful conversations that come from the young deities acquiring and consequently settling into their domains.

Apollo and Artemis especially have been really fascinating under the microscope. They start off identically, with extremely similar interests and similar domains over the hunt and wilderness. They spend their days under the stars and foraging for fruit and dancing and singing in the fields, two rustic god-children exploring and learning together. Then Apollo goes off on his own to slay Python.

Now, a lot of things change when Apollo kills Python. That is the act which transforms the bow from a tool of survival and sport to an instrument of murder, bloodshed and ultimately war. It is Apollo's first act of wrath which separates him from Artemis - both spiritually because she has not yet shed blood herself as a goddess and physically because it leads to his exile. Most importantly however, the slaying of Python is the act that grants Apollo his knowledge.

If violence is what first separates Apollo from Artemis then it is knowledge which keeps them apart.

This can refer to a lot of things; that Artemis continued to be at home with the wild beasts of the forests and mountains while Apollo grew to prefer the domesticated sheep and cattle, that Artemis continued to avoid mortals while Apollo grew to know their ways and endeavoured to teach them more. The point that has been the most interesting to me however has been Artemis, who remains free of slaughter, and thus remains pure and Apollo, who becomes acutely and entirely too aware of it, and thus must be constantly purified.

Apollo's infatuation with medicine specifically is the place where this becomes most apparent. When he leaves for his exile to travel as a mortal, without nectar or ambrosia, without power, Apollo is without the privileges of the divine for the very first time. He sweats, he smells, he grows weary when he travels, he grows hungry and thirsty. He experiences fatigue and nausea, the fever of sickness, the chill of infection, the delirium of poison. The blood Apollo shed does not only make him impure spiritually, it strips him of the purity of his birth and station. Likewise, medicine is not a divine practice. What use do the unkillable immortals have for something as finicky as medicine when they have nectar and ambrosia? Apollo however, knows of the pains of the flesh and the suffering of the mortal coil. He pursues medicine in all its horrors and difficulties because of the knowledge he gained with blood.

Artemis then, cannot understand the medical Apollo. When her brother returns possessed by this spectre of ill-gained knowledge, she does not recognise him. Who is this boy who scores the deer and studies the shape of their intestines before he cooks them? What good is there in rescuing a chick with a broken wing? The Apollo-of-the-Wild in her memories would have done the correct thing and left the thing for dead - let the forest take what is its due. Who is this Apollo whose hands are always stained to the wrist in the blood and gore of the living? What is his fascination with the mechanics of mortal bodies? Artemis does not know and Apollo does not tell her.

That has, by far, been my favourite effect of the whole Python watershed moment to explore recently.

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

Leverage Redemption S02E13 The Crowning Achievement Job.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

John Byam Liston Shaw (British, 1872-1919) Blessed Damozel, detail, 1895 Guildhall Art Gallery, London

[stairnaheireann]

How the Irish Influenced Christmas Traditions

How the Irish Influenced Christmas Traditions

In much the same way that the modern interpretation of Halloween descended from the Celtic pagan celebration of Samhain, several important pre-Christian Irish traditions have been incorporated into the winter holiday season. Prior to the introduction of Christianity during the early 5th century, Ireland was home to the Celts, a pagan civilisation which worshipped many gods and goddesses. Animism…

[edelweiss-maiden]

nymphs finding the head of orpheus (detail) by john william waterhouse (1900) | petr svojtka as prince in ❝ malá mořská víla / the little mermaid ❞ (1976) dir. karel kachyňa

[yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt]

I think my favorite difference between the comic and movie is that in the movie, they live in an isolationist fortified city and their only concept of religion is regarding Gloreth. They treat her like a God, all the way down to using her name as an expletive.

Meanwhile in the Comic they live in just. A regular medieval (albeit sci-fantasy with modern elements) city 😭 and they celebrate Christmas and it is CALLED Christmas, and they say "God" as an expletive which means that Christianity, and by extension Jesus Christ Himself exist in the canon of the Nimona Comic Universe

[leroibobo]

a carved mother-of-pearl quran box and matching quran depicting al-aqsa mosque from bethlehem, palestine, dating to the 1960s.

mother-of-pearl carving is a traditional craft in bethlehem; said to have been brought over by franciscan monks from italy in the 15th century. the tradition is still going strong today.

[squeezetheduck]

Ok just hear me out, Vox singing this to Alastor before he disappeared for 7 years.