Merry meet everyone, Today's post is all about the wheel of the year thats connected to the moon. The information I have piled into this post is all from my lunar research that I had done at the beginning of this year. I thought it would be helpful to share it all with you. As you may know our current wheel of the year is calculated by the position of the earth in relation to the sun, this means measuring the length of the solar day rather than by the far less predictable monthly cycle of the moon. There are some cultures that still calculate time with the moon cycle though such as Hebrew and Muslims. Buddhists also use full and new moons to keep track of important times of the year, they believe Buddha was born and achieved enlightenment and died during the period of the full moon. They still use the moon calendar to this day because of this. The biggest festival they celebrate that happens every year is the Losar which means new year and that starts on the full moon in February. You calculate the lunar year by months rather than days and each month incorporates the new, full, waning and dark aspect of the moon. The lunar month actually has 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 28 seconds in each month. There are many solar festivals that were originally lunar festivals, which is why they appear in the lunar wheel of the year. Easter is still to this day calculated according to when a particular full moon falls in the year. The Celtic celebrations of Imbolc and Beltane were also dedicated to the moon. There are days dedicated to the moon goddesses too. Diana's Festivals are called the Ides of May, and falls at the same time of the may full moon. This celebration women would clean and tidy their grotto, streams and water holes and then wash the water over themselves as an act of cleansing and to enhance personal fertility. Diana can also be venerated at the harvest moon. The goddess Hecate is the dark aspect of the moon, she has her annual festival day on the 13th of august. This in ancient times would be called for her blessing on fair weather, so that the harvest could be brought home safely for the colder seasons. There are so many honoured stories for the moon in different cultures. The Celtics marked their festivals for the rising of the moon on the evening before the day of that said event, and often lit ceremonial fires to honour the moon and the festivals itself. As a pagan we celebrate the lunar cycle in the form of full moon esbats. There are ceremonies involved in celebrating the full moon and sharing a feast after any requests of dedications have been made to the moon or whom ever you follow. In many ancient cultures you could find that torches were lit to lead the rays of the moon down to the earth, this ensured the moon continued influence upon crops, childbirth and the weather itself. I hope you found today's post really interesting and I will see you all in the next post. Until then why don't you follow me on instagram @paganvibesonly for daily posts and updates about the blog. I hope you are all staying safe. Blessed be x PaganVibesOnly x Comments are closed.
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