[POLL] Natural Event "Holidays".

Post Reply New Topic

The September Equinox of 2018 will occur on the 23rd at 0154 UT. I wonder if anyone else does anything to observe, commemorate, or celebrate natural "Holidays" like the equinoxes, the solstices, perihelion and aphelion. If you do, please make the appropriate selection in the poll, and describe the way you observe, commemorate, or celebrate any of these natural events.

Thank you.

December Solstice? Sure. I put up and decorate a fake pine tree and eat fruitcake and chocolate coffee.

Mmmmm ... frroootcaaaaake ... om nom nom nom ...

As everyone should well know, all of the holidays in the "Christian" calendar are really in fact seasonal Pagan feasts and observances. And yes, it would make perfect sense for these people to mark the seasons of the year and their harvest with reverence--they lived at the whim of nature, and a bad harvest could mean you were looking at death by starvation come winter.

The Catholic Church attempted to assimilate these holidays but the effort backfired, and its a real question of who converted whom.

Some Christians do know this, and oppose the celebrations of "Christmas" and "Easter" as much as Halloween.

Out of the given selection, Newtonmas is the one observed with the most cleebration.

Being very sensitive to weather and sunlight, I 'take note' of the solstices & equinoxes as change points for weather & sun. I don't really do anything to commemorate or celebrate them though. I find "holidays" & rituals to be pointless and silly.

I prefer December, when there is less sun where I am. Oregon gets about 8 hours on dec 21st.

It would be perfectly natural, pretty much essential for an agrarian society to be centered on such dates, if you don't sync with the seasons, the crops don't grow.

But doing silly dances or lighting candles, reciting from a sacred text or making "offerings"?...... completely unnecessary. Pagans are just as ridiculous as any other religion. Superstition is so primitive.

Just because superstition may be involved is no reason to forgo having a little fun!

The Equinox is upon us! Let's sing, dance, drink, eat and PARTY!

I don't really celebrate any holidays.

Grrr; I'm very cross with you for reminding me that very soon the nights will be longer than the days!

I don't usually mark any of those events as "holidays"; though when I was younger, I did hang out with a group of friends who'd spend the summer solstice out on the moors all night somewhere to see the sunrise. To me, they're more like mile-stones in the annual cycle of my SAD; the coming equinox is a symbolic reminder that grumpy times and the desire to go into hibernation won't be long coming now, and talk of the other events have similar connotations. I have a couple of friends who see them the same way too.

There's a book I adore in which the winter solstice is an important thing, so I read it on the winter solstice every year. Besides that, I don't really do anything to commemorate or celebrate these dates, besides mentally acknowledging the change in seasons (just switching from "it's summer" to "it's autumn" and so on).

I celebrate the winter solstice with lots of food,decorations,alcohol and fire.
The rest also involve alcohol and fire.

None of the above. I guess you could say that I celebrate the changing of the seasons but that is something that takes place continuously rather than on one individual day. Observing that process is one of the things that keeps me going but I don't commemorate any particular day. I am just thankful that I live in a part of the world where the seasonable changes are quite marked.

This past summer solstice, I stayed outside to watch the sun go down until the longest day of the year ended.

No, I celebrate seasonal holidays such as Halloween, Christmas and Easter like the politically incorrect human being that I am.

Well, Halloween is a bit more politically correct since people of just about any religious background can celebrate it. But that's just another reason why it's so great.

My 2018 calendar doesn't have the first days of the seasons or even the moon phases listed so it's been harder for me to keep track of when they occur. When I get my calendar for 2019, which I normally get for Christmas, I'm going to make sure it does have them.

Technically HALLOWEEN is a Catholic observance. If you mean Samhain, it certainly is a religious celebration to Druids, Wiccans, and etc.