Blessed Mabon

It is the time of the autumn equinox, and the harvest is winding down. The fields are nearly empty, because the crops have been plucked and stored for the coming winter. Mabon is the mid-harvest festival, and it is when we take a few moments to honor the changing seasons, and celebrate the second harvest. On or around September 21, for many Pagan and Wiccan traditions it is a time of giving thanks for the things we have, whether it is abundant crops or other blessings.
 Typically the focus is on either the second harvest aspect, or the balance between light and dark. This, after all, is the time when there is an equal amount of day and night. While we celebrate the gifts of the earth, we also accept that the soil is dying. We have food to eat, but the crops are brown and going dormant. Warmth is behind us, cold lies ahead. Mabon is a time rich in magic, all connected to the changing seasons of the earth.













                       May the Blessings of the
                       Fall Harvest fill your home!






                                                                 Blessed Be!


information about Mabon was found at
http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/mabontheautumnequinox/a/AllAboutMabon.htm

The Miracle that is Facebook!

  Here's hoping everyone had a good holiday. We had a unexpected surprise, a few days before christmas, I had a request from someone on facebook looking for siblings. Turns out it was my husbands sister who we had lost touch with several years ago. Come to find out she and her family only live 6 hours away and on christmas day she and her daughter drove up to visit. What an awesome gift for us all! We hadn't seen Susan since she was about 15 and it was great to reconnect. Thru her my husband was able to talk with another sister in California.
 I think this was good for my husband and hopefully for Susan also to be able to talk with someone who had the same memories of their childhood. Theirs was not a good childhood by any means whatsoever, I really wanted to cry at listening to what their parents had put them thru. For three kids to come out of that childhood and turn into loving caring parents/adults is a testament to the strength of the human spirit! I am sure we will see them often and when their other sister moves this way we will see them also.
 Blessed Be to Facebook!

Happy Chalica

 We light our chalice for the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

CHALICA is an unofficial holiday originally conceived by Daylene Marshall of Vancouver, BC as a way to celebrate and put into intentional practice the Seven Principles of the Unitarian Universalist tradition - one a night, for seven nights. The celebration begins on the first Monday of December, and is marked by the lighting of a chalice each day (or evening). Gifts that reflect the particular day's Principle may be given, but the focus tends to be more on mindfulness and action.
There are seven principles which Unitarian Universalist congregations affirm and
       promote:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

     Today is the first day of Chalica and for,

Monday: We light our chalice for the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Give gift(s) to honor those you do not understand / agree with / like.

Examples:

- a thank-you card celebrating differences

- words of forgiveness / apology

- a peace offering such as inviting someone to diner

- help someone in need

There have been some really neat songs written for this holiday,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oTOEapBmTo

I will add a new one each day!

Book to read, What If Nobody Forgave and Other Stories,

Please ck. out these blogs and sites,
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/UU.Chalica?v=info
http://chalica.blogspot.com/
http://www.uua.org/index.shtml

Make Your Own Chalice

 Some are simple, some are silly, but either way you end up with a beautiful chalice of your own!
"Stained Glass" Chalice
Supplies: Plastic champagne glass (chalice shaped), colored tissue paper, Elmer's Glue, paint brushes
Tear or cut the tissue paper into smaller pieces and lay them out on a table. "Paint" glue onto the plastic champagne glass. Then, put pieces of tissue paper on the glue. Reapply glue on top of the pieces of tissue paper to overlap pieces. Use a battery-operated tealight in this chalice.
Silver Chalice
Supplies: Plastic champagne glass, aluminum foil
Wrap the champagne glass with aluminum foil. Use a battery-operated tealight in this chalice.
Clay Chalice
Supplies: Model Magic clay (comes in white and various colors)
Mold the clay into the shape of a chalice. Use a battery-operated tealight to "size" the chalice, to ensure that it fits inside the finished product. The clay dries in 12-24 hours.
Flower Pot Chalice
Supplies: Small terra cotta flower pot and flower pot base, glue, paint, paintbrush
Turn the flower pot upside down and balance the base on top of it. Glue the two pieces together if you'd like, or keep them separate so that it's more portable! Personalize your chalice by painting and decorating it as you wish, to represent your family's UU identity.
Kitchen Cupboard Chalice
Supplies: cup, bowl
Turn the cup upside down, and place the bowl (right side up) on top of it. Then place the candle in the bowl. Voila!
Camping Gear Chalice
Supplies: flashlight, big cup, paper plate
Place the flashlight, light shining up, into a big cup. Then cut a circle in the middle of a paper plate just big enough to fit around the outside of the cup.
Gigantic Chalice
If you like to do things large scale, you can create a chalice out of a bird bath! Everyone can contribute by painting or drawing something meaningful on it.
Lego Chalice
If New York City toy store F.A.O. Schwartz can make a 7-foot tall Empire State Building out of Legos, why not make a chalice?! You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you want.

However you make your family chalice, have fun while doing it!

How would you celebrate this priencipal in your life?

Happy Holidays!

  As our family is getting ready for all the holidays that we celebrate this month I am reminded of the ongoing spat about how to greet the people around you. There are folks out there that want only the words Merry Christmas to be said and there are those that think Happy Holidays should be the words we greet with. My self I use both
  My family celebrates Chalica,which is seven days long and begins on the first Monday in December. Each day represents a different Unitarian Universalist Principle; a chalice is lit each day and actions/gifts/volunteering may be given and received. We also celebrate Yule, which is a celebration of the winter solstice and Christmas. December is a really busy month for us! Why do we celebrate these holidays? Chalica, because we belong to the local UU church and I believe the seven principles are important to follow, Yule, because as a pagan I follow the sabbats and to me Yule brings the rebirth of the SUN, Christmas is celebrated here because it is a fun way to share fun and festivities with our non pagan family. 

 There are 2 other Holidays celebrated this month, Hanukkah which is a Jewish celebration and Kwanzaa which is a week long celebration held in the US honoring universal African heritage and culture. So, I as a Pagan can greet everyone  with Merry Yule and someone else can call out Merry Christmas and we are both assuming that the people we are greeting hold the same beliefs as we do when in fact they may believe in one of the other Holidays or in none at all. I think that Happy Holidays would be the most respectful greeting unless you know for sure otherwise.

                                 Happy Holidays to all and Blessed Be!

Celebrating the Holidays? Why?

  The major holiday season is coming up, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. More money is spent this time of year than any other. As we were walking thru Walmart the other day, being over run with decorations from all three of these holidays I ask my husband why we as a family celebrate them (mainly christmas).
  Halloween we celebrate only we interchange the name of Samhain(sah-win). I think there is some (a lot) confusion with different religious groups on just what Samhain is and how it is celebrated.  Samhain/November Eve/Hallows Eve/Halloween - October 31st
1. Celtic New Year. Feast of the Dead. The dead crossed over the veil into the afterlife. This is belief that the dead linger until the veils between the world thin between the new and old year. At this time of year many Pagan or Wiccan groups hold ritual to assist and guide in the Crossing of these persons from one world to the next.  2. Ancestors day. Revere family members and dress in their costume. On a very similar note, many practicing Witches may be found dressed up in a costume representing one of their ancestors. 3. The last of the three harvest festivals. Final harvest. Here was a time to store foods, to prepare for the coming Winter. There was less celebration in this activity, as people took stock of their situation and began to assess whether or not they could last through the Winter to come.This is a really good description of the holiday that I found at  http://www.proudtobepagan.com/sabbats.html. There is no devil celebrated, no evil one.Pagans do not believe in this myth!  To me it is another Memorial day, celebrating the ones who have passed, putting up an alter filled with things that remind you of that person(s). I feel that because Christians couldn't really control this holiday they tried to make it something evil. Around here the churches have trunk or treat or parties where the kids dress up as bible characters. Trying to keep them from the devil I guess.
  We do celebrate Thanksgiving as a wonderful time to share a meal with friends and family.Originally Thanksgiving Day was a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday. How different is this celebration from Lammas/Lughnasad, Mabon, or Samhain which are also harvest holidays?
   We do celebrate Christmas as another way to give thanks for family, friends and all that we have in our lives and according to my kids for the presents.  For a religious celebration for this time of year we celebrate Yule. Yule - December 20th-23rd  1. Return of the Sun God. As the solstice approaches, the return of Spring and Nature's bounty cannot be too far off. It is difficult to belief that earlier people's were uncertain about continued cycles, but there was not the scientific basis we have today. This was the height of Mid-Winter, and it was evident that there would be sufficient food, or that they would have to do with less until the Spring brought hunting and agriculture.
2. The longest night was also a mystical event. There is a strong tradition for staying awake all through Solstice night and holding vigil that the dawn might arrive. These can be powerful rituals. This was a time when the Goddess Hecate was considered strong, and her magickal world controlled the lives of those caught in heavy winter, and putting all their hopes and energies into surviving until the next season. Deaths were common, and the Lord of the Underworld was seen as real and near. No the Lord of the Underworld is not the devil!
    There are other holidays sprinkled throughout the year and one that recently came up in discussion was Columbus Day.  Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906, and became a federal holiday in 1937. However, people have celebrated Columbus' voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the four hundredth anniversary, in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress. There are 3 states that do not celebrate this day, Hawaii, Nevada and South Dakota. Hawaii celebrates Discover's Day, South Dakota has Native American Day and Nevada just doesn't at all. The City of Berkley Ca. has replaced Columbus day with Indigenous People"s Day with other cities following. I really like this one, we might work on that.
   How and why do you celebrate holidays? Do you celebrate for religious reasons, as just another day off, to be with friends and family?  Does your family or community have yearly celebrations that are important to you? Why do we celebrate the National holidays? Do we actually know who or what we are celebrating other that what we are taught in school? I want my kids to really look at what and why they are celebrating a holiday that someone else has deemed important. Does it fit in with our beliefs as a family, as an individual? Why is this time of year or this person so important that we give our time and money to the celebration?
                       What do you celebrate to turn the Wheel of the year?