DRAGONS LAIR MAGAZINE

Worshippers fight for the right to use Greek temples

Athens - Across from the Acropolis, on one of the busiest streets in Athens, dozens of worshippers who believe in the 12 gods of ancient Greece gather to pray in the Roman-era Temple of Olympian Zeus. Standing near the temple's imposing Corinthian columns, tunic-clad Doretta Pepa recites a hymn calling on the ancient gods to bring peace to the world, and for the safe hosting of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 'Kleithii meth efhomenou...Listen to me Apollo, god of the sun, I who pray to you with an open heart in favor of the all the people,' the high-priestess intones. Watched by hundreds of curious onlookers, a group of Spartan warriors symbolically lay down their amour at the entrance of the temple. A pair of doves is released as a symbol of everlasting love. For the organizers of Ellinais, a group of Ancient Greek religious believers who follow a calendar making time from the first Olympiad in 776 BC, Sunday's ceremony was anything but a simple re-enactment. The 30 white-clad worshippers - academics, a lawyer and other professionals - said they initially received permission from the culture ministry to use the temple. But at the last minute the permit was revoked - probably from pressure by the Orthodox Church. Defying the government decision which has declared all ancient monuments off limits to any kind of organized activity, the group went ahead with the ceremony under the watchful eye of hundreds of riot police stationed around the temple. 'We want to say a prayer for the common good but they will not allow us,' Pepa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. 'The government says these are monuments, but they are actually our temples, and they should be used by the followers of our religion because it is within our civic rights to do so,' said Pepa. The last time the group held an unauthorized ceremony was in 2003 at the Temple of Hephaestus, beneath the shadow of the Acropolis. At the time they were chased off the site by ministry of culture staff. Despite a court decision last year which officially recognized the Ancient Greek religion, the group says it is repeatedly denied its religious rights and is demanding the government register its offices as a place of worship - a move that could allow the group to perform weddings and other rites. 'We are perhaps the only religion in Europe that is not allowed to function - we want the Greek government to recognize our faith as an official religion. But for years these requests have been ignored in violation of European Union human rights laws,' said Pepa. She said her group will proceed with further court action unless their rights are met. 'There should be respect for people who want to express their religious freedoms in a different way that is not the typical Orthodox or Christian way,' said Pepa. The worshippers also face another obstacle - Greece's powerful Orthodox Church. About 97 per cent of native-born Greeks are baptized Orthodox Christian and the church regards ancient religious practices as pagan. Representatives of the church in the past have not attended the lighting of the Olympic flame ceremony for the summer and winter games at Ancient Olympia because reference is made to Apollo, the ancient god of the sun. The event in Ancient Olympics is not regarded as a religious ceremony and actresses normally pose as high priestesses. Greece's archaic religion is believed for have approximately 1,000 official followers scattered across the country, made up of different groups. Christianity took over the prominent religion in Greece in the 4th Century after Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion. Emperor Theodosius wiped out the last images of the Olympian gods when he outlawed the Olympic Games in 394 AD.

Witchcraft Killings Become a Pagan Issue

As modern Paganism and religious Witchcraft spreads around the world, it is more likely that cultural clashes will develop over different ideas of what "witchcraft" means. One issue that has been mostly outside the modern Pagan consciousness, witchcraft slayings in India and different parts of the African continent, is more and more becoming a modern Pagan concern. For example: In India, where legislation seems to have little effect on curbing witchcraft slayings, an Indian Wiccan and British Pagans started an education campaign to reframe witchcraft to communities that are hardest hit by these killings."In the past five years, police say they have reports of more than 700 women being killed as witches or witch doctors in eastern India alone. But the real figure could be many times higher, they say..Now, followers of the Wicca faith from the United States, Britain and India plan to introduce their religion in the eastern city of Kolkata to promote awareness of witchcraft and provide support for harassed witches...Around 100 people have already signed up to take a training program in Wiccan philosophy, literature and psychology and the students will also set up a grievance cell where persecuted women can register their complaints..."Different tactics are being taken in the country of South Africa, where witchcraft killings are also a tremendous problem. A controversial new bill is being proposed that tries to eliminate witch-killings by suppressing activities connected to witchcraft. Unsurprisingly, a coalition of South African Pagans (including the South African Pagan Council, and the South African Pagan Rights Alliance) along with traditional healers from across the country are opposed to the bill saying it would effectively criminalize their faith."...Witches themselves need protection from violent attack, Sapra said. "Practitioners of natural magic (witchcraft) throughout the country have rallied together to oppose the passage of the proposed Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill on the grounds that the bill will criminalize men and women who practice witchcraft or who claim to be witches," Sapra convener Damon Leff said. Sapra has even submitted an alternative bill - the Mpumalanga Witchcraft Protection Bill - for the Mpumalanga Legislature to consider instead ... Potgieter said those who attacked people they accused of being witches were the criminal element that needed addressing, not witches themselves. She warned that the bill also affected traditional healers and "disempowered" them."So far, it appears that the government has been receptive to these complaints. The provincial department that authored the bill is holding a closed-door meeting with traditional healers and modern Pagans to discuss re-wording the bill so it wouldn't criminalize the innocent. For some, this meeting is the first instance that traditional South African healers have met European-style modern Witches."There was confused silence when Luke Martin told a group of traditional healers this week that he is a witch. Phephisile Maseko, the national coordinator of the Traditional Healers' Organisation (THO), quickly had to explain that some white people consider witchcraft to be a religion and were open about practising it. There was still some apprehension, however, because the healers come from communities where witchcraft is considered evil and where people have been evicted from their villages or even killed because they were suspected of being witches. Now here was someone standing up and admitting to being one ... He and 40 traditional healers and leaders were attending a closed meeting with officials from the provincial department of local government and housing on Monday to discuss the draft Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill."SAPRA has also proposed an alternate Witchcraft Protection Bill that they feel better addresses the problem of witch killings in South Africa. But no matter what solution (or lack of a solution) that arrives from these proceedings, the modern Pagan community in South Africa is now in dialog with traditional healers and have involved themselves in the politics of witch-slayings. These developments, along with the spotlight on modern Paganism in India, and the growing global presence of our faiths, means that witch killings are no longer a problem isolated from Western Paganism but have become a "Pagan issue". What remains to be seen is how the larger Pagan community will react to these developments.

Witches happy over shopping centre

A coven of witches is delighted after developers agreed to change the name of a new £350million shopping centre. The coven had claimed Internet domain rights to the name Highcross Quarter – the intended title for the mall in Leicester – saying it had meaning in the Pagan Wicca calendar. Developer Hammerson has agreed to name the mall Highcross Leicester instead. 'It was our only wish all along, to be left in peace to develop our Web site and maintain the aspirations for faith and of our simple way of life,' said the group's spokeswoman, who gave her name as Morrigan Wisecraft.

Sacrilege or No Sense of Humor? Two recent stories from the UK highlight outraged Pagans in regards to two different media promotions (one for a movie, and one for a television show) that have altered or added to famous chalk figures in England. The first for a British television show entitled "Trinny And Susannah Undress The Nation" in which a group of white-garbed folks perform a temporary sex-change on the Long Man of Wilmington."TV fashion gurus Trinny and Susannah clashed with the county's Pagan chiefs after they gave the Long Man of Wilmington a sex change. About 22 Pagans gathered beside the historical and religious site to protest against filming by ITV ... Pagans are angry people have trampled across the religious site to decorate it with breasts, pigtails and rounded hips ... Druid battle chieftain Arthur Pendragon, 53, who is nomadic, said: 'We are very angry because this is so disrespectful. We, the Pagans, would not in our wildest dreams consider putting female breasts and clothing on effigies of any of the Holy Prophets, be it Jesus Christ, Buddha or any other revered figure of another faith. Why, then, does ITV commission Trinny and Susannah to do so at the Long Man of Wilmington?'"Altered chalk: the long "woman" of Wilmington and the Cerne Abbas Homer. The second instance was a promotion for The Simpsons Movie in which a faux-chalk Homer holding a donut was placed next to the fabled Cerne Abbas giant."Indeed, so potent is the Giant's chalky mojo, that couples struggling to conceive are still said to visit his hillside home for a grassy liaison. But yesterday there was a new alpha male in North Dorset. He wields a doughnut instead of a club. He has four fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot. Only three hairs sprout from his bulbous head. And his unmentionables are, mercifully, covered by the world's largest pair of Y-Fronts. His name is Homer Simpson ... Pagans, who believe the Giant is a spiritual icon, are dismayed by this bold new artwork, and, in particular, the accompanying encouragement for young couples to "do it in the doughnut". 'It's very disrespectful and not at all aesthetically pleasing,' said Ann Bryn-Evans, joint Wessex district manager for The Pagan Federation. 'I'm amazed they got permission to do something so ridiculous. We were hoping for some dry weather but I think I have changed my mind. We'll be doing some rain magic to bring the rain and wash it away.'"So is this a sacrilege that modern Pagans should get worked up over, or are these simply harmless (albeit capitalistic) pranks that local Pagans are taking too seriously? Are protests and threats of rain magic really necessary? Since I'm an American I don't have the emotional connection to these artifacts that I'm sure a British Pagan might have, so perhaps I'm missing the point of these perceived insults?

Cairn: A pillar of rocks.  Usually 9 or 11.

Clairaudience: Being able to hear messages

Clairsentient: Being able to "feel"  or "Know"  messages  (Also called the power of Prophecy).  Sometimes  a Clairsentient person can perceive smells, taste or touch.

Scurge: A scurge is a whip, used in rituals by "traditional" witches (being those who practise Gardnarian or Alexandrian, or variants of those forms of Wicca).  It is not used much (if at all) today.  I have never seen or heard of anyone actually having one, much less using one.

Sympathetic magick: Based on the principle that "Like cures like".  Most spells are done this way.  Items that have similar qualities can be used to effect eachother.  eg.  plants are green, - growing plants are green, green candles therefore symbolise growth.  You use a symbolic representation of the intent, and whatever you do to it, will be reflected on the actual goal.  Poppets are sympathetic magick.

Trilithon: A stone arch made from 2 upright slabs of rock or wood, with one lying atop.  Commonly used as an altar.

Tuathail: "Northward"  Means Widdershins

What do you call 13 Witches in a hot tub? 

A Self-Cleaning Coven

 

22 Ways to Piss off a Pagan

 

1. Ask them if they eat babies.

2. Be very considerate, rearrange their altar so it will look neat.

3. Blow out their altar candle if it is still day light. (No need to waste a good candle!)

4. Pick up their gems for a closer look.

5. Sharpen their dull black-handled knife.

6. Give their home address to the jovehia Witnesses with instructions on what time they hold their  rituals.

7. Untie the knots in their cord.

8. Empty their ritual baths while they changing.

9. Ask to use their tarot cards for weekend poker game.

10. Leave holy raffers on their altar.

11. Hide their ritual robes.

12. Clean their ritual tools.

13. Snicker loudly when Fat Pagans go skyclad at events.

14. Step into a Drawn Circle and ask what they are doing

15. Ask them if they can wiggle their nose like in Bewitched.

16. Throw water on them and expect them to melt.

17. Cast the circle counter clockwise.

18. Talk to their Cat infront of them and inform them that the cat wants human sacrifices.

19. Insert material into their book of shadows from the satanic bible.

20. Wear a KKK robe to summer solstice.

21. Remind them that the moon has 4 phases.

22. Put wood around the Maypole.

 

32 signs that tell you your Coven is getting old...

1:The ritual feast is pureed.

2:Last Beltaine the coven decided it would be nice to go out to dinner to celebrate.

3:The last time you tried to do a spiral dance your oxygen feeds got tangled.

4:Viagra is kept in the coven supplies.

5:The maiden of the coven is a grandmother.

6:The ritual room is outfitted with defibrillators.

7. The Conveners drive RV's to Scottsdale for Mabon. 

8:When you are at a festival you go to bed at sunset.

9:It takes the whole coven to move the cauldron.

10:The high priest still has a vendetta going against Richard Nixon.

11:You find yourself using your pendulum over the stock pages in the newspaper.

12:You tell an initiate that in your day you had to slog through five feet of snow uphill both ways when you did a Yule ritual.

13:You drop your teeth in the ritual cup.

14:At Samhain you see more of your coveners in the Wild Hunt than you do in circle.

15:You put your athame in the chalice during ritual but you can't remember why.

16:You hold an all night blow-out drum frenzy and none of your neighbors noticed.

17:You use Glenn Miller records for trance music.

18:All of your ritual robes are tie-dyed

19:Your coven has a 401(k) retirement plan.

20:A nitro pill vial replaces the crystal on your pendant.

21:No one's successfully jumped the Beltaine fire since 1983.

22:When the coven sings, "Creak and groan, creak and groan . . ."

24:When you set comfy chairs around the circle.

25:When you sit on the floor and can't get up again.

26:You do anointings with Aspercreme.

27:The oak tree your coven planted died of old age.

28:You use Bran Muffins and Prune Juice for Cakes & Ale because you need the extra fiber.

29:You don't use salt to consecrate you altar because you need to stay away from extra sodium.

30:You use a walker during the Wild Hunt

31:You prefer to rent a Hall for rituals because the bathrooms are closer.

32:You need a flashlight to find the candles.

 

August 31st birthday of raymond buckland author and witch

Editors note: the Egyptian month of Akhet which is considered the Second month of Akhet I know I know this is confusing but a brief explaining will do the first month of Akhet starts June 27th while the second starts on July 27 these are the feasts of this month thou I've started with July 27th so has lession confusion.

July 27    Month of Paopy, Holy day of Ra.

July 28    Procession of Horus to the city of Neith.

July 29    Thoth orders the Eye of Horus healed.

July 31     Feast of Osiris.

August 1   Feast of Opet, the marriage of Ammon-Re to his wife Ammonet.

August 2   Monthly feast of Ra.

August 4   Jubilation of the Heart of Ra

August 5   Procession of Bast. Birth of Nut.

August 6   Monthly feast of Ra.

August 7   Birth of Hathor (Hut-hert).

August 8   Satisfying the Hearts of the Ennead.

August 9   Horus receives the White Crown.

August 11 Feast of Osiris.

August 13 Ceremony of Transformation (Anubis) Mummification of Osiris.

August 14 Ceremony of raising the Sacred Djed Pillar.

August 16 Neith goes forth to Aten.

August 22 lighting the fires of Neith.

August 25 Sky Feast of Ra. Feasts of Osiris and Horus.

Attracting Companion Dragons

If you have spoken to others about dragon magick you might have noticed that some talk about their dragon companions, guardians, teachers, or helpers. It is not necessary to have a companion to practice dragon magick, nor should you feel you shouldn’t follow this path just because you don’t have one. But, that said, I know from experience and from talking to others that companions do help to raise energy, are normally very happy to join in rituals and really enjoy the company of a dragon mage. The idea of having little dragon companions whilst on earth never occurred to me until Kaz and Baztus showed up. They are my two companions and accompany me nearly everywhere. Although I didn’t do anything to attract them, they assure me there are ways for people to attract them into their lives. They also said there are lots of dragons waiting in the astral realms who are willing to work with humans or, in my case, dragons who are currently humans. I will tell you now, however, that you cannot force a dragon to befriend you, nor can you chose what your companion will look like or what their personality will be. All you can really do is invite dragons into your life and make them feel welcome. The dragons chose who they work with rather than the other way around. If you have been interested in dragons for a while and have collected some dragon images, toys, statues etc., there is a chance that there is already a dragon or two hanging around your room or house.

 Beside images of themselves and their kin, I have found dragons also like gemstones, crystals, beads, bells, and anything bright and shiny they can play with. Quite a few companion dragons have very childish natures, especially the younger ones. With no offense to the dragons, but they do have a wonderful way at looking at life and I think the world would be a much nice place if we could all be childish from time to time and not so serious! Another way to attract them is to project loving, welcoming thoughts whenever doing anything dragon related (such as reading this essay!). Surfing the internet for dragon sites, dusting your dragon statues, reading a book about dragons are all other times you can use this method. Remember you cannot fool dragons by projecting false thought as they will see right through you.

Inviting a Companion Dragon

This is a little ritual you can try if you really wish to invite dragons into your life. It has been written by myself with the aid of Kaz and Baztus.

Choose a time when you will not be disturbed, disconnect the phone, if possible disconnect the doorbell. Being interrupted during any ritual is really annoying and can cause for energy to be lost.

Sit cross legged on the floor and imagine and stress or worry flowing out of you and through the floor (or into the ground if you are doing this outside). Once you feel that it has all drained out of your body, imagine a protective bubble forming around you. One of the easiest ways to do this is to imagine a small bubble just in front of your chest then let it expand to surround you. You might not be able to see this bubble, especially if its the first time of using it, but know that it is there protecting you.

The next step is to invite a dragon to be your companion. Mentally project the desire to contact and make friends with a dragon. Be confident but don’t shout your intention. Then either in your mind or out loud say this, or something similar, “I am (name), I walk the path of dragons. In love, trust, and friendship I invite you into my life and into my home.” Add anything else you wish to say and keep projecting welcoming thoughts.

Don’t expect to feel a companion right away, it can take quite a while before they feel you are ready for them. Sit for a while longer incase they do wish to make their presence known. If you wish to keep the protective bubble around you imagine new energy flowing though it and the old energy going back into the ground. Then you can slowly get up and carry on as normal. You can repeat this ritual as you like until you feel the dragons are in your life.

Ablochnyi/Medovoy Spas - or "Apple/Honey Saviour. This is a cross quarter holiday between the summer solstice and the fall equinox. It celebrates the wealth of the harvest when fruit and honey are ready to be gathered. The first fruits and honey picked on this day and the bee hives were blessed.

Zaziuki - on or around Aug 7, might be the same holiday as Spas. Particular attention was paid to the first sheaf (zazhinochnyi or zazhinnyi) which was usually brought into the house and threshed separately. Sometimes it was blessed and then mixed back in with the seed. The end of the harvest celebration was called Dozinki. The last sheaf (the dozhinochnyi orotzhinnyi) was also brought in the house where it was either decorated with flowers and ribbons or dressed in woman's clothing. It was then placed in the entrance corner of the home or near any religious icons until Oct 1, when it was fed to the cattle. Sometimes the last sheaf ceremony was merged with the ritual surrounding a small patch of field that was left uncut. The spirit of the harvest was said to precede the reapers and hide in the uncut grain. This small patch was referred to as the "beard" of Volos, the God of animals and wealth. The uncut sheaves of wheat in "Volos' beard" were decorated with ribbons and the heads were bent toward the ground in a ritual called "The curling of the beard". This was believed to send the spirit of the harvest back to the Earth. Salt and bread, traditional symbols of hospitality were left as offerings to Volos' beard.

Strinennia - Mar 9th. Clay images of larks were made, their heads smeared with honey and stuck with tinsel. They were carried around the village amidst the singing of vesnjanki, invocations to spring. Birds were thought to bring the spring with them upon their return. Children were given pastries shaped like birds to toss into the air while saying "The rooks have come.” Sometimes the pastries were tied to poles in the garden. The baking of these pastries was to ensure that the birds would return.

Maslenica (Mah-sweh-NEET-sa) "Butter woman" from the word Maslo which means butter. Originally it was practiced at the Vernal Equinox but later was celebrated the week before lent. Maslenica (mah-sweh-NEET-sa), sometimes called Shrovetide, was a celebration of the returning light, a time of games and contests, especially horse racing, fist fights, sliding and mock battles. It was a time for protection and purification rituals and a time of gluttony, obscenity and dissolution. At the beginning of the festivities a life-sized corn doll would be made as a personification of the holiday. The doll would be invoked and welcomed by the name Maslenica. Sometimes a drunken peasant was chosen, instead, to represent Maslenica. He would either be dressed in woman's clothing or in a costume sewn all over with bells. His face would be smeared with soot and he would be seated on a wheel resting on a pole within a sledge. Wine and pastries would surround him and as many as could would accompany him in other sledges. Crowds would follow on foot, laughing, dancing and singing ritual songs. Corn "Maslenitsas" were also driven around in barrows, wagons or sleighs accompanied by crowds of celebrants. Many customs honoring the sun were included in the festivities such as the lighting of bonfires, pushing a wheel whose axel pole was a flaming torch about or circling the village on horseback with torches. Farmsteads were also circled at this time, either with a religious icon or with brooms, sweeping around the entire property three times to create a magickal circle which protected against illness and evil spirits. Traditionally, the house and barn were cleaned and decorated and holiday foods such as bliny (pancakes), kulich (sweet bread) and paskha (pyramid shaped cottage-cheese bread) were prepared. Special loaves were baked and fed to the cattle to guard them from unclean spirits. Kozuli, pastries shaped like cattle, goats, etc. were prepared and eaten to bring on the multiplication of the herds. Eggs were decorated and rolled along the ground in order to transfer the fertility of the egg to the earth. The customary "swinging" which occurred at this time was believed to strengthen the stock and fertility of the villagers as well. Maslenitsa was considered to be a time for purification. All salt was prepared for the coming year, as salt was used for cleansing and curative purposes. Ritual baths to prepare for the oncoming work in the fields were also taken before sunrise and followed with fumigation in the smoke of the juniper. Another important part of Slavic ritual is the funeral meal. A huge feast was prepared and brought to the cemetery where it was eaten amidst much wailing and laughter. Food was always left for the dead. In Eastern European ritual, funeral and fertility rites are intertwined. Volos, a god of the herds, is believed by many to be the same god as Veles, an underworld deity. At the end of the week the Maslenitsa (if a doll was used) was taken to a field outside the village, usually where the winter crops were planted. There it was destroyed, either by being torn apart and thrown into the field or burned. This was the remnant of an earlier cult of a dying and resurrected God, Volos perhaps, whose death brought life to the fields. The "God" was always destroyed with laughter as such a "death" was seen to bring life. Smaller dolls were also made for individual households which were also torn apart at the week's end and fed to the livestock. This was believed to ensure their fertility and the customary willow branch they were fed was thought to protect them for the entire year to come.

Krasnaja Gorka - "beautiful" or "red" hillock - the Sunday after Easter. In Russia, a woman holding a red egg and round loaf of bread would face east and sing a spring song which the chorus then took up. Afterward, a doll representing Marzena, grandmother winter, was carried to the edge of the village and thrown out or destroyed. Xorovods, Russian circle dances, started on this day as well as were spring game songs; a female performer would enter the center of a circle and mime the sowing, pulling, spreading, etc...Of the flax all the way up to the spinning. She and all those in the circle would sing:

Turn out well, turn out well, my flax.

Turn out well, my white flax.

Radunica - (Rah-doo-NEET-sa) the second Tuesday after Easter. This holiday was originally known as Nav Dien (Day of the Dead) and was a bi-annual holiday to celebrate the ancestors. The original dates of these two holidays were probably May eve and November eve - cross-quarter dates. Usually feasting and celebrating occurred in the cemeteries among much ritual wailing. Offerings, often of eggs, were left to the dead.

Rusal'naia Week - (Roo-sahl-NIE-ya) originally just after May eve, this holiday was later celebrated on the 7th or 8th week after Easter. The holiday was possibly named after the Roman holiday Rosalia. During this week the Rusalki, female water spirits, were said to leave the rivers and go to the forests and fields. Birches were considered a source of vegetative power and homes were decorated with birch branches, both inside and out.

On the Wednesday of this week, girls would go into the forests and choose and mark the birches. The following day, Semik, bringing fried eggs (omelettes) & beer, they would decorate the chosen trees with flowers. One special birch would be chosen and "curled". That is, the ends of the twigs would be knotted and twisted to form wreaths. The fried eggs would be placed around it while Semickajas (songs sung only at Semik) were sung. Then the kumit'sja ceremony would be held: The girls would kiss each other through wreaths on the birch tree and swear an oath of friendship. This spell was believed to ensure that they would be friends for life or, "kumas". This tree was sometimes left in the forest, and sometimes cut down and brought into the village. No males were allowed to touch the tree. The tree might be dressed in woman's clothing and/or stripped of its lower branches. Sometimes this tree was set up in a home as a guest. If left in the forest, its tip might be bent down and tied to the grass, ensuring that its sacred energy would return to the earth. Girls would sing and dance the xorovod around the tree. Banishings of the Rusalki were performed during Rusal'naia. Dolls of them were made and ritually torn apart in the grain fields. On the Sunday of this week, girls would perform memorial rites on the graves of their parents and afterward divide eggs among their family members. Then the sacred birch tree was removed from the village and tossed into a local river or stream. Girls would take wreaths from their heads and toss them in after the birch. If their wreath floated off, love was to come from the direction the wreath floated toward. If the wreath sunk, the girl was supposed to die within the following year. If it circled, misfortune would come.

Semik - (Seh-MEEK) the Thursday of Rusal'naia Week. This was the day to perform funerals for all those who had not yet been properly buried.

Koljada (Kohl-YAH-da) - The Winter Solstice.

Most agree that the word comes from the Roman word "calendae" which meant the first 10 days of any month. Some, however, believe the word is derived from the word "Kolo" or wheel - much like the word "Yule" is an Anglo-Saxon word for wheel. The holiday's original name may have been "Ovsen". The holiday was filled with revelry. Processions of people masked like animals and cross-dressers roamed the village. Often they were accompanied by a "goat"- a goat's head, either real or (usually) made and stuffed on a stick. The person holding the "goat" would be covered by a blanket to play the part. Sometimes a child on horseback - symbol of the reborn sun - would accompany them; the horse was often played by two young men in horses costumes. One of the wenders would carry a spinning solar symbol, internally lit by a candle, on a stick. Later, after Christianity entered the scene, the spinning "sun" became a star.  This unusual group would stop and sing Koljada songs from house to house. These songs usually included invocations to "Koljada", the god or goddess of the holiday, praises and good wishes, requests for handouts and threats for refusal. The handouts, also called "koljada", usually took the form of little pastries or "korovki" shaped like cows or goats. They were sometimes just in the shape of the animals head, but often were described as having "horns and tails and everything." The korovki were traditionally baked by the old people in the house, the grandmothers and grandfathers. The "tricks" played by those who were not rewarded could be brutal: Garbage might be brought from all over the village and piled in front of the offending host's gate, their gate might be torn off and thrown in the nearest water or livestock could be led off. In Poland one "caroller" would carry a bundle of hazel twigs and after receing koljada, would gently hit his host/ess with a small stick loudly wishing "Na shchestia, na zdravia, na tot Noviy Reek" (happiness, health, in the coming New Year). A small twig was left with the farmer who nailed it above his door for wealth and protection. Bonfires were sometimes lit and the dead ancestors asked inside to warm themselves. Mock funerals were held where a person pretending to be dead was carried into the house amidst both laughter and wailing. Sometimes even a real corpse was used. One young girl would be chosen and tradition made her kiss the "corpse" on the lips. If a pretend corpse was used, the person would leap up after being kissed - a symbol of rebirth. Holiday foods included kut'ia, a traditional funeral food consisting of whole grains and pork. The whole grain is a universal symbol - "the seed as the mysterious container of new life" On the last day of the koljada season in Poland, all the unmarried men of the village would get together to "wend" for oats. It was impossible to get rid of them with a scoop of oats; it took at least 7 liters. The farmer would keep a sharp eye on his grain that night, because otherwise the carollers would steal it as part of the evening's custom. With the money from the sold oats the men would hire musicians and organize a large dance party in the village during the pre-Spring festival period.