Yuletide 2014

Today is the first of the Roman 13-day yuletide. It is called an Agonium of which there are four in the Roman festival calendar. This calendar itself has bequeathed both the Ecclesiastical Calendar and the very secular calendar that world as a whole uses today. The Agonium in January is presumably dedicated to Janus; the one in March, to Quirinus; the one in May, to Vediovis. Today’s belongs to the Indigenous Sun (Sol Indiges) – presumably because the yuletide as a whole celebrates the time in which the sun is the most beneath the horizon, i.e., belonging to the immediate locality. The Agonia themselves are mysterious festivals largely unknown to us as to their actual meaning and what was performed for them. They seem however to indicate the commencement of a special duration and/or a moment of transition.

It is doubtful that we will even see the sun today in Amsterdam. Perhaps that is only appropriate. We are currently having a “weather bomb” which presumably involves “explosive cyclogenesis” and “rapid pressure fall.” In any event, it is fairly miserable, and the fierce wind sucks out whatever heat there is in the house. A fire in the hearth will be in order.

Today is my first in my 13-day avoidance of the news – both radio and TV let alone newspapers. This will be hard for me since I normally follow as much of it as I can. But I want to see what a temporary liberation from repetitive disaster might actually do for the general mood. It could also be liberating to celebrate for a moment without persistence reminding of the deadlock battle between the POP (the ‘point-one-percenters’) and the probably same percentage of the Islamic world who constitute the menacing jihadists. It is my conviction that if we could get rid of the one, we could be rid of the other as well. Each only really exists because of the other.

The rest of the yuletide is as follows: the 13th is the Ides (Jupiter); the 15th, the Consualia (Consus) – on which the old year is buried; the 16th as a sort of non-time between time and non-time; the 17th, the Saturnalia (Saturnus) – the start of the epagomenae; the 19th, the Opalia (Ops); the 21st, the Divalia (Diva Angerona) – the solstice; and the 23rd, the Larentalia (Larentia) – the burial of darkness and end of the yuletide. We will be busy and celebrating without a kitchen as ours is in the midst of being re-done. Timing! One goes with the flow – bumps, submersions and all.

But my yuletide wish is for an increase in collective awareness and enlightenment. May we save our planet while we still can! And may we savour the gods-given life of which we and all are a part! May it be a happy time for everyone, and may our sun be reborn!