Imbolc

Imbolc is a Celtic Gael originated tradition; one of the eight Sabbaths of the Pagans. It is one of the four Fire Feasts.
The aborigines of Ireland had already kept it in evidence as the celebration of Goddess Brigid - goddess of the poetry, healing and smithcraft -; in the Gaelic folklore it appears as a tribute to Goddess Cailleach.
There have already been some hints of Imbolc in the ancient Celtic manuscripts.
This is the time for the renewal of the nature; the Pagans cheers the awakening of the Goddess (Brigid, Aradia, Athena, Gaia, Inanna) after giving birth, the rebirth of the Sun - the God, the Celtic Lugh.
Some places, 1st February was held as the celebration of the nursing ewes, a fertility feast.

At Imbolc, people usually have held the ritual of the celebration at dusk, and lighting the fire have constituted an important part of it - the flames have symbolised the light, the warmth, and, at the same time, the inner enlightenment. That is why the other namings of Imbolc are: Candlemas, Feast of Torches, Feast of Lights or Celebration of Snowdrops.

Its symbols: switch broom, candle, white flowers.

Traditional food: pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, poppy cake, diary food, spicy wine.

Yule

The Winter Solstice has been celebrated since millennia by the believers of the Pagan religions (from the Chaldeans, Romans and Celts through the Scandinavian and German people to the modern Wiccan witches). According to the tradition, this time the God (the son and lover of the Goddess) revives; and brings light, warmth and joy to the Earth. Hence the days become longer and longer; the resting energies of the nature begin to awake. On the day of the Winter Solstice - just like on the other seven Sabbaths, on the days of the Power - magical rituals are more efficient; the borderline between the visible and invisible world is thinner than on other days.

The meaning of the word Yule is "wheel", which refers to the cycle of life; in Chaldean language, it means "little child", "baby".

During this holiday, the Pagans decorate their flats with fruit larded with cloves, evergreen plants, mistletoe, holly, red or golden candles, and stand a Yule tree - a living, evergreen tree, whose star decorations symbolize the sun, the light. Wiccan believes use only natural decortions - bars of cinnamon, walnut with golden smoke, things made of straw.

Traditional food: oil seeds, apple, ginger.

In Anglo-Saxon countries, this day people drank apple wine or ale from a wooden goblet or told toasts to the Yule tree. It has been a tradition staying up during the longest night of the year and waiting for the sunrise.

Germans remembered their forebears and ancestors on the celebratin of Yule.

In the Scandinavian culture the Yule goblin (Jultomten, Jule-nissen), riding a he-goat, is the equivalent of Santa Claus known in our culture. In case of Northern people, Yuletide, the farewell of the old year and the beginning of the new year, takes twelve days.

Formerly, the celebration was known as Saturnalia by Romans: the name of the reviving God has been Saturnus here; in the Ind-Persian-Babilonian cultures his name was Mithras.

In Scotland, the celebration of the New Year is called Hogmanay: Scottish people lit bonefires, decorate their home with juniper, and partake processions. Besides, the habit of the First Footer is a part of the tradition (they welcomed a man, possibly a dark haired one, as their first visitor). Traditions connected with fire have been significant, which strengthens the Pagan nature of the celebration.

Samhain - All Hallow's Eve

It is only known by a few people that the celebration of All Hallow's Eve has got a tradition of thousands of years. Its origin is much older than the cheerful habit of Halloween going to one house from another, and much older than even the Christian All Hallow's Eve itself. It has been existing since thousands of years.
It is not surprising, as All Hallow's Eve is actually a Pagan holiday.

The first memories of the Pagan (nature worshipping, polytheist) religions remained from the Palaeolithic times; later the tradition went on in the ancient Egypt, the cultures alongside the Nile and Chaldea.
Different kinds of Pagan beliefs spread all over the world - on Eastern Islands and Hawaii, just like in Asia or both in North and South America (Mayan, Aztecan,Toltecan Indian cultures). In Europe, the most well-known myths are the ones of the Scandinavian, German and Celtic religions.
During medieval times, with the conquest of Christianity, the practicing of Pagan religions became unwelcomed (Hungarian Samanistic culture was thoroughly destroyed - an invaluable knowledge and values were lost). During these centuries, the Order of the Rose Cross, later the Order of the Temple, then Golden Dawn kept up the ideas of esoteric and Pagan beliefs - it is true that mostly they could do so only in secret).

All Hallow's Eve - by its original name, Samhain -, alongside with three other Celtic celebrations (Imbolc, Beltane, Lugnasad), is one of the most ancient holidays of the world; on these holidays, since many centuries, people has been remembering of the turn of the seasons.
According to the Celts's beliefs, Samhain - by its other names: Celebration of the Lamps or Celebration of the Apples - signs the end of the year and the beginning of the new year; that day, the time stops, the evening of Samhain belongs neither one nor the other year. Besides, this day signs the departure of the Pagan God, who will be reborn as the son of the Goddess only at the celebration of Yule (the Winter Solstice, about 21st December) .
In certain areas, people vaticinated this day, or tried to oust the adverse beings of the spiritual world. Besides, Samhain is the time for compt: the wheel of the time turned again, people reflect the events of the last year and let their memories go peacefully, so that to look forward from that time.
The traditional food of Samhain is apple, as this fruit is a symbol of fertility and beauty, it belongs to Aphrodite or Venus.
Other traditional food: corn, hazel, walnut, honey-cake with ginger.

World Animal Day - 4th October

WWF:
http://wwf.org/

Greenpeace:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/

Born Free Foundation (saving lions, tigers, leopards, polar bears, dolphins, elephants):
http://www.bornfree.org.uk/

PETA Animal Protection Foundation:
http://www.peta.org/

ARKive program - Online Noah's Ark by Sir David Attenborough:
http://www.arkive.org/

Saving endangered big cats:
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/

Saving snow leopards:
http://snowleopard.org/

On fourth October we celebrate the world day of the kindest and most loyal friends of humans. This time it might come to our mind that animals deserve love and respect; we are responsible for their lives and welfare, after all, they are just as living beings as ourselves: they can feel, they can think, the difference is only that they do not express their thoughts by words. Animals make our lives more lovely and greater - who would not know how much affection is there in a heart of a purring, lithe cat, who would not have heard about the unprecedented loyalty and selflessness of a dog (which can be never got from a human)?

Fourth October - besides the birthday of my favourite Harry Potter character, Minerva McGonagall - is the feast of the patron saint of animals, the nature lover, Francis of Assisi, which was celebrated in 1931 in Italy for the first time. Its original purpose was the protection of the wild animals - nowadays, it is highly needed to pay attention to this subject, just like the keeping of livestock, or laboratory animals (it is better not to think about the circumstances which livestock have to live under).
By now, the protection of the pets turned into a great significance, too, maybe it became the most important part of the feast of 4th October.

Other world days of animal protection:
World Day for Laboratory Animals: 24th April
Day of Birds and Trees: 10th May
Homeless Animals Day: 16th August
World Farm Animal Day: 2nd October (the latter date is the birthday of the vegetarian Mahátma Gandhi)

Fortunately, torturing of animals is considered as a crime in most of the countries. It is also qualified as torturing if a person drives away a quadruped from their home because he or she lost interest in it.

Don't forget, we can also do a lot for our furry, feathery, scaly friends:

• By civilian initiation and cooperation we might organize "pet stroking" days in our habitations (during such events, lonely cats and dogs can find a owner)
• those animals who became superfluous, gift away via advertisements of magazines (and not wing them, like many people does)
• have them given the obligatory or not obligatory vaccinations (in cats's cases, too!)
• if we have our pets castrate, we did not have to think about what to do to the unwanted increment, less stray animal would be turned into the streets
• we might support homeless animal rescues, animal protection foundations
• we do not wear clothes made of fur
• we place a bird feeder to our window or garden during the months of the winter
• if we want to have our own pet, we might adopt one from a rescue
• if we experience any abuse - maybe in a case of a "reptile show" -, report it at the autonomy of the town which is represented as the location of the firm.

Mabon - Feast of the Autumn Equinox

Mabon, 21st September, is the celebration of the autumn equinox and the second harvest of the crops, one of the eight Pagan Sabbats. This day, day and night are equally long. The God prepares to leave this world to rebirth from his lover and mother, the Goddess, who feels the presence and the imminent coming of the God.
The word Mabon originates from the name of a Welsh deity, who is the god of youth, hunting, and love. Other namings: Meán Fómhair, Ingathering, Harvest Home.
Stones associated with the feast: lapis lazuli, carneol, sapphire.
Symbol of the Mabon is apple, crops, wine. Colours: red, brown.
Traditional food: crops, apple, nut, hazel-nut, potato, grapes.
This time, it is a tradition to take a walk in the nature, to gather fallen leaves.

Happy birthday Madonna

Happy birthday, beautiful lady

The most successful female performer of all time - who is undoubtedly Madonna - celebrates her birthday on this day, 16th August.

Madonna, being a bold, purposeful, strong-willed and obstinate wild child, has always been a perfect role model for every girl and woman who wants to make her way up. She dared do everything what a woman was accepted not to do, she always had the courage to defy the requirements of the hypocrite society.

She has been a top favourite star of pop music for almost three decades, and she isn't called the Queen of Pop for any reason. She doesn't care a hoot about malevolent requirements and refuses to retire (nowadays, when women over twenty years are said to be "not young anymore") and is still the very same hard-working perfectionist who she always had been, with her alluring appearance, cool blue eyes and worked-out, slim body. I do respect her for that.

Her achievement is still impressive. Her Four Minutes video (featuring Justin Timberlake) is one of the most often visited videos of YouTube with its 40 million hits. Not to mention her new contract with the Live Nation, which means she doesn't want to slow down in the next ten years.

As for Madonna's outrageous old self, she still kisses a female background dancer publicly anytime she wants to, and - in case we could believe the rumours - she got involved in a hot encounter with the well-built and handsome sportsman, Alex Rodriguez. The baseball player has fallen for the lady, which proves that he has an excellent taste with women. (I admit willingly that had I had a spouse, I would cheat him - or her - any day with Madonna.)

Lugnasad - celebration of the first harvest

Lugnasad (Lughnasadh) or Lammas, which falls on 1st August, is the celebration of the first harvest, one of the eight Sabbats of the Pagan religion, the first of the three harvest feasts; the beginning of the last quarter of the Celtic year. It marks the end of the summer and the beginning of the autumn. The inhabitants of the medieval England took in the crop harvest and the picked fruits to store for the winter this time; they gathered the herds from the fields, they thanked their deities for the crop.
During this period, the God - as his power fade more and more - prepares himself to leave the world so that to renew and return later. The Goddess is comforted by the tought that her lover will revive in spring and until that time, his life goes on in herself and in their common children. According to a Greek legend, Demeter (Ceres), the goddess of the crop and the cultivation, begins to search her ravished daughter, Persephone in this period (while the spring and the summer are the periods when she gets her daughter back). According to the Celtic cycle Lugnasad is the celebration of the death and revival of the Celtic sun and crop god Lugh (Mercure in the Roman culture); this is where the denomination comes from.
From this time, days become shorter and shorter, and nights become more and more cool.

Other names of the holiday: bread feast, Eve of August, Lambess, Lunasduinn in Celtic, while in Scottish its name is Lunasdál. The word Lugnasad means August in Celtic language.
Of all the elements, lead and tin are associated with Lugnasad. Its symbols are the bread, the crop. Its colours are green, gold, and yellow.
Traditional food: crops, strawberry, blackberry, acorn.
It is also a tradition to eat a fresh fruit during the ritual, and later to set its seeds.

A forthcoming Magneto movie

Another Marvel hero will star a forthcoming blockbuster. After the X-Men series and the new Wolverine movie, a Magneto-centric film is also in progress. According to the plans, it will be released in 2009.

X-Men Origins: Magneto is directed by David S. Goyer (Blade - Trinity; he also worked as a screenwriter on Batman - Dark Knight). We still don't know who will play Eric Lensherr (Magneto, who's superhuman ability is manipulating and control metal objects).
The film is about the afore-mentioned character's youth and his friendship with Charles Xavier, after surviving the second world war and discovering his abilities.

Photos of Florencia Tesouro

The beautiful Latina model, Florencia Tesouro was a contestant of a Miss Bikini pageant - on her own rights.

Sugarland is on the top of Billboard

The American country-pop group's third studio album, Love On The Inside is on the top of the Billboard 200 chart, replacing Miley Cyrus's Breakout.
The first single of the duo (All I Want To Do) was released in May, while the second one, Already Gone will be out in two weeks.

A film about Spiderman's enemy, Venom

Cartoon heroes has conquered the movie screen. While practically all the Marvel comic heroes are the main characters of some blockbusters, it is rumoured that a new film will be made starring Venom, Spiderman's rival.
After the somewhat limited success of the third Spiderman film in 2007, the makers of the production and the leaders of New Line Cinema Studio decided to give an own film of Spiderman's old enemy.

The character of Venom (Edward Brock) debuted in Marvel Comics books in 1988. Just like Spiderman, he has got superhuman strength and reflexes, and he is able to adhere to walls.
In the latest Spiderman movie he was played by Topher Grace. We still don't know whether the actor will characterize him again. The story of the Venom film will be written by Jacob Aaron Estes.