Lupercalia, the February 15th purification ritual of ancient Rome has come and gone. The thought.com website says that today we celebrate it with the hearth goddess, Vesta. The month was originally known as Februalia, It is still a celebration for modern Pagans today, and is considered part of their spiritual journey.
As children we were taught that pagan beliefs were non-religious beliefs. Modern Paganism today is a collective term for new religious movements influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, North Africa and the Near East.
Does February have any other distinctions?
February frequently occurs in lists of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language.
The Americans have trouble with the word February too – last year, a press release from the White House consistently spelt it as Feburary.
Much Ado About Nothing is the only Shakespeare play that mentions February.
February is the only month that can pass with no full moon. This occurred in 2018.
As February closes and Martch starts, we move into the ancient Romans' New Year. March is packed with familiar holidays and events: daylight saving time, celebrations of Pi Day on 3/14, St. Patrick's Day, the Vernal Equinox and the start of Spring occur, and this year, we celebrate Easter.
The budget news that made me smile is the reopening of the Kingston prison farms, closed by the Harper government as a cost-saving measure. There have been protests outside the prison every week for the past 8 years. They vowed to remain there until "the cows come home." There is a long article HERE.
The snow drops, snow crocuses, winter aconites, witch hazel and pussy willows are blooming. These miniature daffodils were in the conservatory at RBG.
St. Catharines participated in the Women's March on Washington yesterday. The question I searched on today was: how big was this march? There were estimates of 2 million world-wide. It turns out that the question itself has an interesting story. The estimating of numbers turns out to be contentious:
"The National Park Service stopped giving official estimates ever since a dispute about how many attended a Million Man March in 1995. The Park Service was threatened with a lawsuit when they estimated 400,000 showed up to the Million Man March, while organizers believed that one million were there. After that, they stopped publicly releasing estimates. Now, estimates are given by law enforcement officials or federal officials, or organizers."
Our weather dominated yesterday. We don't get fog that often so I spent some time driving around and took a few pictures. It looks like today provides the opportunity as well.
I found a picture of a tower in San Francisco where there is a 3-dimensional fog shadow. "The thin fog was just dense enough to be illuminated by the light that passed through the gaps in a structure or in a tree. As a result, the path of an object shadow through the "fog" appears darkened. In a sense, these shadow lanes are similar to crepuscular rays, which are caused by cloud shadows, but here, they're caused by an object shadows.(The description was provided by Dr. Andy Young.)"
Our fog images were taken at Prudhomme's Landing yesterday. The first looks towards the Lake - the fog obscures everything, giving a bleak sensibility. The second picture looks towards the west. The QEW is on the left and the hotel complex would have been on the right of the picture. Again, the lights rising above a barren landscape speak of destruction and desolation.
The floral picture is our Winter flower, kale, found yesterday in downtown St. Catharines and elevated to the starry night.
