Friday, 24 October 2008

Goddess of the Week: Pomona

The Bad Witch's Goddess of the Week is Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruitful orchards. She is particularly associated with apples.

The Feast of Pomona fell on November 1, after the harvest, and involved games such as apple bobbing as well as enjoying food and drink made from apples. Some pagans connect the old Feast of Pomona with modern-day Halloween or Samhain because that also traditionally involves apple bobbing, drinking mulled cider and eating baked apples.

Pomona is also a goddess associated with springtime. The description of Pomona on http://www.godchecker.com/states states:

"POMONA: Roman Goddess of the fruitful Tree of Life. Much favoured by modern Numinists. Every spring she helps VERTUMNUS graft the vine of the ego to the tree of the soul. It must be some godly cross-breeding experiment."

England celebrates National Apple Day this year on Sunday, 26 October. In London there is a autumn harvest celebration combining ancient seasonal customs and contemporary festivities as part of Borough Market's Apple Day Festival taking place at Shakespeare's Globe, Bankside and Borough Market, Southwark, London, SE1 9DT from noon to 4pm. It is a free event. For more details visit http://www.thelionspart.co.uk/octoberplenty/


Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomona
http://www.geocities.com/medea19777/samhain.html
The Concise Mythological Dictionary
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica.html
http://www.godchecker.com/
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/08/apple-harvest.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/07/apple-seeds.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/05/apple-blossom.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2008/01/dancing-in-orchards.html

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