Friday 11 February 2011

Festival of the Week: Parentalia

This Sunday, 13 February, is Parentalia - the Roman festival at which people in classical times honoured their dead parents.

Families would gather among the tombs of their ancestors and make offerings of grain and wine to their dead loved ones. On this day, temples were closed, marriages were forbidden and public officials took a day off work.

However, this weekend is also the anniversary of the death of Gerald Brosseau Gardner, on 12 February, 1964. Gerald Gardner is often called The Father of Modern Wicca, and this festival would be an appropriate time for all Wiccans to honour him as their spiritual father - as well as visiting the graves of their own ancestors who have passed through the veil of death, or remembering them in other ways.

Links:
Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parentalia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gardner
http://pagancalendar.co.uk/
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/12/pagan-eye-where-witches-walked.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/09/day-for-gerald.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2010/09/charge-of-goddess-conference-2010.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/01/wicca-witchcraft-finding-out-basics.html

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