A Look Back at Thanksgiving 2012

If you’ve been following this blog for quite a while, you’ve probably seen mention of where I’m from and if you’re new, I’ll simply state this: I am an American. That means Thursday, this past week, was our Thanksgiving Day. Now, while this is a secular holiday, I have incorporated some of my religious practice into the day. The ancient Greeks didn’t have religion as we know it. They had life. The Theoi were such an integral part of daily life as was the worship of them that it wasn’t necessary to set a specific few hours every week aside for devotions to them. It was in everything. It was your life.

So I saw no reason to exclude the Theoi from this occasion, no matter how secular the celebration. This year my husband and I played host to seven other people for dinner. Some of them were family by blood, some of them family by choice, all of them cherished. On this day I spent a good eight hours in the kitchen, the modern hearth, and prepared, served, ate, and cleaned up the meal.

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The Delphic Maxims – 4. Respect your parents (Γονεις αιδου)

Back on track with my blogging through the Maxims, I find this one a personal struggle right now. I’ve always tried to live a good life. I’ve always tried to be respectful both to and in regards to my parents. My father, though, has been a fountain of disappointment and broken promises in my life since as far back as I can remember. He does what is right by him first and foremost, with little regard to those around him.

Of Death and Things

I just made a long post on Facebook about how cynical I am getting about life and its purpose. For those of you that don’t have me on Facebook, I’ll share it here:

Hekate’s Deipnon

So, I’ve made a pretty epic decision regarding my journey through Hellenismos. Most Hellenes follow the standardized calendar put out by one of two agencies online which is based of the Athenian calendar and the dates and times the cycles happen in Athens. Now, this is both practical and impractical at the same time.

First of all, my lunar calendar is different based on my geographical location -at least I think that’s how it works, and so when it’s the new moon in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA it’s not quite the new moon in Athens, Greece. Second of all, while the start of the new month happens with the new moon over Athens both frequently cited online Athenian calendars are a bit off from one another and can’t totally agree when these new moon dates are. Thirdly, if during the Hellenic period, a Hellene was traveling a vast difference away, they probably weren’t deciding when the new moon was based on some paper calendar and static date counts. They probably look at the sky at night and kept track of where it was in its waning cycle.

So, I’m going to deviate from the published calendar online and base it on my region. It’s only off by a day or two. Yesterday was my Deipnon based on when the new moon was in my area of the world. It feels more right for me to do it that way, so that’s what I’m doing.