Re: The Young Son and the Sun's Standing Searles Fri Dec 22 13:58:32 2000 I was also recently considering the ways that Lithuanians celebrate at this time of the year. They hold festivities for three days at the Winter Solstice. The importance of their customs to us as Celts and Druids is that they have the oldest existing Indo-European language in Europe. They also resisted becoming officially Christian until the end of the 14th century (far longer than any other European culture). Even then, they still honored their Pagan deities during the festivals. Today in the new freedom that has come to their homeland, these Pagan observences are practiced and universally accepted by most everyone in Lithuania as a part of their folk heritage (if nothing else). Maybe those of us who are Celtic can be open to fostering an environment where folk custom and practice is honored and practised by both Christian and Pagn in today's Western societ?*p*This idea of three days and folk practice appeals to my Druidic nature :-) Maybe an official ruling and setting of exactly when and where the Sun's standing occurred might have required three Druids on three separate days to achieve a consensus for this importan calendrical date (after all, I consider that the fire festivals fall exactly between the solitices and equinoxes,except as adjusted by the presence of the Full Moon). This correlation between independent observers might also have been required for the day of the New Moon (in a similar manner to how the lunar based Muslin calendar was synchronized until recently). *p*At any event, there are marvels and important events occurring in the Skie and on the Lands around us. Maybe the currents and flows of the Seas of consciousness and subconscious mind alike can be synchronized within each of us to better serve the needs of both People and Nature alike? I'd like to think that we each touch one another more completely at these special times, through thought, word and deed. When we consider that the most powerful of our deities are symbolized by the rulingheavenly bodies and the Wheel of the Year itself, how can we feel otherwise than to rejoice in being a community and a family?*p*Happiest day of the Sun's Standing everyone!*p*Searles Re: The Young Son and the Sun's Standing TopazOwl 770 Fri Dec 22 12:27:44 2000