Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts

Monday, January 08, 2018

Winter 2018

winter ford, copyright ©2018 kpn / kathryn price nicdhana

Climate change is wreaking havoc on the coastlines, with friends near the seas experiencing unprecedented flooding and freezing. I hope everyone is staying warm and dry, and that you had a good Hogmanay, Winter Solstice, or whatever you and yours celebrate. I've mostly been active on Twitter and other platforms, but will be blogging more at some point.

I had actually been trying to spend less time on Twitter, when our days leading up to Hogmanay were disrupted in a most bizarre fashion by, Our Strange, Strange Holidays Arguing with Cher, yes, THAT Cher.

There was also some brief, but confused coverage on sites like Jezebel, and other Entertainment media, who got it wrong. But thankfully they updated the story once more comments came in (and, ahem, the author actually read the tweets rather than just skimming and rushing out a scoop). They've also embedded the Storify now, and our comments clarifying that there really was no real apology, only a sort-of one, way too little, way too late. And of the backhanded kind that leaves you scratching your head and asking, "Is that all there is?": Non-Native Jezebel Writer Attempts to Make Sense of a Celebrity Pretendian Meltdown. AKA, Native Twitter on a Random Friday.

Yeah, really not how I planned on spending New Year's Eve. Exhausting and exasperating, as these things tend to be. But when they come at you, you have to stand with your people.  Things have settled out more now. As much as they ever do.

Be well, everyone. May the racists, trolls, and racist trolls go back into hibernation. Slàinte Mhath.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Lá Fhéile Macha

Moladh Mhacha for Gaol Naofa

As seen in our Michaelmas video, the feast of St. Michael on Sep. 29 preserves many seasonal Gaelic customs, though they are mostly the same as ones observed at Lá Lúnasa or Oíche Shamhna in other regions. Pre-Christian deities whose qualities were inherited by Michael include Macha and Manannán.

Manannán already has his own festival at Midsummer. While many of us honour Taillte at Lúnasa, and the Morrígan at Samhain, perhaps Macha also deserves a festival of her own: Lá Fhéile Macha.


Like Michael, Macha is also associated with horses and the fields, and the traditional horse races held at this time could be dedicated to her, along with the swimming of the horses, the walking or riding the boundaries of the fields, and the baking and offering of the bannock/strùthan.

The Cailleach is also relevant now due to the equinox sunrise illuminating the inner chamber at Sliabh na Caillí/Loughcrew in Ireland. The last sheaf of the harvest is called the Cailleach, and the Cailleach an Dudain ("The Old Woman of the Mill") dance is also traditional at this time.

For the traditional basis of the festival in the living Gaelic cultures, see Annie's article at Tairis: 'Là Fhèill Mìcheil'

Which deities we honour at these festivals can vary a bit with our differing bioregions, as well as which deities we have more affinity with and other factors that affect our households. Whoever you honour at this festival, we wish you a good one!

Photo collage from Creative Commons images by efilpera (horses)  and Duarte JH (field)
Text excerpted from 'Moladh Macha'
Adapted from 'Moladh Moire' [257] by KPN for Gaol Naofa
For the full prayer visit our meme page

Feel free to share this meme, as long as you link back to either our meme page or our facebook post.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Gaol Naofa Memeage

Those of you who follow us on social media may have seen the memes we've been creating. We've added a page to the site to archive the ones we've done so far, and where we'll be posting more in the future: Gaol Naofa Memes. We've been working with a mixture of proverbs, prayers, triads, and quatrains from various Goidelic sources, doing our bit for language preservation and providing links for further info. For regular updates follow us at our Gaol Naofa Facebook page and Twitter account.
 
Gaol Naofa – New Moon
Original image: Dawn Perry