[Sca-cooks] Bread recipe request (OOP)

[Terry Decker]

>> Considering that the Christians were willing to co-opt rituals from
anyone,
>> in my opinion, it is very likely that Celtic pagan rituals got scattered
>> temporally into the Christian religious calendar.  Lammas is a
first-fruits
>> thanksgiving, but it also celebrates St. Peter's deliverance from prison.
>> That latter point makes me think the feast may have been in the Christian
>> calendar before mugging a Celtic god for its harevest rites.  It might
also
>> be instructive to take a scholarly look at the worship of Ceres and
Demeter.
>
>*grin* I've been slowly tracking this for a while, and never did catch on
>to something that a relatively scholarly neopagan book suggest: the
>Demtrian cycle isn't the same as what we would think of as winter/summer.
>I'm going to do a lot more research on this. (I agree that the Wiccan
>dates are very odd and imposed from without on the calendar. But why those
>dates?)

The specific dates are probably tied to the Autumnal equinox, Lammas
preceding it and All Hallows following it.

A small but interesting point concerning Lammas and Lughnassad; Lammas is a
thanksgiving festival, celebrating the beginning of the harvest, Lughnassad
is a festival to propituate the gods into granting a good harvest.

>
>However, there was a Demetrian games in a Greek month that corresponds
>roughtly to July-August. However, that wasn't a harvest festival; probably
>because Greek barley was harvested in May. (Somebody remind me when winter
>wheat is harvested in North America?)

Thesmophoria roughly taking place on 11-13 of Pyanopsion (roughly
October-November, IIRC).  It celebrates the loss of Kore (Persephone) to the
underworld and marks the fall planting rather than harvest.  This was the
main rite of Demeter and was celebrated only by married women, so it was
definitely not a games.

Neopagan calendars tend to stick this in September as a harvest rite.  (They
seem to tie this to the Autumnal Equinox, which is completely wrong
according to the histroical evidence).

Celebrate planting the winter wheat (barley?) and celebrate the harvest in
the Spring when Kore returns.  BTW, there is an argument as to whether the
Roman festival Cerelia is a Spring or a Fall festival.

HAve fun chasing this.

Bear