The Minor Festivals and Valentine’s Day
After the chapter on Candlemas in The New Pagan’s Handbook Ron White inserted the following short, linked sections:
A Note on Minor Festivals
There are many local and regional festivals. We, as good pagans, may wish to honour them as part of our year’s pilgrimage. I cannot list them all or try to explain their significance to our theme. But we can look at them carefully and ask one valid question. Is this rite alive, or merely a picturesque survival? If the latter why not indulge it? But be wary of nostalgia for a past that after all was a long way from paradise. Look into your hearts for the inner meanings of such rites and survivals. Even in customs still carried out only the Gods know why, some profit may be found by pondering on them. We may come up with some interesting answers, but any answers must carry meaning for us now, not merely for folk historians. We should not use them as escape hatches into a world of antique fantasy.
So in considering Minor Festivals I have chosen one for study which has a present and growing importance, and in future, may have more.
Valentine’s Day
In these days when the Goddess and the Gods are at last returning to their ancient power, even the minor festivals begin to grow in stature and popularity.
Valentine’s to most is a jolly frolic of a day; and “How bad” as a friend of mine used to say. But what does it really mean to a pagan, and wherein does its significance lie?
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