Solstice

philosopher Aristotle observed the shadow of the moon during a lunar eclipse and realized that it was curved. In the 3rd century BCE, Eratosthenes observed the ancient city of Syene during the summer solstice at noon and noticed that the sun was directly overhead. He knew that during the summer solstice in Alexandria, Egypt, a tall tower would act as a shadow in the city. So, he took advantage of this occurrence and calculated the circumference of the planet and came to the conclusion that the…

She resumed her preparations for the Summer Solstice ritual. Normally, at the lesser Sabbat of Litha, it was common to seek the Goddess's blessing upon earth's bounty and protection for one's home. With the veils between the worlds of light and dark at their thinnest, a witch has the charge to maintain…

The Boondocks has always been one of my favorite cartoons on television; a new episode was released called “A Huey Freeman Christmas”. The main character Huey is offered the opportunity to direct the schools Christmas play, however he decides to protest Jeus as an African American. The administration, who insists that Jesus should not be black; was protested by Huey. Eventually, they grant him permission to do so; he then titles the play “The Adventures of Black Jesus”. This episode influenced…

The Sun Dance, most critical religious function of the Plains Indians of North America and, for itinerant people groups, an event when generally autonomous groups assembled to reaffirm their fundamental convictions about the universe and the otherworldly through customs of individual and group give up. It is a service rehearsed diversely by a few North American Indian Nations, yet a significant number of the functions have highlights in like manner, including moving, singing and drumming, the…

The Prophecy Comes True Percy was granted a quest, a quest so treacherous he was not expected to come back. Zeus’ Master Bolt was stolen, and they’re supposed to return it. Percy is the son of Poseidon, which brings him hero’s fate because Poseidon is not aloud to have children. He took along two friends to accompany him, Grover and Annabeth. Luke gave them magical flying shoes to help them along there way. The oracle told them four specific things that Percy will happen on, or after his…

and Zeus. The book primarily takes place in Camp Half Blood. This book is about Zeus’s lightning bolt getting stolen by Luke. The problem in this book is Zeus’s lightning bolt gets stolen and Percy has a quest to find the bolt before the summer solstice. When Percy is on the quest he has to take a taxi, car, and bus from New York to Los Angeles to get to the Underworld. He has to go to the Underworld to talk to Hades about who stole the bolt. When he goes to the Underworld the bolt magically…

The hero's journey is made up of many parts, all of this is used to portray the hero's quest where they wander into an adventure. Sometimes it's thought this is only portrayed in literature wrote in the ancient culture, but it can also be found in the modern books such as The Odyssey. Books like Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is an example. The ordinary world is when the character is introduced to an uneasy, uncomfortable, environment where he or she is introduced to the…

In America they would gather to celebrate Thanksgiving and they will do so at the dinner table. The meal, with roots in the ancient traditions of harvest festivals and in the religious fervor of the Puritans who settled here, has grown into a secular feast of abundance. Whether taking place in Duluth, Minnesota or at the Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, the American tradition is to roast a turkey and eat it along with a slew of side dishes, all in the company of family and friends. So here’s the…

He was inspired to write this melody from a short story by Nikolai Gogol called St. John's Eve. The plot of the story refers to the witches' sabbath, which occurs on a bald mountaintop each year near the summer solstice. This was a hard piece for Mussorgsky to write because he often had ideas that he couldn't get out on paper. He took two old opera ideas, incorporated the story of St. John's Eve, and created an orchestral tone poem called "Night on Bald Mountain"…

“liberating force” as seen with the story of the Oak and Holly King, which is a symbolization of regenerative forces versus the forces of death (Green 132). The two kings engage in battle that reaches climaxes biannually during the midsummer and winter solstices. Spiral dances during sabbat also happen to symbolize rebirth (Buckland 255). Reincarnation is used to explain what happens to someone’s spirit after their physical body has passed. Some Wiccans state that after death, souls travel to…