Shavuot

Shavuot is a two-day Jewish holiday that always starts fifty days after Passover, during the Hebrew month of Sivan. It’s the Jewish First Fruits Festival, when the spring wheat is harvested in Israel- a time of thanksgiving for the grains and fruits of the earth. This is the beginning of the wheat harvest in Israel, which continues throughout the summer and ends with Sukkot in the fall. Shavuot also celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jews.

Agenda Today:
1. Decorate the house:
In order to maintain a link with the agricultural nature of the festival, I decorate the house with flowers and greens.

2. Make cheese cake:

Cheese cake and cheese blintzes are traditional treats on Shavuot, because of a passage in the Song of Songs, "honey and milk under your lips." It implies that the words of the Torah energize our spirits as milk and honey strengthen and sweeten our bodies.

I made my first ever cheesecake today! I used the recipe at Simply Recipes, and it turned out almost perfect. I have to admit, though, that my foil wasn't wide enough, and even though I wrapped the pan in 4 layers of foil, some water did get in, and the crust was ever so slightly soggy around the outside edges.

3. First Fruits Meal:
Menu- Lettuce salad (from our garden), salmon fillet, new potatoes (from the Farmer's Market), and cheese cake!

Prayer:
Barukh atah AdonAI,
eloHAYnu melekh ha’olam,
she-hakol nih'yeh bi-d'varo.

Blessed art Thou, our God of the Universe,
by whose word everything comes into being.

4. Read the Ten Commandments:
One Shavuot custom is to stay awake the entire night of Shavuot studying texts, singing songs, telling stories, and then reading the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17) at the first rays of the sun. (I did not stay up all night.)


1. I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt.
2. You shall have no other gods before Me.
3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. Do not murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not bear false witness.
10. Do not covet.

New Peony Moon

Tonight is the new moon; the Chinese call the fourth new moon the Peony Moon. Peonies are the flower of riches, romance, and honor, called sho yu in Chinese, which means "most beautiful." Their lush blooms are an omen of good fortune, and also a happy marriage.

This is the season of blossoming into abundance; I open myself to the receipt of gifts, and try to be fully awake to all that each moment holds. 

The new moon is my monthly time for “seeding” intentions. I write down what I hope to focus on in the next 30 days or so, and then give my ideas a period of gestation, like seeds in the soil, before I take action. Having this regular time each month to focus my goals has helped to give me clarity of purpose.

Beautiful peonies growing in my neighborhood.

Agenda for today: 
1. Journal: 

What might give my life more wholeness?
What am I hungry for?
What are my next steps in life?
How might I be more awake to the gifts each moment offers?

Butterfly lavender in my front yard.

List my intentions for the month of May in these areas-
Self, Friends and Family, Teaching, Artwork, Writing, Home and Garden, Work/Business, and Volunteer work.



2. New Moon Meditation:
Light a small white candle. Center, and feel myself fill with thankfulness for all I have now in my life.

3. Plan: 

As the moon waxes, I expand-- plant seeds, make connections, and begin new projects. Today I will plan my first small steps.

4. Plan a garden party: 

In China this is the start of the season of garden parties, especially for the purpose of peony viewing. I don't have any peonies in my garden any longer, but I do hope to have friends over soon to have tea and cookies in my garden.

Rogation-tide

Rogation-tide begins on the Sunday five weeks after Easter and continues for four days, through Ascension Day. It began as a very early Christian tradition of singing psalms and chanting prayers of petition for God's protection on crops, beasts and people. 

In medieval England parishioners would walk around the parish boundaries, bearing a cross and banners, and asking for God to bless the crops, livestock, and fishing holes. The procession was called 'beating the bounds'; before maps were commonplace, it helped everyone to remember the parish boundaries.

These boundary walks were also known as ‘gang days’ from the Anglo Saxon word ‘gangen’- to go. The parish would bond together as a community, and offer charity to poor people they met along the way, and the priest would stop to preach at each prominent tree or landmark.

Now Rogation-tide is celebrated more as a time to honor the gift of creation of the land and waters, to offer thanksgiving for the labors that feed us, and to pray for stewardship of the earth. It’s a good time for me to look at my neighborhood and my community with open eyes, and consider how I can help to support those who work to feed me, and how I can be a better steward of the land.

Agenda today:

Sadie in front of our neighborhood store, with large black walnut tree.

1. Beat the bounds:

A parish is church territory, but I use it to mean the land that I feel responsible for, my home-neighborhood. 

The bounds of my parish extend roughly eight blocks square, from our neighborhood store to the north, our park to the east, the drainage creek to the south, and the school I teach at to the west.

I walked the bounds this morning with Sadie. This year I looked for trees of importance, and stopped to say these prayers:

Beautiful tulip poplar at our park.

For rains and fruitful seasons, and your blessing upon the lands and waters, 

I pray to you, Oh God. 

Huge Oregon white oak behind the fairgrounds.

For all who work upon the earth and seas to bring forth food for all your creatures, 

I pray to you, Oh God. 

View up Amazon creek.

Small (possibly) dogwood tree at my school.

For all who care for the earth, the water, and the air, that the riches of your creation may abound from age to age, 

I pray to you, Oh God. 

Amen.

2. Bless my garden: 

When I got home from my boundry walk, I went to my garden to ask blessing on my seeds, animals, trees, and beds-

Great Spirit, Creator of all things and Giver of all life, let your blessing be upon this garden, and grant that it may serve. Amen.

3. Research: 

Read up on farm-worker and small farmer issues, as well as local environmental issues. 

What service am I called to do?

4. Make Rammalation Biscuits:

While technically these are days of fasting, in England the tradition was to gather after the Rogation Procession to drink "ganging beer" and eat "rammalation biscuits." 

Unfortunately, no one knows what rammalation biscuits are- possibly a cookie to eat while you "perambulate”? I decided to make a classic English Digestive Biscuit, and they are very yummy.

Ingredients: 

• 3/4-c. whole-wheat flour 
• 1/3 c. butter, chilled 
• 1-c. rolled oats 
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda 
• 1/4 c. raw sugar 
• 2-3 Tbsp. cold milk 

Yield: 10 cookies-

1- Combine the flour and oats in a mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives. Add the soda, sugar, and salt. 

2- Stir in 2-Tbsp. milk, or a bit more, and knead in the bowl to make dough that holds together well. 

3- Flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic or wax paper, and chill for 30 minutes. (This resting time will make the biscuits more tender and crisp.) 



4- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Roll out the dough until it is a bit more than 1/8-inch thick, and cut into any desired shape. Traditional digestives are about 2-1/2-inches round. 

5- Place on ungreased cookie sheets, prick evenly with a fork and bake until pale gold, about 12 to 15 minutes.

6- Serve with beer!

Full Flower Moon

Tonight is the full moon, my monthly time for action and release: I look again at the “seeds of intention” I planted 2 weeks ago at the new moon and decide on my next steps to take; I take those steps; then I release my expectations in order to clear space for new ideas and new intentions.

This moon is called the Flower Moon; it's a month of blossoming and the promise of abundance. The flowers in my garden are a delicate and beautiful reminder for me to be a gentle and honest person. I open my heart, give my gifts with love, and receive with sincerity the abundant gifts others offer me.

Agenda for today:

1. Altar:

It's time to discern what to put on my altar for May. (For my thoughts on altars see About Altars). I generally keep it simple and choose only things that speak to me and feed me, and reveal what I believe in. I ask, what quality of Spirit do I want to invoke? 

Today I add- 

• a small wreath of grapevine, for joy.
• an iris, for hope.
• a Matryoshka doll, for motherhood.

Each month at the full moon I put a motto or quote on my altar, to ponder. This month:

We are born of love; Love is our mother.

~Rumi

I also add new candles, in colors that symbolize what I want to focus on. In May I add-

an orange candle, for joy.

2. Journal:

Review the intentions I set 2 weeks ago, at the new moon. 

Do these goals all still seem vital? What are my next steps?

Write about what brings me joy, contentment, serenity, satisfaction, and harmony. 

How can I invite more of this into my life? How can I develop my creative and playful qualities?

3. Practice at my theme:

My theme this month is joy. When I stay on the middle road, when I am being REAL, when I have deep harmony and a foundation of personal strength, then I will find joy. My intentions:

• Be mindful of the abundance and wonder that surrounds me.
• Enjoy time in the garden.
• Allow time for spontaneity.
• Play with painting new subject matter. 

4. Take Action:

The full moon is a time to celebrate life, stay up late, see friends, exercise harder, and be more creative and outgoing. The crazy full moon energy builds and builds; it’s best to acknowledge it so it doesn’t throw me off balance. This surge of energy allows me to take action on intentions I set two weeks ago. Today I will plan the steps to take to complete some projects... planting zinnias, tomatoes, basil, and peppers.

May Day

May Day, on May 1st, is a spring celebration of the blooming flowers. Maying is what we call the things we do to celebrate this beautiful month- going on picnics, picking flowers, dancing around a maypole, and sharing our love.

May Day is an ancient holiday stemming from the festival of Floralia which honored Flora, the Flourishing One, the Roman goddess of spring. Flora is a bright nature goddess who makes trees bloom- she is a “lady of pleasure", but also a symbol of motherhood. She wears a garland of flowers in her hair, and in her right hand she holds a columbine, for fertility. In England a a young woman is chosen as May Queen, representing Flora, and is crowned with hawthorn blossoms. She is often accompanied by a May King.

Floralia celebrated Flora’s virgin or "flower" aspect, the promise of the fruit to come later, and the sweetness of new life, both physical and spiritual. It was the custom to wear green in honor of the Earth's new green mantle. It was also a time for sexual freedom, to symbolize nature's fertility.

In some places, May Day celebrations still begin at sunset on 30 April. May Day eve is called Beltane or, in Germany, Walpurgisnacht, named for the English missionary Saint Walpurga (ca. 710–777)

Agenda:
1. Prepare a Beltane fire:
Beltane means "fire of Bel"; Bel is a Celtic Sun God. On Beltane the Celts would build two large Bel Fires, lit from the nine sacred woods: Birch for the goddess, oak for the god, rowan for life, willow for death, hawthorn for purity, hazel for wisdom, apple for love, grapevine for joy, and fir for immortality.

The Bel Fire was an invocation to Bel, asking Him to bring His blessings and protection to the tribe. It celebrated the return of fruitfulness to the earth. The ashes were smudged on faces and scattered in the fields, to heal and purify.


















We will have a fire (we love our fires!), but probably not until the weekend. Today I gathered oak, grape, birch, fir, apple, and hawthorn from our yard in preparation. (I don't know where to find the hazel, rowan and willow, so wisdom, life and death may be unrepresented.)

2. Bring in the May: 
Hawthorn is called the May bush, because it blooms now in England; ours is just on the verge. Cutting the may blossom symbolises the beginning of new life. I will hang a sprig of hawthorn at our front door to protect and purify our home.

3. May baskets: 
When I was young, my siblings and I used to run around the neighborhood on May Day morning with flowers. We would put the flowers on the mat, ring the doorbell and run and hide. It was scary and exciting!

Today I will give someone flowers anonymously.

4. Make Tippaleivät (Finnish May Day Fritters):

Ingredients:

• canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2-c. milk
• 1 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt,
• powdered sugar

1. Fill a heavy pot or deep fryer to about 6" deep with oil, and bring to 375ºF. 

2. Whisk together egg and sugar lightly, then stir in milk.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and stir into the batter until lumps are removed. 


Transfer batter to a pastry tube with a small tip, or a zip-lock bag. Cut a small hole in one corner.

4. Lower a metal soup ladle into the oil until the ladle is about halfway filled with oil. 

Quickly pipe the batter in to the ladle in a lacy criss-crossed pattern until it's halfway full.

5. Lower the ladle completely into the oil; the fritter will float immediately to the top. 



Allow to brown until golden and then flip over to brown the other side (about 15 seconds per side).












6. Remove the fritter and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.



5. Dance Maypole Dances!
Last year I set up a maypole and my art class students danced, but I didn't get photos. It was very disorganized- we could have used some practice. I will try it again someday, but we don't have time this year.

My friend Georgia and I made ribbons from 4-inch strips of cloth sewn together, and attached one end of each to a plastic salsa container lid. We rolled the ribbons up for easy storage. When it was time to dance, I nailed the plastic lid onto the top of my clothesline pole, and unrolled the ribbons. That part worked very well.

Here are the dances we tried. The goal is to wind the ribbons up, then unwind with no tangles, and have fun doing it:

Simple Dance: Everyone pick up a ribbon and face the same direction. Start the music and all dance around the maypole in the same direction until no length of ribbon is left, then reverse your steps and unwind the maypole. If you unwind without any knots you have successfully completed your first dance.

The Gypsy Tent: Make two circles with taller people on the outside ring and shorter people inside, and each person holding a ribbon in the right hand. Start the music- the outer group stands still, and inner group people dance around outside of their partner and then inside around the next person. To unwind, reverse the moves.

Grand Chain: Pairs face each other, and hold ribbon in the hand furthest from the maypole. The hand nearest to the maypole is used to guide the ribbon. Start the music. Pairs move in opposite directions and alternate under and over until the ribbons are again exhausted. To unwind, remember to pass your last person first. Dance at a constant pace.

There are many variations of this dance, with each group taking a turn to move or with one group passing two of the other group before dancing around them. You can experiment.

Our hawthorn tree.