Seasonal festivities...in the equator?

[mydemand]

Hi all,

I live in Malaysia, which is right on the equator. The only seasons we have are the hot season and the rainy monsoon season (and the shopping season, which is a different matter altogether XD)

I find it hard to properly celebrate fetivities like Beltane and Yule because we don't have the four seasons here! How do I celebrate the nights and days getting longer/shorter if day & night are 12 hours long each every day?! And it makes no sense to talk about the leaves changing, the snow coming through or the sun blazing brighter, etc...because it doesn't happen.

Is there any way we can celebrate our own seasonal changes? Honour them in another way?

Thanks! :)

B*B, Tiara

[mucgwyrt]

Hi all,

I live in Malaysia, which is right on the equator. The only seasons we have are the hot season and the rainy monsoon season (and the shopping season, which is a different matter altogether XD)

I find it hard to properly celebrate fetivities like Beltane and Yule because we don't have the four seasons here! How do I celebrate the nights and days getting longer/shorter if day & night are 12 hours long each every day?! And it makes no sense to talk about the leaves changing, the snow coming through or the sun blazing brighter, etc...because it doesn't happen.

Is there any way we can celebrate our own seasonal changes? Honour them in another way?

Thanks! :)

B*B, Tiara

Definately! Do what is relevant to your own life, not someone elses! Celebrate whatever changes you have there - the rainy season beginning so that life can flourish, etc etc :)

[mydemand]

Definately! Do what is relevant to your own life, not someone elses! Celebrate whatever changes you have there - the rainy season beginning so that life can flourish, etc etc :)

Ah yay, thank you! I was always wondering about this.

Now if only the seasons would make its mind up instead of just springing itself on us unwarned :P hehe

B*B, Tiara

[Nantonos]

Hi all,

I live in Malaysia, which is right on the equator. The only seasons we have are the hot season and the rainy monsoon season (and the shopping season, which is a different matter altogether XD)

I find it hard to properly celebrate fetivities like Beltane and Yule because we don't have the four seasons here!

Its worth bearing in mind that the festivals most commonly celeated have their roots in temperate Europe. They need adaptation even there, for example the dates of flowering of the May treee (hawthorn) are different even over the north-south spread of Britain; and they have different emphases in Scandanavia (where the day/night difference is more marked) and the Mediterranean (where they are less marked, temperatures vary more, and there is no real winter to speak of).

How do I celebrate the nights and days getting longer/shorter if day & night are 12 hours long each every day?! And it makes no sense to talk about the leaves changing, the snow coming through or the sun blazing brighter, etc...because it doesn't happen.

So don't.

Is there any way we can celebrate our own seasonal changes? Honour them in another way?

Sorry, no. Its clearly forbidden in the big book of rules that all Pagans follow, worldwide. :smoke:

Yes, of course. It will require thought, and observation, and experiment, but naturally you can and should do that because to do otherwise is to not connnect to the land where you live.

I am told (and perhaps some Aussie Pagans here will confirm or deny) that in Australia, some/most Pagans celebrate Beltane on 1 November and Samhain on 1 May (ie at the appropriate season) and some/few try hard to use the European dates despite the fact that it is totally opposite to the seasonal meaning, because they are trying to see the dates as universal where they are not, and are scared of changeing anything.

If the theory does not meet the facts, some people expand or revise the theory and some try to ignore the facts. Since I put it that way you can guess which way I stand on that issue....