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Saturday, June 14, 2014

Ancestor Day


Calendar of the Sun

Ancestor Day

AncestEr   dAy
 
We honor all with great respect, love and awe.  In this we also honor, respect and pay homage to our Ancestors going all the way back to the Gods and Goddesses of our Folk themselves, those we are descended from.  We never kneel nor prostrate ourselves like slaves or servants but hold ourselves up proud and strong before our divine ancestors.  Ancestor(s) can be called anytime for help, guidance or just to give thanks. 

Color: Black and grey
Element: Earth
Altar: Spread a black cloth, and lay it with photographs, paintings, and other depictions of our ancestors. Add also symbols of their old tools, and statues of ancestral deities, a bowl of seeds for the future garden, pots of soil, a pitcher of water, and many candles of black and white and grey.
Offerings: Things they would have liked to eat, drink, smoke, or smell. Tend a cemetery and clean up the graves.
Daily Meal: Food from an earlier era, using authentic recipes.



Invocation to the Ancestors

Our ancestors got up at dawn,
Slaved in the dirt,
Sweated in the sun,
Chilled in the cold,
Numbed in the snow,
Scattering each seed with a prayer:
Pray that there be enough,
That no one starve this winter.
Pray that no bird nor beast
Steal the food I have struggled for.
And most of all,
Pray that each seed I save
Of this harvest
Shall next year
Bring forth a hundred more.
We live today
Because they worked
Because they sowed
Because they harvested
Because they prayed.


(Each person takes seeds from the bowl and plants them in the pots of soil, speaking the name of one of their ancestors as they do so, as in: "In honor of _______." The pots are watered, and the candles put out one by one.)




 

1 comment:

  1. My Father was born in Norway, and came to America when he was 19 years old. He came on a ship and landed at Boston, Mass., with his brother Karl Ramberg........

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