* 12/21 to 1/9: Hopi & Zuni Soyala New Year Festival of purification and renewal.
[caption id="attachment_7218" align="alignleft" width="193"]
Norse Goddess Freyja[/caption]
* 12/25 to 1/5: Yule--Old Anglo-Teutonic festival honoring God Freyr, Goddess Freyja, and God Balder.
* 12/31 eve to 1/1 eve: Feast of Old Greek Goddess Hekate, who guides all through transitions and crisis.
* 1/1: New Year’s Day (Gregorian Calendar).
* 1/1 (6:14 a.m. EST): New Moon.
* 1/1 eve: Rosh Chodesh--Jewish women gather to worship the Shekhinah, the feminine manifestation of Elohim, the one universal Deity; and to pray and act for peace, social justice, and environmental healing, to bring about Tikkun Olam (reparation of the world and reunification of the Divine).
* 1/1 eve to 1/2 eve: Remembrance day for Rabi’a al-bint Isma’il ‘Adawiya (717-801), Sufi saint and preacher; she loved Deity passionately. Sufis seek Truth through love, wisdom, and action.
* 1/1 to 1/4: Tewa Turtle Dance--celebrating life and the first Creation, when Sky Father embraced Earth Mother and all life was conceived.
* 1/1 eve to 1/4 eve (1/3 peak): Quadrantid Meteor Showers.
* 1/1 to 1/6: Shogatsu/Shinto New Year’s Festival--The Kami (Nature Spirits) of the four directions are honored, and prayers for happiness, good health, and prosperity are made. The Kami are manifestations of the one universal, primordial and eternal, immanent and transcendent Deity, Kuni-Tokotachi-no-Kami.
* 1/4 (7:00 a.m. EST): Earth Perihelion--when the Earth is closest to the Sun.
* 1/4: Mindfulness Day--Zen Buddhist day for being mindful of the peace, joy, and beauty of the moment.
* 1/5: Avian Day--Day to honor all creatures of the air and to meditate on Deity manifesting as birds.
[caption id="attachment_7219" align="alignright" width="254"]
Adoration of the Magi[/caption]
* 1/6 (OC 1/19): Epiphany--Christian feast recalling the adoration of Child Jesus by the Magi, and the beginning of Rabbi Jesus’ ministry of love to humanity - when He changed water into wine at Cana.
* 1/7: Koshogatsu--Shinto rite honoring Goddess Izanami, partner of God Izanagi. They created Nature and the Kami.
* 1/7: Orthodox Christian Christmas.
* 1/8: Day for meditation on Tantric Buddha Deities Amitayus and White Tara, who grant good health and long life. In Tantric Buddhism, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are symbolic abstractions and aspects of Adi-Buddha.
* 1/12 eve to 1/13 eve: Mawlid al-Nabi--Day commemorating the birth of Muslim Prophet Muhammad (570). He conceived Deity to be a compassionate, genderless unity.
* 1/13 to 1/25 (I 1/24): Old Norse Mid-Winter Feast--Offerings were made to the Deities (particularly Jord, Thor, and Freyr) for growth of crops.
[caption id="attachment_7220" align="alignleft" width="215"]
Makar Sakranti[/caption]
* 1/14: Makar Sakranti--Beginning of Hindu pilgrimage to holy rivers to bathe and pray, to purify themselves of their sins. Hindus believe all Gods and Goddesses are aspects of the one Great God-Goddess Maha Deva-Maha Devi.
* 1/14 to 1/16: Old Egyptian Festival honoring the unseen Neteru Amen and Amenet. Egyptians perceived the many Gods and Goddesses (Neteru) to be aspects of the one God-Goddess Neter-Neteret.
* 1/15 (11:52 p.m. EST): Full Moon (Black/Death-Crone Moon).
* 1/15: Feast of the Black Christ.
[caption id="attachment_7221" align="alignright" width="158"]
Rev Martin Luther King Jr[/caption]
* 1/15 (Obs. 1/20): Birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929)
* 1/15: First appearance of Our Lady of Banneux, Virgin of the poor, the sick, and the suffering (Belgium 1933).
* 1/15 eve to 1/16 eve: Tu B’Shevat--Jewish Festival of Trees, celebrated with tree plantings and orchard blessings.
* 1/15 to 1/23: Navajo Sing--Festival in preparation for the coming agricultural season; celebrated with prayer, chanting, dancing, and healing.
* 1/19: World Religions Day--Day to contemplate all religions as different paths to the one universal Deity of many names and aspects.
* 1/20: Beginning of Aquarius (the Water Bearer).
* 1/22: Day the Supreme Court recognized women’s right to reproductive autonomy (1973).
* 1/24 to 2/1: Sementivae--Old Roman festival of sowing, honoring Earth Goddess Terra, Grain Goddess Ceres, and Seed Goddess Proserpina.
* 1/29 eve to 2/1 eve: Old European Lunar New Year--Celebration of the Triple Goddess (Goddess of the Moon and the Seasons) being transformed from the Crone into the Virgin; celebrated with ritual bathing of divine images.
* 1/30 (4:39 p.m. EST): New Moon.
* 1/31: Birthday of Fr. Thomas Merton (1915), Catholic mystic and poet, who found Deity in stillness and silence.
[caption id="attachment_7223" align="alignleft" width="222"]
St Brigid's Cross[/caption]
* 1/31 eve to 2/2 eve: Imbolc/St. Brigid’s Day--Old Celtic/Irish feast of Goddess Brigid; merged with the Christian feast of St. Brigid. Fires were lit to welcome Her as She traveled about blessing fields, animals, and people.
* 1/31 to 2/3: Hsih Nien/Suhl/Tet--Chinese and East Asian Lunar New Year (Year 4712: the Horse).
* 1/31 eve to 2/3 eve: Mid-Winter/Groundhog’s Day/Candlemas.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Excerpted fromTHE MYSTIC'S WHEEL OF THE YEAR 2014A Multifaith Calendar Reflecting Eco-Egalitarian Spirituality© 2013 Marija Miovskiwww.WheeloftheYear.com
