* 1/1: New Year’s Day (Gregorian Calendar).
* 12/22 to 1/10: Hopi & Zuni Soyala New Year Festival of purification and renewal.
* 12/25 to 1/5: Yule--Old Anglo-Teutonic festival honoring God Freyr, Goddess Freyja, and God Balder.
* 1/1: World Peace Day--Day to meditate for peace throughout the world. * 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. * 1/1 to 1/31: January dedicated to Old Roman God-Goddess Janus-Jana, who knows both past and future.
* 1/4 (7:00 p.m. EST): Earth Perihelion--when the Earth is closest to the Sun
* 1/5: Avian Day--Day to honor all creatures of the air and to meditate on Deity manifesting as birds - Goddess as Babd/Crow (Old Celtic), Lilith/Owl (Old Sumerian-Hebrew) & Holy Spirit/Dove (Christian); and God as Horus/Hawk (Old Egyptian) & Hilina/Thunderbird/Eagle (Haida). * 1/5: Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh Sahib, tenth Sikh guru (1666). He believed that only those who love find Deity, and exhorted Sikhs to show compassion for humanity. * 1/5 eve: Feast of Old Roman Goddess Befana, the old woman who flies on a broom, bringing gifts to all good children.
* 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: Mindfulness Day--Zen Buddhist day for being mindful of the peace, joy, and beauty of the moment. * 1/7: Orthodox Christian Christmas
* 1/9 (2:30 a.m. EST): Full Moon (Black/Death-Crone Moon)
* 1/13: Death day of George Fox (1691), founder of the Quakers. Quakers experience Deity within and practice egalitarianism, social activism, and peacefulness.
* 1/14: Makar Sakranti‑‑Beginning of Hindu pilgrimage to holy rivers to bathe and pray, to purify themselves of their sins. Hindus' life goals are ethical living, passionate love, prosperity, and spiritual devotion. * 1/14 to 1/25 (I 1/20): Old Norse Mid-Winter Feast--Offerings were made to the Deities (particularly Jord, Thor, and Freyr) for growth of crops.
* 1/15: First appearance of Our Lady of Banneux, Virgin of the poor, the sick, and the suffering (Belgium 1933). * 1/15 to 1/17 (A 2/25 to 2/27): Raising Heaven--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.
* 1/20: Beginning of Aquarius (the Water Bearer).
* 1/22 eve to 1/23 eve: Feast of Old Greek Goddess Hekate, who guides all through transitions and crisis. * 1/22 eve to 1/25 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.
* 1/23 (2:39 a.m. EST): New Moon. * 1/23 to 1/26: Hsih Nien/Suhl/Tet--Chinese and East Asian Lunar New Year (Year 4710: the Dragon).
* 1/24 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). * 1/24 to 2/1: Sementivae--Old Roman festival of sowing, honoring Earth Goddess Terra, Grain Goddess Ceres, and Seed Goddess Proserpina.
* 1/27 to 2/4: Iroquois Mid-Winter Ceremony--for continuation of all life-sustaining things. Iroquois believe Awenhai/Sky Woman created the Sun, Moon, and Stars from Her body.
* 1/28: Sarasvati Puja--Hindu festival honoring Goddess Sarasvati, who represents wisdom, intellect, and knowledge, as well as inspiration, arts, and music. Hindus believe all Gods and Goddesses are aspects of the one Great God-Goddess Maha Deva-Maha Devi.
* 1/31: 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 ‑ the masculine and feminine, transcendent and immanent, omniscient and omnipotent, primordial and eternal Absolute. * 1/31: Birthday of Fr. Thomas Merton (1915), Catholic mystic and poet, who found Deity in stillness and silence. * 1/31 eve to 2/2 eve: Imbolc/St. Brigid’s Day. * 1/31 eve to 2/4 eve: Mid-Winter/Groundhog’s Day/Candlemas.
January Action Offerings
Heal and nurture your relationship with yourself. Volunteer to work at a hospital, clinic, or hospice. Donate blood and sign up to be an organ donor. Write to legislators and the media in support of strengthening and aggressively enforcing laws against religion-based discrimination and harassment. Get involved in a group promoting religious tolerance and understanding.
Excerpted fromTHE MYSTIC'S WHEEL OF THE YEAR 2012A Multifaith Calendar Reflecting Eco-Egalitarian Spirituality© 2011 Marija Miovskiwww.WheeloftheYear.com
