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The Grove Blog

Save the Date - Alban Arthan (Winter Solstice): Sunday 20 December 10:30am

ONLINE: Bookings opening soon!


Save the Date for our online celebration of the festival of Alban Arthan.


Field of wheat in the sun

10:30-12:00 GMT Sunday 20 December: Bookings open soon via Eventbrite.


About Alban Arthan


This time of year is very cold and bleak, which is why so many celebrations are needed to help people get through the Winter months. It is significant that many civilisations welcomed their Solar Gods at the time of greatest darkness – including Mithras (the bull-headed Warrior God), the Egyptian God Horus and, more recently, Jesus Christ. (from the OBOD website)


The cold evenings stretch on before us and almost all living creatures have disappeared into a world of slumber and dream as the calendar’s new year appears on the shrouded horizon.


Within the still heart of the frost-covered earth a single, golden note resounds: a promise of the rebirth of the Sun King, the shining light of Arthur ‘the Bear’, with his powers of rejuvenation and resurrection. The Holly King’s winter sovereignty triumphs over the Oak King’s summer reign and we search within ourselves to call forth our strength of survival in the darkest hours of enduring night.


But on the hillsides can be heard wassailing: smoky breaths singing out to the trees to beckon them into bloom and fruition as the wheel turns once more.

 








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