Tuesday March 4, 2025
– Crescent Moon Phase – challenge, growth, struggle, expansion, gathering
– Moon in TAURUS –
– Retrogrades –
- Venus March 2 – April 13
– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) March 3rd – Advertise to Sell, Buy a Home, Cut Firewood, Cut Hair to Increase Growth, Dig Holes, Get Married, Mow to Increase Growth, Paint, Wax Floors
– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – March 3rd – 4th – Favorable for planting crops bearing yield above the ground.
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: – 20 ARIES: a young girl feeding birds in winter
– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Kali – The Destroyer
– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Seth, God of the North, God of Enlightenment
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in Pisces SUN/MOON – – SUN – 10 PISCES: an aviator in the clouds (EARTH – 10 VIRGO: two heads looking out and beyond the shadows)
SUN – 15 PISCES: an officer drilling his men in simulated attack
EARTH – 15 VIRGO: a fine lace ornamental handkerchief
First For a Bit of a Snack
Shrove Tuesday
Mardi Gras
Fat Tuesday
Fastnacht Day
Pancake Day
All names given to the day before Ash Wednesday. Now you may ask, how do they determine Ash Wednesday. I liked the description given on Catholic.com
Jesus rose from the dead on the first Sunday following the feast of Passover. (Technically, he may have risen Saturday night, but that still counts as Sunday on the Jewish reckoning, which begins each day at sunset instead of at midnight.)
The date of Passover is a complicated thing. Theoretically, the date should be the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan, and it should correspond to a full moon (the Jewish calendar being partly lunar). In practice, it didn’t always work out that way. The month-moon cycles got out of synch, and sometimes feasts would be held on a “liturgical” full moon even when it was not an astronomical full moon. As a result, rabbis periodically had to announce when Passover would be celebrated.
Christians didn’t like being dependent on the pronouncements of rabbis for how to celebrate Christian feasts, so they came up with another way of determining the date. They decided that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after (never on) the Paschal full moon.
Theoretically, the Paschal full moon is the first full moon occurring on or after the spring equinox. However, this day can be reckoned in different ways. One way is by looking at the sky, which yields the astronomical spring equinox. But since this shifts from year to year, most people follow the calendrical spring equinox, which is reckoned as March 21.
On the Gregorian calendar (the one that we use), Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after March 21. Easter thus always falls between March 22 and April 25.
Now, to find Palm Sunday (the sixth Sunday of Lent) you start with the date of Easter and back up one week: It is the Sunday before Easter Sunday.
To find Ash Wednesday, you start with the date of Easter Sunday, back up six weeks (that gives you the first Sunday of Lent), and then back up four more days: Ash Wednesday is the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent.
Isn’t it funny that the Christians (specifically the ultra-stuffy Catholics) would recon their celebrations by lunar phases? I sure think so.
So, Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. Lent is the 6 weeks prior to Easter. During that time, Christians (especially Catholics) are preparing for the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
We always thought Catholics would get all serious about Lent. They would decide to give something up for Lent. The serious ones would say something like drinking (adults at least) while the rest would give up something silly like Chocolate or swearing. Then they would even refuse to eat meat in Fridays.
We Episcopalians were never quite so serious about it. We would have special Bible school each Wednesday. One year I was convinced to dress up as Mr. Tumnus from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The green wig was pretty funny.
So Fat Tuesday is the day before giving everything up. So, on that day, people would celebrate by eating really rich food. We did donuts growing up.
When I moved to Pennsylvania, they did Fastnachts. If you have never heard of them, then count yourself as lucky. They are square fried donuts made with Potato dough. People around here pour Turkey Syrup on it (it is just dark corn syrup). I say you are lucky because they are gross and heavy and sticky and give me horrible heartburn.
I have hade New Orleans style King Cake once before, sent by our sales reps from Louisiana. It was very good, but a little on the sweet side. I did not find the baby in my piece.
Just this year, I was made aware of Pancake Day from a Facebook friend of mine from Wales. I loved the idea so that is what we had for dinner (I skipped the pancakes since I am still on my Keto diet – green beans with lots of butter plus bacon and sausage.)