 |
Loxley Abbey Church Raleigh, NC |
|
|
|
Raleigh's First ! May Fire Festival
Craft with Intent Classes Each month we offer a craft that teaches a skill useful in everyday life. Click below to see what the next class offering is
2008 Holidays & Special Gatherings (all Saturday dates, gathering times vary):
We celebrate this old medieval ceremony at the end of the monath of January. A token tree is the centre of our rite where we sprinkled it with wassail (apple cider) to ensure a good crop. Villagers gather around the tree & make lots of noise to scare off any evil spirits. Wassail songs are sung and dancing around the tree whilst toasting it is but just a bit of the fun we have. Winterpast Farm will host a Christmas Tree bonfire (contact Winterpast Farm to donate a tree to the bonfire). EVENT DETAILS: Our Tree Wassailing service is on January 26, 2008. The event begins at 5 pm, but we will be meeting at Loxley Abbey at 4 pm to caravan to the event at Winterpast Farm in Wake Forest (12936 Ghoston Road, 27587). Loxley Abbey will provide mulled apple cider! WHAT TO BRING: All participants are asked to bring a meal-dish to pass, and an instrument or other noisemaker. Please wear warm medieval garb (extras available from The Abbey Closet, please call or e-mail ahead.) 919-373-9794 [Return to the top] [Go to Wassail Photos]
Blessing of the plough is celebrated in Charmonath (February). The plough to be used in the fields for the spring crops is blessed, decorated & carried around the village. Garland dances are often performed on this day. This is also a tyme for a rhyming Mummers Play. On this occasion, as the plough is the central feature, the dance is held around it. Blessing the plough in the presence of the Villagers and visitors is a token of divine beneficence on the agricultural work of the coming season. This year we invite everyone to bring their hand plough or garden tool for Loxley Abbey’s Clergy to perform a Blessing. This Old English custom begins the ploughing season with a blessing for a bountiful harvest! An outdoor gathering for all farmers, gardeners and their families to enjoy. Ploughs will be lined up in advance and a simple old style Blessing will be performed. Farmers may decorate their ploughs with ribbons and bells as was the custom long ago. Socialize around the Beverage & sweets table after the Blessing while our Villagers perform a Medieval Mummers Play & entertain you with beautiful Garland Dances. Visit with our Farm Animals too. A great tyme for the whole family to come out and meet other local farmers.
[Return to the top] [Go to Plough Photos]
Based on an Old English/Medieval Seasonal Rite that represents fertilizing the fields. The Fool’s Procession & Speech – Follow the Fool to the Bull Piñata, hear the story of this Spring Rite & then break the Piñata for all the goodies inside. Haxey Hood Game – An adapted short volley ball Game that symbolizes fertilizing the fields. Pot Luck Feast – Bring your favorite Pot Luck Dish along with your own feasting gear & trash bag for disposal. Please contact to register & pot luck list In Thawmonath (March) the celebration of the earth thawing & the struggle between winter and spring is held at the end of the monath. It is displayed in a tussle that dates back to at least the 13th century. [Return to the top] [Go to Haxey Hood Photos]
Awaken the Earth, Bless the Seeds, Furrow the Field & Plant the Crops. Join in the Spring Crafts for Children, Stick Dancing, & Pot Luck Feast. Dressing in medieval costume is welcomed & we offer costumes on loan too. Bring your favorite pot luck dish along with your own Tableware & carry in & out bag for disposal. Please contact for details, to register & pot luck list It is the tyme to sow the seeds. The planting of the crops for the season, a Sowmonath (April) celebration. A seed dance is done where the dancers wield slaves with which they make clashing noises & thump the earth to make symbolic holes for the planting of seeds. Also at the same tyme Villagers perform the ancient rites of waking the dormant earth. There is a blessing of the seeds & spring festivities honouring the God & Goddess which begin this day that is followed by a great feast. [Return to the top] [Go to Seed & Furrow Photos]
For 2008 Loxley Abbey will hold a Fire Festival inspired by Scotland's Beltane Fire Festival. Follow the Queen of May & her Elemental hand maidens through the Archway of fire to welcome Summer. The Horned one will perform a dance with the May Queen to transform into the Greenman. May Pole dancing throughout the day & fire dancing into the nyte. More details to follow.......... [Return to the top] [Go to Blessing Tyme Photos]
This is a midsummer celebration and tyme to honour the grand splendor of the sun as it reaches its highest point in the year. From this tyme forward, daylyte begins to wane so it is with great joy that the Villagers lyte the bonfire and carry the torches in procession. We dance around the fire to purify and protect ourselves. The magic of this holiday is celebrated on Summer Solstice. Our ancestors celebrated Midsummer with bonfires. It was the night of fire festivals. Villagers would jump through the luck-bringing flames. It was believed that the crops would grow as high as the folks were able to jump. Through the fire's power, spirits and demons were banished. Another function of bonfires was to give a boost to the sun's energy so that it would remain potent throughout the rest of the growing season and guarantee a plentiful harvest. [Return to the top] [Go to Summer Solstice Photos]
It is in the summer monath of July, when water is more precious, that wells are dressed with garlands of flowers and candles, blessed by parish clergy and local wisewomen to appease the spirits. Holy wells and fairy wells are given special attention. St. John the Baptist himself appears looking like a wild Jack o' the Green, baptizing everybody in a hundred fun ways. There are water fights and games using water. Sometimes just gliding on the water or watching the reflected firelight is enough to feel the blessing of water. [Return to the top] [Go to Well Dressing Photos]
Watch in awe as our Lady Godiva rides through Loxley Abbey covered in only her long blonde hair (and a skin-colored leotard!) Later, Villagers gather to hear her tell the Godiva Tale. Epona is the protector of horses, stables, and horse owners. She is the guardian of agriculture and transportation. She has also been pictured with cornucopias and baskets filled with fruits, especially apples and thus been linked to fertility. Bring in her honour baskets of fruit especially apples. The Horn of Plenty, or cornucopia, filled with roses is a perfect gift, too. [Return to the top] [Go to Epona/Godiva Photos] Also known as “the Feast of the First Fruits” or "Loaf Mass". This is a medieval/Old English harvest festival. A great feast of the wheat & grains, where offerings of thanks for the harvest are given. A tyme to sample the first fruits which were planted in the spring. We rejoice in thanks for the fruitfulness of the harvest that will sustain us through the winter's dark tyme. Lammas (Loaf-mass) is the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. On this day Villagers bring a loaf of bread or produce from the new crop to the Abbey. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, where it is referred to regularly, it is called "the feast of first fruits." A blessing of new fruits is performed and a feast meat is cooked over an open fire to share at the potluck feast. [Return to the top] [Go to Lammas Photos]
We give thanks as has been done for successful harvests since ancient tymes. Our celebration includes singing, dancing, harvest games, making straw dollies and decorating the horse's cart. Baskets of food are collected for the poor and elderly of the local community. A Grand Feast is shared by all the Villagers. Harvest is from an Anglo-Saxon word "haerfest" which means "Autumn." It then came to refer to the season for reaping and gathering grain and other grown products. This celebration falls in the month of September. Loxley Abbey also celebrates with a (scarecrow) bonfire. To let you know how blessed we are, during the 2007-2008 drought, the fire ban was mysteriously lifted just for the weekend of our event! A straw dolly is made from the last sheaf of harvested grain. The straw dolly has a place of honor at the feast table and is kept until the following Spring. Before bringing in the last cart load of the harvest, Villagers decorate our horse with garlands of flowers and colourful ribbons. [Return to the top] [Go to Harvest Home Photos]
Hallowmonath (October) brings the tyme to remember those who have pass over either in this life tyme or of long ago. We create individual outdoor altars near the fire and spend tyme honouring them. This is a tyme to remember, connect with and be guided by them. On this night, we allow their wisdoms to be heard, and we give them thanks for their life with private offerings. There is a mini feast, songs, stories & dancing around the fire will bring us close to them on this nyte in the "Holy Month". The Gathering of Ancestors Remembered is celebrated on the closest Saturday nyte to the full of the moon in October. [Return to the top] [Go to Ancestors Remembered Photos]
This is the tyme when the fodder & pasturage becomes scarcer at the approach of winter & when the cattle & other livestock were culled in considerable numbers in medieval times. We celebrate with a great banquet of fresh meat & many seasonal foods, coupled with medieval games, a Mummers' Hog Play & a ceremony to honour Robin Hood. This date was determined originally by the first appearance of snow on the pastures. Eventually it was fixed in the middle of the November (11th or 12th). Loxley Abbey celebrates as close to this day as possible. [Return to the top] [Go to Blot Tyme Photos]
We begin with Yule-tide games of fun for all ages like the "Pin the nose on Rudolf" & move onto honouring Jesus with our Baby Jesus song & children's play. Mary holds baby Jesus, our little boy Shepard brings in his lamb, our costumed king brings presents & our angel spreads her wings to protect Mother & Child. Next we honour the Hunt with our own version of the Horn Dance using stag antlers attached to long poles. The Bromley Abbey's Horn dance music accompanies our 6 dancers as they dance around the fire & perform beautiful steps. Loxley Abbey holds a Yule Log burning ceremony with the decorated log carried on poles to the fire. Around the warmth of the bon fire we sing songs, tell stories of Faeries & search for the bean in the Christmas cake . St. Lucy is honoured with a chosen village girl dressed in white & wearing a wreath of candles. She slowly walks to the fire carrying her tray of sweet buns as we sing out the St. Lucina chant. Our choice of ham as the meat of our Yule feast. It is in likeness to that of the boar which was considered by the Medieval English/Saxon as a solar animal having bristles of gold like the rays of the sun. |
|
Loxley Abbey Church is located at 2401 Old
Milburnie Road, Raleigh NC 27604. For more information about Loxley Abbey's
events, theology or outreach programs, This web site ©2006-2008 by Loxley Abbey Church
and Rev. Domina Samantha L. Heart. All Rights Reserved. |
