Pith of the Myth

One of the best known Christian saints around the world is Nicholas of the Ancient Greek (now part of Turkey) coastal city, Myra, as he is tied into the Santa Claus mythology. December 6th is set for his Feast Day as that is when he was believed to be the day he died though in the Orthodox religion it is on the 19th. Lots about the real saint have been lost but 200 years after his death, he had a strong band of followers...actually known as the cult of St. Nicholas. The cult entwined Christianity aspects with Greek mythology (why Krampus is at home being St. Nick's wing man). So, though there is very little left to tell us about the real Nicholas, he lived in a time and place where Christianity was constantly being attacked and documentation was done on parchment which wasn't always stored right, there are two stories about Nick that solidified his status as a child protecting generous giver: The first shows his altruistic side. A poor man with 3 daughters was very

You better not shout. You better not pout. You better not cry. I'm telling you why...Krampus is coming to town. Throughout Christmas mythology, there are a lot of different dark companions to the friendly, gift-giver figures. These companions normally handle the "bad" part of that list. Krampus comes from Central Europe and is still celebrated in some regions today. Krampus is depicted almost as a Greek satyr with both man and goat features. He is more of a demon legend than a cryptid though.  This demon is tied to Saint Nicholas, who's Saint's day happens to land on the 6th of December but is tied into Norse mythology as the son of Hel, the goddess of the Underworld that shares her name. Where St. Nick gives out sweets to good boys and girls, Krampus, on the other hand, would swat the bad kids and even throw a few in his sack and haul them off to hell.  On Krampusnacht, December 5th, children leave their boots outside and check in the morni

Today is the day dedicated to dice and so I want to talk about the Egyptian god, Thoth, and how he gambled for us to get 5 more days added to the original 360 day calendar. Thoth is one of the older Egyptian gods and has been involved in many of the stories. Even though Khonsu is regarded as the Egyptian Moon God, he still shares a bit of that honor with Thoth. Way back when Horus, who's right eye is the Earth and left eye is the Moon, had a altercation with Set who put Horus's left eye out. Thoth was the one to fix it and besides, his beak (he's got the head of an ibis) represents a crescent moon, so why not associate him with the moon? But, anyhoo, let's get back to the story we came here for, Thoth won 1/72th's of the moon light to give us 5 more days every year. This story, as most, starts with one god kind of being a big jerk. Ra, the Sun God, was a pretty powerful god, as most sun gods are, but he was really nervous about losing this power. So, when

Giving Tuesday, is the modern holiday set aside to give to charity after a few days of mass consumerism. I wanted to give this day to one of the "Mother" deities and while I was looking I came across Oshun, of whom I have been meaning to read up on. Oshun (or Osun but also prevalent in the Caribbean religion, Santeria, as Oxum or Ochun) is a river orisha (a minor deity), who represents love, sensuality, African sweet (fresh) water, and fertility. She is one of the most favorite of the people and other gods, such as the Supreme God, Olodumare. The story of how Oshun came to be Olodumare's favorite started with the orishas rebelling against their Supreme God because they felt he was too neglectful of the people he left his them to look after. He could have decided to just end the nonsense by killing the orishas but being comfortable with his status and realizing that if he smote his emissaries he'd have to deal with the pesky humans needs, he opted to make it sto

Oh there are so many ways I could go with the apple theme of Eat a Red Apple Day, a unofficial holiday for the fruit happening every December 1st in America. I mean there is:  the Apple of Knowledge; Eris's (Greek god of spite) golden apple that began the Trojan War; the Greek hero, Hercules's, eleventh task; Issac Newton's Law of Gravity; Idun, the Norse keeper of apples; Avalon itself which means "Isle of Apples"; The American Legend of Johnny Appleseed; eating apples keeps doctors at bay (the reason behind today's "holiday"); and the English Apple Tree Man...to name a few. But I chose to talk about the Folk Hero from Switzerland, William Tell, and his legendary shot instead. So, as the folklore goes, there was this bad guy (there is always a bad guy and they always seem to have wealth and power. Makes you wonder why we still allow bad guys but...I digress) who ruled over the land named Gessler. Gessler was a proud tyrant and put a cap ato

The Saturday following Thanksgiving in the United States is known as Small Business Saturday. This is in answer to Black Friday which has been taken over by Big Business in hopes to keep local shops in the game for Christmas. A popular figurine in business is the Chinese God of Wealth, Caishen (aka Ts’ai Shen). He isn't just worried about your financial wealth though. He cares about your inner wealth too. Caishen is often depicted with a yuanbao (a boat shaped tool that turns iron into gold) and he takes an important role in the Chinese New Year, riding on a black tiger and carry a golden rod he descends from the heavens to check on his followers. Caishen then reports back on you so if you want to sweeten his words, best to put honey on a depiction of him before burn it. And to think, he started off as a mortal named Zhou.