A modern Aridane/Dionysus meeting.
Ariadne leaned on the rough wooden railings, blinking back angry tears. The party continued all around her; people laughing, the clink of glasses, the ceaseless rush of the waves against the shore, a bonfire sending bright sparks into the night sky. As if nothing had happened.
How could she have been so wrong? Blinded by love? Lust? Was Tee really so charming that he’d warped her thoughts and feelings into some obsession she’d been powerless against?
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Ostara is the Spring or Vernal equinox when days and nights are once again equal in length. It is a time of renewal and rebirth. The name Ostara is believed to be derived from Eostre – the Teutonic lunar Goddess (see more on this below). Her chief symbols are the hare, which represents fertility, and the egg, which is a symbol of rebirth.
(In the Southern Hemisphere, it is Mabon that this being celebrated today at the time, with the balance of daylight about to go in the opposite direction, from more daylight to less.)
Ostara is close in symbolism to the Church festival of Easter, but Ostara is fixed at the equinox while Easter is a moveable feast decided by the phases of the moon. The Jewish holiday of Passover also falls during March or April, depending on the moon phases of each year.
Ostara also falls close to St Patrick’s Day amongst other festivals – there’s more detail in this article: Spring Traditions around the World.
Traditionally this day marks the start of Spring, and is a good time for cleaning in the physical, emotional, and spiritual sense.
This year, Ostara falls on the 20 March.
Celebrated at the 21st or 22nd of December Yule marks the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere while Litha is celebrated as the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. It is of course close to Christmas Day while that is also the feast day of Frau Holle, a Scandinavian spirit who is honoured as the embodiment of nature and the woods. There’s an article at About.Com on the History Of Yule and the various global celebrations held on or near the solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the time of the Summer Solstice, Litha.
This year the solstice occurs on Wednesday December 21st at 10:44 GMT (Universal time).
Holly Kings, Yule Goats, and more winter customs below the cut
Continue reading Yule
Title: Beached
Fandom: Original fic
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 302
Prompt: For the thirty days of fiction meme prompt #2 Write a scene with a drunken mythological creature
Summary: Drinking rum and swimming in the ocean isn’t the best idea – but not for the reason you might think
Notes: While this is intended be readable as a one-shot, it got longer than anticipated so I’ll be writing more of this universe for the prompt meme; all will be tagged c: nala
“Lookit me,” shrieked Nala. “I’s a pirate.” She waved the bottle around in her right hand, her seashell bracelet jangling against the glass.
Sera, sitting on a rocky outcropping, shook her head. Every time there was a shipwreck her sisters seemed to lose all common sense. Raina was still hunting for survivors (which would have been commendable if it were simply out of the goodness of her heart and not a search for a suitor), Tayla had been collecting up all the shiny flotsam, and Erra had nearly got herself tangled up in the rigging three times while exploring the wreck.
Nala had found the galley and helped herself to all of the rum she could find. She now floated on her back, hair spread out behind her like seaweed. She was staring at the sky as the sun rose, turning the clouds a beautiful, if ominous, rose-pink.
“Nala,” Sera called urgently, spotting the drunken girl floating away from her. “Nala, look out.”
“What?” Nala turned onto her front and saw the reason for Sera’s concern. “Oh, don’t worry. I is a pirate, right?”
“No, you are not,” Sera yelled. “Get back here right now!”
Nala raised herself up in the water and spread her arms wide, sending sea spray flying in all directions and the now empty bottle off into the waves. “Look, I have a legs.”
And then a large wave grabbed her from behind and threw her unceremoniously onto the beach.
“Nala!”
Nala spat sand from her mouth. “Oof,” she complained.
Sera shook her head in dismay. The tide had already turned. If Nala didn’t get back into the sea soon, she’d be trapped until the next high tide. “Into the water, you foolish child,” Sera called.
The only thing worse than a drunken mermaid was a beached one.
originally posted at my fic blog Image made by me in Photoshop with a personal photo used as a base.
L M Dee 