Happy Birthday, Mother Goddess
Thursday September 8th 2011
Today is officially the Virgin Mary’s birthday, appropriately in Virgo’s month.
The planet Mercury is the official ruler of Virgo, of course, but according to the Roman astrologer Manilius, the deity (as opposed to the planet) that rules the sign is Ceres, goddess of the corn. Click here for more on this.
Ceres is the Roman version of Demeter who is a Greek personification of the Great Mother herself.
Make of that what you will. Anyway, it’s got to be somebody’s mother’s birthday!
Dussera / Navrathri (depending on where you are in India) starts on 27th Sep this year (Hindus have a luni-solar calendar, so dates change. *Please* don’t ask me to explain luni-solar – it makes my head hurt). It celebrates the Great Mother in her Durga / Kali incarnation.
In the South (where I’m from) and in Bengal, at least, it’s about the GM.
Southies also have a lovely tradition around this festival of putting up doll displays at home. It’s called ‘kolu’ or ‘golu’ (the ‘o’ and ‘u’ are short sounds). Google them, they can be quite elaborate! According to my gran, one should buy one new doll every year. In Chennai right now, there’ll be a doll frenzy (although, truth be told, the beauty and craftsmanship of some old dolls cannot be replicated. But such is the result of the race for the quick buck, no?)
Hey P, you’ll love this. The Roman festival for Venus Genetrix (Mother Venus) was on 26 September.
ooh – very interesting!