#CrossQuarterDay
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bartlettastro.bsky.social
To those who observe, hay más tiempo que la vida

#DayoftheDead #DiaDeMuertos #crossquarterday #calendar #timekeeping #autumn #seasons #fall
woman with blue hair in ghastly white make up against an autumnal sky, courtesy Hansuan Fabregas 2022 via Pixabay
November 3, 2026 at 5:03 AM
bartlettastro.bsky.social
For those who celebrate, Happy #Halloween

More properly, Halloween is contracted from "All Hallows' Eve," or the night before "All Saints' Day"

It is one name for the #crossquarterday between the #autumnalequinox and the #wintersolstice

#calendar #timekeeping #seasons #astrophysics #histsci 🍎
Four poseable, fake skeletons dressed as pirates pose in an autumnal yard
November 1, 2026 at 3:46 AM
shanilv.ca
#DYK that #GroundHogDay has its origins in astronomy? It's a #CrossQuarterDay. B/c of the move to the Gregorian calendar it should now be on 2/5. At that point we're closer to the spring equinox than the winter solstice. #SpringisComing #OurIslandUniverse...
April 9, 2025 at 8:44 AM
shanilv.ca
#DYK that #GroundHogDay has its origins in astronomy? It's a #CrossQuarterDay. B/c of the move to the Gregorian calendar it should now be on 2/5. At that point we're closer to the spring equinox than the winter solstice. #SpringisComing #OurIslandUniverse...
April 9, 2025 at 7:14 AM
theladyred.bsky.social
Fragile stirrings at the threshold of spring. The great snaking energy of life has hibernated, shed a skin; its strike-ready kinetic energy is slowly uncoiling.
Fragile stirrings at the threshold of spring. The great snaking energy of life has hibernated, shed a skin; its strike-ready kinetic energy is slowly uncoiling. We leave our caves for early signs of growth, a clear sighting of the crescent moon, first spring flowers spiking last year's leaves, new colours to live by as we turn towards fresh beginnings. Forge and anvil, grove and well, we invoke Brighid of the bright knowledge, triple Goddess of midwifery, smithcraft and healing to help us stay grounded and find our balance between savouring and protecting the Earth. Holy fire, sacred hearth, keeping a perpetual flame on gentle burn, we "see" her holding a wild swan onto her heart, lorica, not armour but prayer to keep her open to the flow of creative grace as we wait for our next thread of molten imagination to ignite. Our visions gather heady momentum as we hammer them in copper, fire them in heats that could raze the roof off, pound them on the rocks of our foremothers' hopes for the land and children. - Debra Hall Mother Tongue Ink 2021 @her_whole_nature painting of maiden mother crone. ART: Generation to Generation Barb Levine 2019 #imbolc #holyday #paganholyday #crossquarterday #pagan #wiccan #witches
February 1, 2026 at 4:58 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
It's the #CrossQuarterDay between Summer Solstice +Autumn Equinox. In ancient calendars this marked harvest + first hints of #Autumn season. The actual date is 06 I may do an altar or bushwalk? both? we'll see what energy + inspiration dictate!
A couple of past blog posts in comments #PaganSky
An old white guy- me- standing in a late summer wetland area with thigh high golding grass and sedges, with low bushy willows, one is behind me just more than shoulder height. Farther back we see some slightly taller willlows and farther still a mesic mixed woods in front of blue sky with a few bits of wispy white cloud. The image is framed in a dull gold and the colour repeats in text that crosses the image around my waist height: Blessed Māras! Great Mother Day
August 6, 2026 at 4:36 AM
cohanf.bsky.social
1 of our 1st (non-woody) wildflowers- nothing open 3 days ago.. I love the early leaves- Caltha like many plants has extra red/purple pigments in emerging leaves- this helps endure low temps after emergence!
#Wildflowers #FoliageFriday #nature #spring #Alberta #Canada #MothersDay #CrossQuarterDay 📷🌿
Caltha palustris Marsh Marigold. We always called them Cowslips, but that risks confusion with the European Primula that goes by that name! Several just emerged and not yet fully extended purple-green leaves embrace a cluster of new round green flower buds. The plant is growing in a patch of disturbed wetland soil, dark and peaty with scattered dry stems and grass on the surface.
May 9, 2026 at 3:37 AM
cohanf.bsky.social
#CrossQuarterDay was a few days ago- mid-way between Winter Solstice + Spring Equinox. #Latvian #Metenis /Meteņi : 'Waiting for Spring' is Feb 06. Masking, feasting, bonfires are usual things - blog post here: cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/02/wait...
A Blessed Season to all!
#PaganSky
Waiting for Spring: Metenis, New and Old Pagan Celebrations, Fire and Snow
It’s one of those times again- a marker on the solar calendar. This time it’s halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. I pause t...
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:57 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
Last week's #snow didn't last long- patches in shady places a day or two; since then we've been above to well above average temperatures, which continues for the next few days at least: colder next week #sunset #snow #Winter #CrossQuarterDay #Alberta #Canada #PaganSky #photography #weather
Several partly blurred fine dry grey branches enter view from lower right and reach almost to the left side, curving gently toward the centre. From the left, just above centre, a darkish red-brown branch, larger but still slight, crosses the upper left corner of the image. From it dangle a handful of paper thin dry leaves. The narrow maple leaves are pale through dull golden brown, a bit deeper where they overlap and the faint sun from behind causes them to shade one another. The leaves are slightly wavy or recurved from the drying. The background is a blur of grey roughly vertical narrow trunks and mottled red-gold-brown leaf covered ground with a few hints of green. A mid-sized Sorbus/Rowan/Mountain Ash enters the view from the right, some of its leaves still clinging, dry, silhouetted against the dusky sky. A little farther back, straight ahead is a line of dark spruce and bare poplar, their intricate branches set against the sky with its slightly darkening lavender with ripples of light fluffy clouds, pale to coral from the unseen sunset. An open stand of woods- some mature poplars, along with saplings and taller still skinny trunks, as well as several spruce: small, mid-size and tall but sparse stands silhouetted against the sunset sky. We can see through to the horizon where a small bright pale gold patch marks the locastion of the sun behind clouds. Above that are bands of gold and blue-gry giving way to patches of darkening blue sky mixed with feathery pale gold to coral clouds.
November 12, 2025 at 8:27 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
Happy #CrossQuarterDay mid-way (or thereabouts!) between Summer Solstice / Autumn Equinox! I've finally (after a lot of work + technical difficulties..lol) got my June solstice #SlowWalks + #garden views video posted! YT link, Spectra next #Alberta #PaganSky #nature #BugSky 🌿🌱📷
youtu.be/jj7atc_JgQ4
Baltic Pagan Celebrating Earth + Sun: Solstice, Nature + Garden, Flowers Bugs Birds
YouTube video by Cohan Magazine
youtu.be
August 7, 2025 at 8:13 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
#Spring sees many traditional + #pagan celebrations. Here's a post from last year for Ūsiņš Day #Latvian celebration for #CrossQuarterDay +/- #MayDay though Christianisation has bumped it up to April 23 nearly on top of #Easter this year #WitchSky #nature
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/04/blog...
Time of Flowers/ May Day; Ūsiņš and Ziedu Māte: A God and Goddess to bring Green, Flowers and Bees
NOTE: I originally started a post showcasing the first bees on the first flowers- wild Aspen and Willow catkins, then the earliest flowers...
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com
April 23, 2025 at 7:23 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
🧵5 Last YouTube video
6 Winter Sun-Waiting for Spring- Halfway to Equinox #Metenis #Imbolc #Alberta #pagan #Latvian #CrossQuarterDay #WitchSky
youtube.com/shorts/ktwTV...
Latvian Pagan- Waiting for Spring- Halfway to Equinox #Metenis #Imbolc #Alberta
YouTube video by Cohan Magazine
youtube.com
February 23, 2025 at 6:40 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
🧵1 blog post with short videos, pics and blab from the last few weeks: #winter #weather + #CrossQuarterDay #Meteņi #Imbolc #WaitingForSpring
#Alberta #Canada I'll post YouTube+ Spectra links + extra photos in this thread ❄️ 📷 #nature #GoOutsideForMe
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/02/wint...
Winter Beauty: Wind, Snow, Fallen Trees, Waiting for Spring + the slow return of the Sun
We were forecast a La Niña winter: a bit snowier and colder than average for this region. It didn't happen. Early snowfalls were not that ...
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com
February 23, 2025 at 6:24 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
🧵3 of my #CrossQuarterDay posting #metenis #imbolc Wishing you all a beautiful season ahead and may you find some respite- in nature (even if your only nature is the sky, urban trees and houseplants- take it!) in art, in beauty, in kind friends like so many here 🙂 #BeKind #SolaceInNature #PaganSky
3- Setting sun glows fire orange through a stand of bare poplar trees on the right rising out of shin to knee deep snow with tufts of thigh high dried gold grass and dried brown clover poking through, along with many young poplar suckers, to the left and beyond the trees. Farther on we can see the same pasture, wind fence and dugout as in photo 2,and beyond that sunset coloured clouds above the horizon in gold and coral blended with grey. Farther up bands of pastel cloud thin and mix with faint blue. 4- similar setting to photo 2 in previous post, but later, at sunset and this one is zoomed and cropped so we just see a bit of shadowed snowy pasture, low dark willows with some frost highlighted, then the hazed mountains, a few fluffy clouds above them, linear cloud above that. This is the sunset zone and the entire band of sky we can see is pinky orange blending to red-violet with darker lines and paler bands, the mountains blending in to these colours- as if an orange filter were put on the photo over a blue, grey and violet background.
February 10, 2025 at 10:43 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
Another #CrossQuarterDay (November 6ish). This is the root of all holidays/observances at this time. In Latvian tradition #Mārtiņi marks the beginning of #winter end of the #TimeOfSpirits
Last year's blog:
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/11/mart...
(reposting: original previews didn't show)
Mārtiņš Day : A God to Welcome Winter; Snow, Sunsets and Farewell to Spirits
Sunset comes earlier, shadows lengthen Snow Mother came suddenly and seriously this week (October 23), with no regard for the remaining ef...
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com
November 5, 2024 at 4:11 AM
cohanf.bsky.social
Another image from my Māras #CrossQuarterDay observances-- this is Saussurea cf S. iodostegia (an interesting genus in the Aster family) with Geranium swatense - a couple of Asian species enjoying this #Alberta #garden ! #pagansky #BloomScrolling #flowers🌱 #GrowFromSeed
View of a small part of a rather overgrown garden bed, with green foliage fully covering. In front an odd plant with narrow stems with slightly puffy pinkish bracts below flowering stems each topped with a handful of spikey looking purple-black composite flower heads, rather like paint brushes. behind, some not fully open pink cranesbill flowers poke out of the background foliage. Edges of the image are darkened to signify the darker seasons to come.
August 28, 2024 at 8:21 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
This #CrossQuarterDay is also about the bounty of #harvest. I have several short videos showcasing #berries here on the acreage (raspberries, skunk currants, dogwood, several more to come) #permaculture #PaganSky 🌱
youtube.com/shorts/VhNTj...
youtube.com/shorts/gtpe7...
youtube.com/shorts/k2GHm...
Wild Raspberries- Weeds or Tasty Soil Builders? Yes! #garden #permaculture #WildlifeGarden
YouTube video by Cohan Magazine
youtube.com
August 26, 2024 at 8:08 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
The beginning of autumn sees many plants in seed, others ripening, some with late flowers and a few just hitting their stride. (blog link in first post, for the #CrossQuarterDay #Goddess and #nature and #garden videos). This is #native Cirsium drummondii a later individual in shade #FlowersOnFriday
3 large purply pink thistle flower heads each a composite mass of tiny thread-like flowers sticking up and out- classic pin-cusion effect. The centre flower head is past prime and starting to brown. Behind the capitulae are a bunch of prickly thistle leaves in medium-dark green, beyond that blurred rich green mixed foliage and grass.
August 23, 2024 at 4:29 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
A #blog post for the #CrossQuarterDay #Māras or Mara's Day in #Latvian tradition, marking mid-way between Summer Solstice / Autumn Equinox, the beginning of Autumn. Some #pagan blabber, more photos and a handful of videos- late #flowers a #SlowWalk #berries cohanmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/08/summ...
Summer Māras: Late Flowers, Bees, Berries and the Slide into Autumn + a Grumpy Bull!
(Among the ancient signs of the goddess Māra are black animals- fitting then for her day that the black bull seen above showed up just outsi...
cohanmagazine.blogspot.com
August 23, 2024 at 4:13 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
Nevermind that it's Tuesday + the photos are a couple of weeks old... this is when I got the collage finished...lol #SixOnSaturday Much of our October snow melted, though not all + we have a fresh coating since these photos. 🌱🌿 #Alberta #November #CrossQuarterDay heading to #Solstice #animist
photo collage in six panels, framed in cranberry in centre, blending to lavender top and bottom. Top left multiple stems of kinnikinick, small leathery green leaves lined with frost. Centre 2 wild rose hips, deep red, waxy and wrinkled with just a hint of sun hitting them, against a blurred background of thorny stems and circles of light. Right clump of tight dark green foliage rosettes lined with frost on a small alpine plant in the rock garden, with a tangle of dried seed stems rising.. Bottom left 2 dried thistle stems with the dried everlasting flowers at the end of each, against gravel and snow with the rim of a terra cotta pot sunk into the soil visible. Centre stem of bunchberry with 6 leaflets, dark green tinted burgundy, partly in sun against dry fallen leaves. Right a small space between two pinkish rocks in the rock garden, with several small rosettes of yellow green hen and chicks, only partly emerged from snow.
November 29, 2023 at 12:29 AM
cohanf.bsky.social
#FotoMontag #PhotoMonday Nov 7 is the #CrossQuarterDay between Autumn Equinox / #Winter Solstice- this is the real reason for the end of October/ early November cultural/religious celebrations that have developed in various places #BirdGoddess has made sure she stays top of mind! 😀 #birds #witchsky
A grouse the size of a small chicken displaying how well its camouflage can work if it doesn't move! it has a complex pattern of stripes and dots in brown, grey, black, white blending well with the tangle of dried stems and leaves around it, with a shaft of afternoon sun coming from one side and hitting the edge of the bird and the snowy ground.
November 6, 2023 at 8:57 PM
cohanf.bsky.social
#SnowMother brought #Winter October 23 (snow, temperature drop) and it has stayed! still bits of colour to be found (tons of it in sunsets!) +the #seasonal #beauty of light, shadow and texture. #SixOnSaturday #nature #Alberta #garden #GetOutside #garden 🌱🌿 #c #pagansky #CrossQuarterDay 🐈⬛📷 #caturday
photo collage in 6 aquarish panels, 3 across top, 3 on bottom. Framed in burnt orange in centre, blending out to light lavender blue top/bottom. Top left skeleton of a sturdy, low ornamental thistle, covered in fluffy snow, just a few prickly leaves sticking out. Centre a bright orange and gold sunset over dark blue mountains with lines of trees, snowy fields and fences in the shadowed fore and middle grounds. Right several pointed orange leaves hang from a thin horizontal branch, with little mounds of snow on the petioles and parts of the leaves, snowy background. Bottom left winter sun shines through gap halfway down in snow covered spruce trees, with blue sky behind. Centre a black cat is rapidly becoming white as thick fluffy flakes fall on his back as he chews dried grass hung from a wire fence. Right sky and snowy ground are blue-grey, broken by several bare poplar trees in silhouette, and a zone of broken cloud near the horizon showing some blue and subtle gold.
November 5, 2023 at 4:10 PM