Insomniac's Corner

[gotsnowgotslush]

MARCH 2, 2017

Some call it a doorway to hell. Or a portal to the underworld. Scientists call it a crater. But everyone agrees that it's getting bigger.


The Batagiaka crater in eastern Siberia, already the largest of its kind, has been growing wider.

Siberia's crater is caused by melting permafrost, perennially frozen soil that remains in that state for at least two consecutive years. The resulting irregular terrain of mounds and hollows is called thermokarst.


Satellite imagery indicates that the crater expands, on average, by 33 feet per year


Melting began in the 1960s, spurred by rapid deforestation due to development As trees that shaded the frozen soil were removed, the sun began warming the soil, causing the ice to melt. The formation of the hole has accelerated further in recent years as the planet has warmed steadily, spurred by rising greenhouse gases.


Eroding and melting soil cause a phenomena that is often known as "drunken trees," in which trees cannot grow straight, further reducing the amount of shade covering the ground. This process is happening across parts of the entire north, from Alaska to Eurasia.



As layers of deep sediment rapidly melt, it can cause the top layer of soil to slump downward, causing massive craters that damage pipelines, crack pavement, and even swallow houses whole.


https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/siberia-batagiaka-crater-climate-change/#close






.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The statue of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed is to be removed from Harrods, the department store has confirmed.


Jan 12, 2018


The Evening Standard reports that the memorial will be returned to Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed, who sold Harrods to the Qatari royal family's investment company for a reported £1.5 billion in May 2010

The move follows the news that the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry have commissioned a new statue of their late mother, which will be unveiled in the grounds of her former home, Kensington Palace, in 2019.


The bronze statue, named 'Innocent Victims,' was erected in 2005 to commemorate Diana and Dodi eight years after they died in a Paris car crash. Designed by Harrods' artistic design adviser Bill Mitchell, it shows the the pair dancing beneath the wings of an albatross.


http://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/cel.../princess-diana-dodi-al-fayed-statue-harrods/

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Valentine's Day 2018 falls on Ash Wednesday

Can Christians have sex?

February 13, 2018


The last time this convergence of holidays happened was in 1945. But the 2018 meeting of hearts and ashes doesn't seem like such oddball calendar alignment when you consider that the two days will merge again as soon as 2024 and again in 2029.


This year, Easter, one of the major holidays of the Christian calendar, falls on April Fools' Day.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/ind...day_2018_valentines_day_same_day_catholi.html


From ancient days in Rome, to modern days in America

From Feb. 13 to 15, the Romans celebrated the feast of Lupercalia. The men sacrificed a goat and a dog, then whipped women with the hides of the animals they had just slain.

The Roman romantics "were drunk. They were naked," says Noel Lenski, a historian at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Young women would actually line up for the men to hit them, Lenski says. They believed this would make them fertile.

The brutal fete included a matchmaking lottery, in which young men drew the names of women from a jar. The couple would then be, um, coupled up for the duration of the festival — or longer, if the match was right.

https://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day


Mars and Venus

(Sending a Valentine's day card to your beloved, while he is serving his country- Mechanized war, and the industrial production as mass made printed cards facilitated long distance romances.)


2018

We’re seeing people celebrate friendships and all different kinds of loving relationships in their life,” Powlas said.

Holidays like Galentine’s Day.

“That’s when you get together with your friends, you have treats, you might make a craft and exchange cards,” Powlas explained.

Nearly 114 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged every year. Hallmark first offered Valentine’s Day cards in 1913.

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/hallmark-prepares-for-valentines-day-trends

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Mon 27 Jan 2014


The Niseachs, as they are known, have enjoyed a unique exemption from the ordinary protection afforded to sea birds in UK and EU law. Despite the unyielding opposition from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, they are licenced to catch up to 2000 chicks a year

The chick of the Northern gannet might be a delicacy to the people of Ness at the northern tip of the Outer Hebrides, but the spectacle of their recently convened World Guga Eating Championship has provoked disgust amongst the more than 74,000 petitioners from around the world who have called for its prohibition.

"...the Ness tradition of collecting gannets from the rocky islet of Sùla Sgeir is rather older than the Middle Ages. The first written confirmation dates to 1549 when Donald Monro, Dean of Isles, noted how the men sailed to 'fetche hame thair boatful of dry wild fowls'. Prehistoric evidence from elsewhere in the archipelago suggests a practice with roots at least as far back as the Iron Age."

The new competitive element, however, is an innovation that arguably runs against the grain of a tradition that was always about sufficiency rather than excess. Some islanders may think that the entertainment was scarcely worth the international outcry.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/scotland-blog/2014/jan/27/scotland-conservation-gugahunt


The Society to Prevent Cruelty to Birds comes into existence at the turn of the century.

Too many hunting parties, too many hats ?


Presentation at the Royal Court

Queen Victoria's Court


Queen Victoria hated small feathers, so orders were issued that Her Majesty wanted to see the feathers as the young lady approached. Later in Queen Victoria's reign, as well as in the court of Edward VII, the mandated headdress was three feathers arranged in a Prince of Wales plume--that is, the center feather was higher than the two on each side of it--and it was worn slightly on the left side of the head. Tiaras were worn by married women, and it was extremely difficult to keep the feathers in place, especially during the curtsy.

http://www.thehistorybox.com/ny_cit...y/nycity_society_presentation_article0011.htm


Lady Colin Campbell’s Manners and Rules of Good Society, 1911 edition

King Edward and Queen Alexandra

Trains, gloves, and feathers as is usual.

The Prince of Wales's feathers is the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales. It consists of three white ostrich feathers emerging from a gold coronet.

It was compulsory for both Married and Unmarried Ladies to Wear Plumes. The married lady’s Court plume consisted of three white feathers. An unmarried lady’s of two white feathers. The three white feathers should be mounted as a Prince of Wales plume and worn towards the left hand side of the head. Colored feathers may not be worn. In deep mourning, white feathers must be worn, black feathers are inadmissible.

White veils or lace lappets must be worn with the feathers. The veils should not be longer than 45 inches.


http://www.edwardianpromenade.com/etiquette/the-court-presentation/

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The oldest known domestic horse population belonged to the Botai people who inhabited the Central Asian steppes around 5500 years ago.


February 22, 2018

Our findings literally turn current population models of horse origins upside-down,” said Professor Ludovic Orlando, a molecular archaeologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research who led the study.

“What we used to understand as the last wild horse on earth is in fact the descendant of the earliest domestic horses, which simply escaped human pressure and became feral during the last few millennia.

The analysis carried out by Professor Orlando and his colleagues identified certain genetic changes that occurred when the horses returned to their wild state and eventually gave rise to Przewalski's horses.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-przewalskis-botai-domesticated-a8224121.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I


King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia by Asfa-Wossen Asserate


"The book is manifestly a riposte to Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat, which portrayed the emperor, and indeed Addis Ababa’s entire Amharic elite, as a comic-opera laughing stock."


24 Dec 2015

Selassie came to power as regent of Abyssinia, later Ethiopia, in 1916, but many of the myths around him originated with Mussolini’s invasion of the country in 1935. Selassie and his armies resisted, but he was eventually forced into exile. In 1941, after six years of brutal occupation, the Italians were defeated by British and South African forces and Selassie was allowed to return to his throne in Addis Ababa, where he remained in power until 1974.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2...selassie-ethiopia-asfa-wossen-asserate-review

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

As Queen Elizabeth II’s last corgi dies, a baffling era comes to an end
Now that Willow

They would nip at trousers, cause women to freeze with alarm as they circled ankles perched on stiletto heels, and instil terror among some of the palace staff, as the corgis were notoriously resentful when they were walked by anyone not named Elizabeth Mary Windsor.

http://www.macleans.ca/royalty/as-q...st-corgi-dies-a-baffling-era-comes-to-an-end/

8 Decades of British Royal Corgis Reportedley At An End

April 18, 2018

Listed- people bitten by the Queen's corgis

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/world/europe/corgi-dogs-queen-elizabeth.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

From a film clip of an 80 year old disaster, to Led Zeppelin's cover art


A child survived the disaster, and is still living.


Newly uncovered footage emerges of Hindenburg airship, emblazoned with Nazi swastikas, flying over New York just hours before giant fireball killed 35 people

8 May 2013

The ship was widely photographed arriving in Europe, South America and North America during more than 30 transatlantic crossings, but many of the best known images of the doomed craft are from its first few months of service in 1936.


Despite this, very little footage was captured during the Hindenburg’s final hours, as it raced over Manhattan en route to landing in the Lakehurst airfield in New Jersey in an attempt to make up time lost to delays caused by thunderstorms over Boston.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...h-nazi-swastikas-flying-over-new-8607360.html



May 6, 1937

Chicago radio reporter, Herbert Morrison, bore witness to the raging inferno.

“It burst into flames, it burst into flames!” he cried. “And it’s falling, it’s crashing …it’s crashing terrible … Oh, the humanity … oh, ladies and gentlemen …”


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/07/hindenburg-disaster-80th-anniversary

http://www.nlhs.com/80th-anniversary-celebration.html

http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2017/05/last_survivor_of_hindenburg_disaster_the_air_was_o_1.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

A film that was released in 1955, has a theme that is still used, today. We remain fearful of and fascinated by life forms from outer space.The thought of being devoured by an alien life form, is frightening. To be used as a host, for an alien species, is horrifying. To lose a whole civilization, and all species present, to an alien species, is too horrible to contemplate.

https://quadcinema.com/film/the-quatermass-xperiment/

The film studio responsible for many horror films- Hammer Film Productions


"The game changed for Hammer with the success of its 1955 film The Quatermass Xperiment, a science fiction feature whose alien antagonists presaged the studio’s true calling card: monster movies."


When 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein became a worldwide phenomenon, Hammer turned into a cinematic factory, producing films that were written, directed, and produced in-house. These movies were primarily inspired by the rich British literary tradition of gothic horror, drawing terror from mood more than cheap jump scares. Well-known characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, the Phantom of the Opera, and more provided a built-in audience that would return to the cinema for sequel after sequel; Peter Cushing (as Van Helsing, Dr. Frankenstein, and others) and Christopher Lee (best known for his Count Dracula) breathed new life into these familiar stories in what would become some of their most beloved roles.

When the graphic violence that was the studio’s main selling point became more commonplace in films following the New Hollywood revolution of the late 1960s, Hammer added more sexual material to its films in an effort to continue to appeal to exploitation audiences. A mass funding crisis in the 1970s rendered these efforts moot when US studios pulled their support for Hammer. Coupled with the rise in popularity of “adult” American horror films like William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, the studio’s film output ceased completely before the end of the decade.

https://hyperallergic.com/445692/hammer-films-british-studio-horror-movies-quad-cinema/

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Victoria, Queen

Once a Princess, Then a Queen, Now a corpse (if the salve recipe survived, an un-corrupted corpse)

Fuck! Defenseless America is infected. This disease may addle the brain, and leave it crippled and insane. We have "Victorian disease." Americans are now free to die of "famishment."

Alice in Wonderland, indeed.


27-year-old Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert would have enjoyed during their two-night visit.

The 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, who owned the house at the time, had spent £1m redoing the east wing, which sat alongside the newly-repaired west wing – destroyed by massive fire a decade previous. There were also four, circa 1610, hand woven tapestries brought in for the occasion and many repairs made.

Queen Victoria’s stay wasn’t as organised as it could have been; as although Victoria’s advisors had mentioned staying at Hatfield for two years, the Marquess was eventually only given 10 days notice to get the house fully prepared before she arrived.

As Victoria and Albert travelled to Hatfield they were greeted by well wishers.


Rosemary, formerly of cookery show Two Fat Ladies, uncovered the massive banquet which had been prepared for the Queen.

Around 710 bottles of wine were served, alongside dishes such as turtle soup and a massive game pie for the 550 guests, to the tune of £1,200 (£75,000 today) for the entire weekend.


(The villagers enjoyed roasted ox. Who lost out on a plowing animal, in order to placate the poor ?)

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/the-s...e-on-bbc-s-royal-upstairs-downstairs-1-849457

plus £800 pounds worth of turtles, for soup

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture...ating-facts-about-Queen-Victorias-visits.html

The gallery was nearly the length of the mansion. It was redecorated for Victoria. She was not impressed, and sniffed that it was narrow.She complained that the dinner was"long," and it had tired her out. 17 courses would tire anyone out. They provided Victoria with a newly decorated bedchamber with a state bed, fit for a queen.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

They're baaaa-ckkk!

August 3, 2018

Portuguese Man O'War Spotted In Waters Off Martha's Vineyard


It doesn't happen often, but swimmers on Martha's Vineyard are being warned to be on the lookout for Portugese Man O' War. Edgartown officials say the jellyfish-like creatures were spotted in the waters along South Beach.

Research Director Larry Madin, with the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution, cautions beach goers to try and avoid contact and tentacle stings, "the sting is painful. I've experience it myself. It's typically not fatal, and I think it's very rare that people have any really serious problems, but it's certainly something to avoid."

Madin says it's unusual to see Man O' War this far up north and that they are not commonly seen in Massachusetts waters. But, he says, sometimes they're carried by warm ocean currents, "it's unusual, but it does happen every few years and we get a few of them showing up.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-new...n-owar-spotted-in-waters-off-marthas-vineyard

Portuguese Man O'War

The Portugese Man O’ War has a bright, iridescent and blue float and tentacles."( A pretty plastic blue balloon, floating in the water. Are there more than one ? They travel in groups.)

"Although it’s translucent, the float is usually tinted with blue, pink, and/or purple hues."

30ft of tentacles, drifting in the water.

On February 11, 2018, 204 people in Hollywood, Florida were treated for stings, which can lead to red welts on the skin, muscle cramps, elevated heart rates, and vomiting.

Madin cautions beachgoers to stay well away from them. They can still sting even when washed ashore. (Wear flip-flops)

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

August 28, 2018

We’re halfway through the Roman calendar year, and most new year’s resolutions are long forgotten. But as September approaches, our Jewish friends are preparing for year 5779


http://dcist.com/2018/08/a_guide_to_the_jewish_high_holy_days.php

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Nothing much gets lost, now that we have the interwebs and the cloud.

Re-watching a Bob's Burger cartoon, reminded me of the "prune" conversation on a certain thread.

Bob's art lesson was a little more revealing than he expected [+1 to Harold, you dirty dog]:

Bob: What’s happening?
Edith: Life drawing. If you can draw a nude figure, you can draw anything.


http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/bobs-burgers-recap-season-5-episode-8-midday-run.html





Bob's Burgers
@BobsBurgersFOX
Naked Edith = Saggy & sophisticated. Just like it says on her bumper sticker.
#bobsburgers
9:59 PM · Jan 4, 2015


The Mr. Pink
@669jayp
·
Jan 4, 2015
Replying to

@BobsBurgersFOX
huh-hu lotta lotta folds
#bobsburgers



Robin Wallace
@RobinLuvsMusic
·
Jan 4, 2015
Replying to

@BobsBurgersFOX
nooks and crannies! Like a Thomas' English Muffin. (there is no English muffin emoji). Haha

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

The White Hand of Lady Long

he dropped his pen, and refused to write further

Friday 4 October 1594, the Danvers brothers gathered their following together and made for Corsham in Wiltshire. It may have been Justices' day, for there was a considerable party at dinner at Mr Cham- berlain's house: Sir Walter Long, Henry his son and heir, Anthony Mildmay and divers other J.P.'s and gentlemen. The Danvers party pressed into the house; there was a violent scene, and there must have been a scuffle — difficult to make out, naturally enough. Apparently Sir Charles, the elder brother, the shorter of the two, received a wound, for we hear of his saddle all bloody; then Sir Henry, the younger and taller, shot and killed Henry Long. John Aubrey, who was a Danvers

cousin, tells us that 'R. Wisdom and then lecturer and preached that day, and Henry Long expired in his arms.'


The brothers then made across country to Titchfield, to their friend, young South- ampton, for aid. He put them up at a lodge in his park from Saturday to Tuesday, while preparations were made by his ste- ward, Mr Dymoke, for their escape. A servant girl washed the brothers' shirts for them, one of them covered with blood; a stableman later gave evidence as to 'a maidenhair-coloured velvet saddle' all bloody. The brothers, with their atten- dants, were got over the water to Calshot Castle, while waiting for a boat to take them across the Channel to safety. Some years later, when Sir Charles was involved in Essex's rebellion, he deposed that he was persuaded into it by Southampton, to whom he had owed his life.


We need not go into the details of their escape, except for one very revealing piece of evidence. The hue and cry was up in all the country; when the Sheriff was passing over Itchen ferry in pursuit, 'one Florio an Italian, and one Drewell, a servant of the Earl of Southampton', threatened to throw the Sheriff overboard. Meanwhile, the young Earl had hurried off to London away from the scene. John Florio, later well known for his Italian dictionary and translations, was Southampton's tutor in the language and household servant — as such, well known to William Shakespeare, the Earl's poet.



It all made a shocking affair, the knights guilty of murder, and of treason for flying abroad, their property forfeited.

Their gentle old father died immediately after the disaster to his family — Aubrey tells us that 'his sons' sad accident brake his heart'. This was his wife's view too, though she was far from giving up — she took an active step to help her sons' cause. 'To obtain pardons for her sons she married Sir Edmund Carey, cousin-german to Queen Elizabeth, but kept him to hard meat.'

http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/16th-february-1985/31/shakespeare-and-the-danvers-long-feud

Country House Revealed

South Wraxall

Country House Revealed - A Secret History of the British Ancestral Home'. The series promises a look behind the estate wall at some homes which have never been open to the public, giving us a rare chance to glimpse houses which enjoy secure, well-funded ownership and demonstrating that the fears of those who thought these houses would never be sustainable have been thankfully proved wrong.


PBS
WGBH

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Full frontal nudity

Holy backtrack, Batman! DC withdraws caped crusader's nude scene


After much online glee, the publisher has removed the first glimpse of the superhero’s genitals from its latest Batman issue – prompting fans to chase unaltered copies.

Published this week, Batman: Damned – part of a new, “edgy and provocative” line from DC – features Batman and the magician John Constantine hunting for a killer in Gotham City. The nude scene, drawn by Lee Bermejo, occurs as Batman removes the Batsuit for a body scan from his computer. The superhero’s genitals were visible in the print edition, but obscured by darkness in digital editions.

On Friday, DC confirmed to the Guardian that Batman’s genitals would no longer be depicted in any future editions of the comic. The Hollywood Reporter quotes a “source close to the project” as saying the studio had decided “the nudity did not add to the story and would be removed in future printings”, after an online furore.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/21/batmans-genitals-dc-withdraws-nude-scene-damned

 

[runsilent]

Opened this thread to see what the insomniacs were saying. I looked at the last two pages and decided gotsnowgotslush has not slept in months.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Our little robot friends, carry our dreams with them.

"interstellar space"

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2


http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/10/voyager-2-spacecraft-approaches-interstellar-space

https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Binge!


Film exerted a profound influence on Gorey’s aesthetic. “I’ve been watching movies for close to seventy years,” he told an interviewer in 1998. “My family took me to movies very early. I’ve always been an inveterate moviegoer. There was a period in New York where I would see a thousand movies a year.” If this strains credulity, bear in mind that Everson’s screenings sometimes verged on endurance tests: “Movies used to be an hour long,” Gorey recalled, “but we’d see twelve or fifteen movies and be bleary by the time it was all over.”

Book Excerpt: The Cinephiliac Tendencies of Author/Illustrator Edward Gorey


Mark Dery's new biography 'Born to Be Posthumous' includes details on the Godfather of Goth's time in NYC film-buff circles, alongside Susan Sontag and Andrew Sarris

http://flavorwire.com/615134/book-e...tendencies-of-author-illustrator-edward-gorey

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Post- Dinosaur Apocalypse ?


It was 60 million years ago in South America, which had not yet joined with its northern counterpart, where the terror birds rose to power in isolation as apex predators. Even given their success, their fossils are fragmentary and extremely rare, according to paleontologist Luis Chiappe, who in 2007 described the titanic, strangely boxy noggin of the biggest terror bird ever: Kelenken, named after the fearsome bird spirit of Patagonia’s native Tehuelche people.

It's the largest known skull for terror birds,” he said. “As a matter of fact, it’s the largest known bird skull, period. It’s about two-and-a-half feet long, an enormous, colossal beast with a very big hook at the end of the beak like an eagle.”

Whatever their diet, and whatever their methods of feeding, the empire of the terror birds entered a slow decline starting around 4.5 million years ago, when the Central American isthmus formed, joining two heretofore self-contained continents. All those creatures that had evolved in isolation for millions of years now found themselves mingling and schmoozing and shaking hands – with their teeth.


Terror birds made their way up into what is now the southern United States, while North America’s top predators – bears and big cats – colonized South America. “So they had to face new competition for the same resources,” said Chiappe, “and that combined with perhaps changes in climate they may not have been able to cope with and that may have impacted their hunting strategies, probably drove them to extinction.”

https://www.wired.com/2014/03/absurd-creature-week-terror-bird/

Was this Fred Flintstone's equivalent of a turkey dinner ?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Fasting all day, attending Christian Christmas Mass at midnight-


Attending a feast, afterwards.

Sleeping in, the next day.

European families continue to honor the birth of their Jesus the Christ, at night.The story of a child born at night, and placed in a hay manger, located in a barn, is still told.


Humanity has come a long way, in 2,000 years.


Some interesting thoughts

New Orleans Nostalgia


Ned Hémard's weekly column remembering New Orleans history, culture and traditions


(downloads)


http://www.neworleansbar.org/new-orleans-nostalgia.html


Reveillon revival: A New Orleans tradition reborn


https://www.nola.com/300/2017/12/the_reveillon_revivial_new_orl.html

Réveillon Dinner


This French Creole Christmas Eve tradition takes midnight munchies to a whole new level



https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/reveillon-dinner

 

[Ann_Tagonist]

I have decided to power through lack of sleep and not worry about it anymore.

 

[bodysong]

Walpurgis Night


Why April 30?

Some folklorists point out that Walpurgis Night falls on the evening before May Day, a day long associated in folklore with the death of winter, the birth of spring, and the celebration of nature. Walpurgis Night itself falls exactly six months from Halloween, another evening associated with uncanny forces and supernatural encounters in European folklore. Some folklorists speculate that in past times people viewed these two dates as turning points in the cycle of the year, and thus as times when the walls dividing the natural and the supernatural worlds waned thin.

https://witchesofthecraft.com/2019/...te-i-ran-across-this-info-on-walpurgis-night/


Samhain – April 30th/May 1st

I like the explanation of Vikings practicing old rites.

 

[bodysong]

oops, not America's Samhain

https://www.scotsman.com/news/peopl...val-2019-to-focus-on-climate-change-1-4917528

Our planet is dying, and collectively we are living through the cycles of grief. This year’s Beltane reflects that grief.

“The May Queen – embodiment of the Earth – arises this year, not as the perfect flower of tradition, but as the Earth as it truly is – covered with plastic, oil spills, and on fire. She is angry. She is sad. She is grieving for what is lost.”

In a video message, O’Neill said: “Beltane honours the goddess, the divine feminine that is within all of us, regardless of gender. It’s about fostering qualities of care, compassion, community, equity, empathy, collaboration and communication.

“The May Queen’s story and character this year is quite different from the past. When she rises out of the Acropolis on Calton Hill she is not the flowery goddess she has always been.

“She is really angry, looks down at her dress covered in oil spills, pesticides and deforestation and is enraged. She wants to call war.

“But she comes out of her state of anger, which is ultimately from a place of fierce love for the earth and her children. Her story is one of alchemy and of taking that anger and turning it into joy.”


Festival trustee Bradley McArthur said: “The May Queen will look as majestic as normal, but for anyone who has been to Beltane before, her regalia will look different.

“When she is awakened she is very much in an abused state, to represent how much the earth has been abused. There will be changes in her mannerisms and behaviour.

“There will be subtle differences in how she carries herself throughout the night, moves about the hill and interacts with certain groups.

“She will very angry at the start, but that tempers off a bit as she realises you don’t have to be angry to be strong or defend what you believe is right.”

The UK Guardian has a good collection of pics of the people that participated, that eve and May Day morn.

 

[Ann_Tagonist]

Someone go wake up gsgs.

 

[silver gurl]

Someone go wake up gsgs.

I was wondering where she went?

Wide wake. Insomnia has hit lately.