June Observances

Thanks to The Daily Globe: "J" WORLD

1st Festival of the Oak Nymph/Festival of Carna

Festivsal of the Oak Nymph is to celebrate and honor all hamadryads (female natures spirits who inhabit oak trees)

Festival of Carna is the celebration of the Roman goddess of bodily organs.

2nd Shabatu of Ishtar/Mother Shipton's Day/Seamen's Day

One of the Holy days of the Goddess Ishtar of Babylon and Assyria, a festival called the Shabatu of Ishtar was held annually on this date. Ishtar, Lady of heaven, Goddess of the Moon, the Great Mother, was a Goddess of both positive and negative qualities. She was the sister of Erishkigal, queen of the Underworld.

Mother Shipton (Ursula Sontheil), is honored the Wednesday immediately after Whitsunday, which sometimes falls on this date. She was a famous seer in Cambridge, England, and is the patron saint of women working in laundries.

3rd Chimborazo Day/Second Festival of Pax

5th Sheela-Na-Gug/World Environment Day

World Environment Day was established June 5, 1972 by developing a United Nations Environment Programme headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. The goals of this organization are to keep watch over the world's environment and help countries work together to solve regional problems.

7th Vesta Aperit

The eight-day long festival Vestalia began on this date in ancient Rome in honor of the hearth Goddess Vesta. The shrine of Vesta was opened to married women at this time, but at it's conclusion, the shrine was once again forbidden to all except the Goddess' attendant Vestal Virgins.

8th Lindisfarne Day

In the year 793 CE, three Norwegian dragon ships raided the monastery at Lindisfarne, officially starting the Viking Age.

10th Day of Anahita

11th King Kamehameha Day

Kamehemeha was the first king of Hawaii, having united the islands in 1810. In June, his memory is honored with a state holiday, parade and other events on all islands.

12th Riding the Marches

13th Feast of Epona/Festival of Jove

Known as Rhiannon in Wales, Macha in Ireland, and Epona to the Gauls, this ancient horse goddess is one of the most well known of all the Celtic gods and goddesses. Horses played an important role in Celtic society. Naturally the protector of horses would play an equally important role.

Festival of Jove is a celebration in honor of Jove (Jupiter), the celestial lord of light. The tibia (flute) players wore masks on this day and played throughout the city streets, with a special celebration in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

15th St. Vitus' Day

Unreliable legend has Vitus, the only son of a senator in Sicily, become a Christian when he was twelve. When his conversions and miracles became widely known to the administrator of Sicily, Valerian, he had Vitus brought before him, to shake his faith.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saints/vitus.html

16th Night of the Teardrop

In ancient Egypt, the annual festival known as Night of the Teardrop occurred on this date to honor Isis and the loss of her brother and husband, the God Osiris, murdered by his brother, the evil God Set, who was jealous of Osiris' position and power.

18th Father's Day

In 1909, Sonora Louise Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington was listening to a Mother's Day sermon. It made her think about her father, William Smart. Smart raised Sonora and her five siblings when their mother died in childbirth. Mrs. Dodd wanted to celebrate a "father's day" on the first Sunday in June, which was her father's birthday. She persuaded the Ministerial Society of Spokane to conduct special church services to salute fathers. http://americanhistory.about.com/homework/americanhistory...

19th Waa-Laa Begins

20th Summer Solstice/Litha/Midsummer Eve/Cerridwen Day

Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year when the Sun is at its zenith. In ancient Ireland, the Midsummer Eve was dedicated to the faery Goddess Aine who inhabits Cnoc 'Aine of Kerry County. Aine was a Sun Goddess of love and fertility, but also associated with the moon. She is said to have planted an entire hill of peas in one night. Torches of hay and straw were waived over crops and cattle to bring luck and increase to fields and pastures, while guarding humans against illness and infertility.The Celtic Goddess Cerridwen is honored on this day by Pagans. Cerridwen of Wales was a Dark Moon Goddess of fertility. Her symbols were the cauldron, grain, and the moon.

Litha is a fire festival, one of the four Esbats of the year. It honors the Lord as sun god or horned god at the peak of his powers, the King of Summer crowned with roses. Litha also honors the Lady, the Love-and-Death Goddess ripe for union.
In the agricultural year Midsummer is the time of full bloom, between planting and harvest.
http://www.open-sesame.com/Litha.html

21st Midsummer

The first day of Summer normally occurs on or near this date. In many traditions, Midsummer symbolizes the end of the reign of the waxing year's Oak-King, who is now replaced by the Holly-King of the waning year (who rules until Winter Solstice).

22nd Feast of San Aloisio/Corpus Christi

24th Inti Raymi/Feast of John the Baptist/Festival of Fortuna

A Sun-God festival called Inti Raymi was celebrated annually on this date by the ancient Incas of Peru to exalt the maize harvest. To the Incas in the Southern Hemisphere, this was the season of the Winter Solstice, since the seasons are reversed. Llamas were ritually slaughtered and their entrails consulted by priests for divining the future. Chanting would last from sunrise to sunset. Inti was the Sun God of the ruling dynasty, represented by a great golden disk with a human face.

Christians the world over, celebrate the Feast of John the Baptist annually on this day. Just as the Midwinter celebration of Yule was adopted by Christians as Christmas (December 25th), so was the Midsummer celebration adopted by as the Feast of John the Baptist (June 24th). The Midwinter celebration celebrates the birth of Jesus, while the Midsummer celebration commemorates the birth of John, the prophet, born six months before Jesus in order to announce his arrival.

The Temple of Fortuna stood on the banks of the Tiber and on this day many Romans would make a pilgrimage on foot or by boats decorated with garlands of flowers. Fortuna was especially popular with poorer Romans and the servant class, who sought the blessings that more successful Romans already had.

25th Well-Dressing Festival/Tartar Festival of the Plow

Springs have been venerated since pre-Christian times when festivals honouring the wells were held and well heads were decorated with flowers and garlands of greenery. Well dressing is still celebrated at many of the abundant and naturally occuring watersources in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and the limestone area known as the Peak District. http://www.apusapus.demon.co.uk/ailsa/England/welldres.htm

Tartar Festival of the Plow dates back to the Middle Ages when the Tartars ruled Russia. It was a day to celebrate the end of spring planting. Today, celebrations include: wrestling, horse racing, and climbing feats.

26th Iroquois Green Corn Festival

Salavi, the Spruce Tree Rain God, is honored annually on this day by a Native American corn-ripening ceremony.

28th Festival of the Tarasque

29th Feast of Ogun

Back to Observances

Back to Main Contents