Tidewater Conjure

07/23/2025

Happy Feast of St. Mary of Magdala--Apostle to the Apostles!

Art by Robert Lentz, OFM

05/03/2025

Us Pennsylvania Dutch have a plethora of superstitions about the month of May.

This month held many positive and negative intonations.

It's a common held belief that collecting the first rain of May and washing your hair with this water would make your hair grow extremely fast and long. There's an entire ritual concerning the morning dew on May 1st but I will address that later today on a separate post.

The month of May was considered an unlucky month particularly for getting married. "Marry in May and you'll rue the day" "Maid or widow married this month must expect ill luck"
~Being born in May was thought to produce a sickly child.
~Never buy a broom in May
"Buy a broom in the month of May, sweep a family member away"
~Never wash blankets in May. "Wash a blanket in May, wash a dear one away"
~Cats born in May will bring snakes into the home.
~Taking baths in May is considered unlucky and even thought to bring death to the home. "Those who bathe in May will soon be laid in clay"
~ Any Hares (rabbits) seen on May morning are witches in disguise

05/01/2025

Beltane

Beltane occurs about halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. It celebrates spring at its peak and marks the transition to summer. It is a time for purification and as such has been commemorated with bonfires by ancient people. Households would douse their individual fires and relight them from a common bonfire. Livestock were often driven through a path between two bonfires in order to protect them from disease and ensure a fruitful breeding seasons.

Etymology:
The word Beltane is the anglicized name for the Irish Lá Bealtaine, the Scottish Là Bealltainn and closely related to the Welsh Calan Mai. It’s meaning is equivalent to “lucky fire” and historical etymology suggests that the original Gaelic word for the festival was beloteniâ, meaning ‘bright fire’

—Summer Bonfires. Murzilka No. 7. 1924.

04/13/2025

🌿 Palm Sunday in Welsh Folklore: A Day for the Living and the Dead 🌸

In Wales, Palm Sunday isn’t just about palm branches—it's a moment steeped in memory, magic, and old-world rituals.

Known in Welsh as Sul-y-Blodau—Flowering Sunday—this day was once marked by the decoration of graves with flowers. Whole cemeteries would bloom as families gathered to honour their ancestors. A quiet, floral tribute to the dead.

But the traditions went even deeper.

In parts of South Wales, villagers built a wooden donkey and rider, decked them in evergreens and flowers, and wheeled them to church. Each person in the procession carried a sprig—usually boxwood—for protection. After a blessing from the priest, those charms were kept all year to ward off witches and misfortune.

Palm Sunday: a time to honour the dead and protect from evil.

04/06/2025

In Appalachia, Spring awakes,
With emerald hills and misty lakes.
The tender green in forests deep,
Where shadows dance and willows weep.

Redbuds bloom in pinkish hues,
A canvas brushed by morning’s dews.
The air is soft, the sky is wide,
As colors paint the mountainside.

The earth, it sings with life anew,
In shades of green and pinkish blue.
A quiet joy, so wild, so free,
Spring in the hills of Appalachia, we see.

04/04/2025

Folk saints, canonized or not, stand as champions of the people, and embody hope for a more just and equitable world.

04/03/2025

This morning marked a proud and historic moment for our people as the sign for Kuwohi was officially unveiled in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Lavita Hill and Mary “Missy” Crowe were vital in restoring this name to our ancestral homelands. Their dedication to our language, culture, and people made this day possible.

Restoring the name Kuwohi is a reminder that our connection to these mountains is as strong today as it’s ever been.

03/18/2025

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

02/24/2025

Witches of Scotland official tartan design.

From the Scottish Register of Tartan website:
This design was created to memorialise those who suffered as a result of The Witchcraft Act 1563 to 1736 in Scotland. This tartan will be woven to make products to help create a ‘living memorial’. The black & grey colours are intended to represent both the dark times of this period and ashes of those burned. It also incorporates red & pink colours, symbolic of the legal tapes used to bind papers both during that time and now. The threadcount of this design incorporates the years 1563 and 1736, represented as single entries, 1+5+6+3 = 15 and 1+7+3+6 = 17. These are shown in black and grey surrounding a white check of 3 threads, these threads represent the core objectives of the organisation, which are to ensure a pardon, an apology and memorials are achieved. The large black section of 173 threads is intended to represents the 173 years of darkness and red & pink sections are repeated 3 times, for the 3 prime objectives of the Witches of Scotland organisation.

02/16/2025

02/02/2025

Heute ist Murmeltiertag... Groundhog Day. Although not here, as it doesn't exist.

But it did in a way, as emigrants took their traditions with them when they moved to the USA.

Its origins are a combination of European and German folklore, and today's Christian festival of Maria Lichtmess/Candlemas. Forty days after Christmas, it commemorates Mary bringing Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem.

These were added to weather patterns, and pagan traditions surrounding the 2nd of February, winter's midpoint, when sunshine on the day, combined with an emerging badger for example, was seen as a harbinger of a long winter.

"Wenn der Dachs zu Maria Lichtmeßen, mittags zwischen 11 und 12 Uhr seinen Schatten sieht, so muß er noch vier Wochen in seinem Baue bleiben" - Bauernregel.

When the badger sees his shadow at noon between 11 and 12 o'clock on the feast of St Mary, he must remain in his den for another four weeks... Country lore. Which became six weeks in the USA.

Whether it really had to be a badger is unclear, other sources speak of bears and hedgehogs.

"Wenn der Bär auf Lichtmess seinen Schatten sieht, kriecht er wieder auf vierzig Tage in die Höhle."
‘When the bear sees its shadow at Candlemas, it crawls back into its den for another forty days." Six weeks for the USA.

and

"Wenn der Igel Lichtmess seinen Schatten sieht, so Kriecht er wieder auf sechs Wochen ins Loch."
"If the hedgehog sees his shadow at Candlemas, he will crawl back into his hole for another six weeks."

Whereas in Britain it was Candlemas that predicted the weather for the rest of the winter:

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter won't come again.

In the USA a Groundhog took over, and is a million dollar industry with Punxsutawney Phil and friends. The "forecasting" groundhogs.

While for some Candlemas remains a festival of light, with a blessing of the candles to be used in the coming year, followed by a candlelit procession.

The last of the winter feast days associated with the birth and infancy of Jesus, and seen as the finale of the Christmas season.

And time to take down that Christmas tree, or what remains of it.

Photo credit: European Badger, Gigghi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

02/02/2025

Beannachtai La Féile Bríde! Happy Saint Brigid’s Day to all 🔥

Artist: Wendy Andrew