Seasonal Calendar and Special Events

February 2nd, 2010 — Brigid or Imbolc (Oimelc)

As the days' lengthening becomes perceptible, many candles are lit to hasten the warming of the earth and emphasize the reviving of life. "Imbolc" is from Old Irish, and may mean "in the belly", and Oimelc, "ewe's milk", as this is the lambing time. It is the holiday of the Celtic Fire Goddess Brigid, whose threefold nature rules smithcraft, poetry/inspiration, and healing. Brigid's fire is a symbolic transformation offering healing, visions, and tempering. Februum is a Latin word meaning purification -- naming the month of cleansing. The thaw releases waters (Brigid is also a goddess of holy wells) -- all that was hindered is let flow at this season.

March 20th, 2010 — Ostara

Day and night are equal as Spring begins to enliven the environment with new growth and more newborn animals. Many people feel "reborn" after the long nights and coldness of winter. The Germanic Goddess Ostara or Eostre (Goddess of the Dawn), after whom Easter is named, is the tutelary deity of this holiday. It is she, as herald of the sun, who announces the triumphal return of life to the earth. Witches in the Greek tradition celebrate the return from Hades of Demeter's daughter Persephone; Witches in the Celtic tradition see in the blossoms the passing of Olwen, in whose footprints flowers bloom. The enigmatic egg, laid by the regenerating snake or the heavenly bird, is a powerful symbol of the emergence of life out of apparent death or absence of life.

May 1st, 2010 — Beltaine

As the weather heats up and the plant world burgeons, an exuberant mood prevails. Folk dance around the Maypole, emblem of fertility (the name "May" comes from a Norse word meaning "to shoot out new growth"). May 1st was the midpoint of a five-day Roman festival to Flora, Goddess of Flowers. The name "Beltaine" means "Bel's Fires"; in Celtic lands, cattle were driven between bonfires to bless them, and people leaped the fires for luck. The association in Germany of May Eve with Witches' gatherings is a memory of pre-Christian tradition. "Wild" water (dew, flowing streams or ocean water) is collected as a basis for healing drinks and potions for the year to come.

May 28th, 2010 — Turning the Wheel ~ Beltane Celebration~

Come and celebrate the Joy of Spring at a very special Beltane Celebration. Join us as we gather at A Sacred Place in Canaan NH for, Dancing, Singing, Workshops, and even Camping. Come sleep under the stars for the weekend and camp at the site, or just come for one of the 4 days of this Blessed Beltane Retreat. Running from Friday May 28th - to Monday May 31st. Don't miss the Kitchen Witchery Workshop on Saturday evening at 6pm and bring a dish for the potluck afterwards!!!
For more info and to register for the event visit:
www.aspcanaan.org

June 5th, 2010 — Templefest

We are so honored to be asked to participate in this Private event. Vendors, Workshops and Merriment abound in Derry NH. Sorry, but the event is open only to Temple of Witchcraft members and their Guests. For more information on the Temple of Witchcraft and how to become a member please visit:
www.templeofwitchcraft.org

June 21st, 2010 — Litha or Midsummer

On this day, the noon of the year and the longest day, light and life are abundant. We focus outward, experiencing the joys of plenty, tasting the first fruits of the season. In some traditions the sacred marriage of the Goddess and God is celebrated (in others, this is attributed to the springtime holidays). Rhea, the Mountain Mother of Crete, has breathed out all creation. It is also the festival of the Chinese Goddess of Light, Li.

June 26th, 2010 — Winslowshire Renn Faire

This is our very first Renn Faire!!! Please come join us in Norton MA on June 26th and 27th as we raise money for the Winslow Animal Sanctuary. This one of a kind Renn Faire is being held on the Animal sanctuary for a truly unique Faire experience. We will be there with all our Kitchen Witch Goodies so get Dressed in your best Renn Gear and join us at the Faire. For more info and directions visit:
http://www.winslowshire.com/

July 17th, 2010 — Midsummer Magick Renn Faire

July 17,18 and 24,25
Midsummer Magick Renaissance Faire Oxford CT

Fairies and Magick and Adventure! This promises to be a fantastic, fun filled, fantasy faire! Come down to Oxford for one or all of the weekends of this event and enjoy Music, Bardic tales, Family fun and a tasty nibble at Cucina Aurora's booth!

For more info contact us or visit:
http://midsummermagickfaire.com

August 1st, 2010 — Lughnasadh or Lammas

This festival has two aspects. First, it is one of the Celtic fire festivals, honoring the Celtic culture-bringer and Solar God Lugh (Lleu to the Welsh, Lugus to the Gauls). In Ireland, races and games were held in his name and that of his mother, Tailtiu (these may have been funeral games). The second aspect is Lammas, the Saxon Feast of Bread, at which the first of the grain harvest is consumed in riutal loaves. These aspects are not too dissimilar, as the shamanic death and transformation of Lleu can be compared to that of the Barley God, known from the folksong "John Barleycorn". This time is also sacred to the Greek Goddess of the Moon and the Hunt, Artemis.

August 5th, 2010 — Celectial Songs/Earthly Drums Bethel VT

Come and camp with us! Aug 5-8th 2010. A very special weekend to celebrate Mother Earth, Father Sky and Lughnasadh hosted by Kirk White! Come for the weekend or just for the day. Dawn from Cucina Aurora will be doing a Kitchen Witch workshop and there are many many more workshops and classes to enjoy. Not to mention, musical entertainment. Join us as we commune with the Earth and share Joy and Laughter in her honor!

For more information contact us or visit:
www.laurelin.eventsbot.com

August 14th, 2010 — Southern Maine Pagan Pride Day

Kick off Celebrating Pagan Pride with us in Portland Maine! Our first of the many Pagan Pride events we will be at on the East Coast! Join us for a Kitchen Witch 101 class and learn how to use harvest foods that are in season now. Stop by the booth for a taste of our infused oils and have a smile an have your copy of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery Cookbook signed by the author!
For More info and directions please visit
http://www.mainepaganprideday.org/index.html

August 22nd, 2010 — Rhode Island Pagan Pride Day

Cucina Aurora is so excited to be Vending and giving our very first Kitchen Witch workshop in RI! So come and join us for an intro to Kitchen Witchery and all your favorate Cucina Aurora products!!!!
For more info visit:
www.ripaganpride.com

August 28th, 2010 — CT Pagan Pride Day

Another First for Cucina Aurora!!! CT here we come! Hope to see all you Southern New Englanders and maybe some on my Long Island friends come for a workshop and some tasty treets at the booth in Berlin CT!
For more Information contact us or visit:
http://www.myspace.com/ctpaganpride

September 4th, 2010 — Meet and Greet and Tasty Treets

Join Cucina Aurora as we share healthy snacks, and recipe ideas for Back to School! Bliss Spa and Salon in North Andover MA is hosting Cucina Aurora to give a hand in eating seasonally and food ideas to help start the school year off right! Get a Manicure and have a snack! What is better then that!!!

For more information and directions contact us or visit:
http://www.blissspaandsalon.com/

September 11th, 2010 — New Hampshire Pagan Pride Day

Just in time for the beginner of the foliage we are so happy to be invited to the New Hampshire Pagan Pride Day! Having a dear friend who has live in NH for the last 20 years or so, we know how beautiful the landscape and we are thrilled to bring our brand of Food Magic to NH with a Workshop, and a few new products for everyone to taste and enjoy!
For more info and directions please visit:
http://snhpaganpride.org/

September 12th, 2010 — Southeastern MASS Pagan Pride

Making our way through New England Celebrating Pagan Pride and joyfully revelling in Diversity we make a stop in Southeastern MA in Lakeville. Although we missed this event last year do to schedualing overlaps Cucina Aurora will be there this year with bells on! Literally!!! Stop by the booth and pull up a patch of earth to talk about Seasonal foods in our Kitchen Witch Workshop!
For more info contact us or visit:
www.semappd.com

September 18th, 2010 — Western MA Pagan Pride Day

Join us as we Celebrate Pagan Pride in MA! Sit among the beautiful MA trees and learn about food Magic and Kitchen Witchery. Stop by the booth and pick up a Kitchen Witch kit so you can begin making sacred meals in your home that very night!
For more info and directions please visit:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151326988210718&ref=ts

September 19th, 2010 — Eastern MASS Pagan Pride Day

Right in our own back yard! Well, not really, but close enough!!! Come join us as we have a blast celebrating Pagan Pride in Bradley Palmer State Forest. Vending and Workshops and Music OH MY!
More Details to follow.

September 22nd, 2010 — Mabon or Harvest Home

This day sees light and dark in balance again, before the descent to the dark times. A harvest festival is held, thanking the Goddess for giving us enough sustenance to feed us through the winter. Harvest festivals of many types still occur today in farming country, and Thanksgiving is an echo of these.
In this way the Wheel turns, bringing us back to Samhain where we began our cycle. Many of the festival days coincide with holidays of the Jewish and Christian calendars. This is no accident; these points in the year were important community celebrations, and were kept largely intact although they were rededicated to the Christian God or a saint. The names may have changed, but the old Pagan practices still show through. Click here to know more about Mabon.

September 25th, 2010 — NYC Pagan Pride Day

Home, Sweet Home....Celebrate your Pagan-ness with Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery at the New York City annual Pagan Pride Day!!! We will be there with all our Kitchen Wares and yummy oils. Stop by for a taste of our best selling garlic and herb mix and be sure to come to Kitchen Witch Workshop in the big Apple at Pagan Pride day! We are so excited to be part of this event for the second time and hope you all can come and celebrate the Goddess and the Autumn Season with us in Battery Park. For more information contact us or visit
http://www.nyc-ppp.org/index.html

October 3rd, 2010 — Long Island’s Wolf Expo

Shop and enjoy a real wild life fundraiser in your own back yard! Come in and bring a friend to see Long Island’s own Wolves, Sitka and Ukia. Visit our table of Kitchen goodies while you support local nature and wildlife. Mother Nature will be surrounding us all day so come and bask in it and visit us!
Get more info, and directions at: http://www.runningwiththewolves.org/

October 9th, 2010 — Salem Mass Biz Baz on Salem Common

October 9th and 10th from 9am until when ever!

Planning your Annual trip to Salem in the fall? Your friends at Cucina Aurora will be there to ring in October the way only we can! Come and find us on Essex Street. We will be vending and giving mini workshops though out the day. Be sure to pick up your copy of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery Cookbook and have it signed by the author in Salem. Stop by our tent and make us part of the memories you make in Salem Mass! For more info e-mail us or click here for local accommodations and Directions to Salem Mass:
http://www.salem-chamber.org/events.html

October 23rd, 2010 — Celebrate Samhain -Peterborough NH

Join us in New Hampshire for a Samhain Celebration like none we have seen to date! Cucina Aurora will be giving a FREE workshop on Samhain foods and we might possibly have a tasting! Listen to the Drummers, Enjoy the vendors and remember those who have crossed over. The Veils are thinnest and the time is right to Celebrate Samhain with new friends, old friends and friends you have not met yet!
For more information and directions go to:
www.celebratesamhain.com

October 30th, 2010 — Long Island Witch Festival

How does a Kitchen Witch Celebrate Samhain? Come and see at the Witch Festival! Join Cucina Aurora’s Autumn Kitchen Workshop at the festival. We will talk about Seasonal foods, the origin of Samhain and how to prep the Kitchen and Home for the Season. We will also spend some time exploring the foods Fall and early Winter have to offer. You can also find all your Favorite Kitchen Wares as well as some new and exciting food prep items and aprons. Don’t forget to bring the Children by the table for some free Autumn Harvest Cookies! The workshop is free with admission to the festival. For more info and directions e-mail us or click here: http://www.crescentmoongoddess.com/samhain/index.htm

October 31st, 2010 — Samhain

The night lengthens and we work with the positive aspects of darkness in the increasing star- and moonlight. Many Craft traditions, following the ancient Celts, consider this the eve of the New Year (as day begins with sundown, so the year begins with the first day of Winter). It is one night when the barriers between the worlds of life and death are uncertain, allowing the ancestors to walk among the living, welcomed and feasted by their kin, bestowing the Otherworld's blessings. We may focus within ourselves to look "through the glass darkly", developing our divination and psychic skills.

November 11th, 2010 — FAERIECON in Baltimore MD!

Three days of Fairie Magic for you and for Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery! We have been gifted by the Faeries to get the chance to join them in the dance of being joyful! Please Join us for this 3 day festival. Nov 11,12 & 13th. If not the weekend, stay for the day and a bit of the night. We will have all our usual Kitchen Witch Goodies and a few surprises as well! Come see our booth inspired by the nature spirits of the fall forest! For more info, directions and reservations please visit:
http://www.faeriecon.com/

December 21st, 2010 — Yule

The sun is at its nadir, the year's longest night. We internalize and synthesize the outward-directed activities of the previous summer months. Some covens hold a Festival of Light to commemorate the Goddess as Mother giving birth to the Sun God. Others celebrate the victory of the Lord of Light over the Lord of Darkness as the turning point from which the days will lengthen. The name "Yule" derives from the Norse word for "wheel", and many of our customs (like those of the Christian holiday) derive from Norse and Celtic Pagan practices (the Yule log, the tree, the custom of Wassailing, et al).