Honouring the Goddess, But Not the Internet.

I decided to have another fire in honour of my favourite goddess, Aine. I’d heard that Aine’s feast is on Midsummer Eve, which is today, but I’d also heard a reference to it being on St John’s Eve. What does one do when in doubt these days? Look on the internet, of course. This is what I found.

Some references said it was on the eve of the summer solstice, some said it was on June 24^th, St John’s Eve. But I also read that John the Baptist’s feast day is on June 24^th, which would mean that St John’s Eve should be on June 23^rd, since ‘Eve’ denotes the day before. Or could it be that the information was incorrect and the Baptist’s feast day is actually June 25^th? Blowed if I know.

I decided to go with Midsummer Eve. Whatever the true date of St John’s Eve, it’s no more than an arbitrary date dreamed up by the early Christians to take it six months back from Christmas. I felt that Aine would be more inclined to favour a natural point of cosmic significance than something conveniently invented by the Christian Church. So I had the fire tonight. It poured with rain throughout and I had to change nearly all my clothes when I came in, which I thought typical of Aine making her presence felt. I’ve associated her with water ever since that strange episode in Ireland fifteen years ago. I’ve been expecting it to rain ever since I decided to have the fire.

I’m digressing from the main point of this post, however, which is that the internet – so relied upon by schoolchildren these days – is a pile of shite when it comes to getting reliable information. Why don’t we just go back to using proper books?