Pagan & Shinto News: Edinburgh Beltane Fire Festival Move Celebrations Online

Pagan & Shinto News: Edinburgh Beltane Fire Festival Move Celebrations Online April 12, 2020

Top stories in Paganism and Shinto this week:

  • UK: Beltane Fire Festival move celebrations online due to coronavirus
  • US: Sex spell discovered on ancient Egyptian papyrus
  • Japan: Artist celebrates Meiji Shrine centennial with massive 15-foot sculpture

Read more below…

Left: 2012 Beltane Fire Festival bonfire on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland, Stefan Schäfer, Lich / CC BY-SA. Centre: The Edwin Smith papyrus, Jeff Dahl / Public domain. Right: Entrance to Meiji Shrine, public domain

Pagan News

UK: Beltane Fire Festival move celebrations online due to coronavirus
Edinburgh Today
The world-famous Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburgh will move online for the first time amid the coronavirus lockdown…

US: Mike Tyson turned to witchcraft to try to escape rape jail sentence
The Sun
n his book, Tyson recalls considering expensive urine spells, washing in iffy oils and finally settling on smashing a pigeon egg…

Story behind the famous rabbit we celebrate at Easter – and when he delivers chocolate eggs
Edinburgh News
The Easter Bunny has long been associated with the holiday of Easter, but where does the well-known rabbit come from and what is its role?…

Why do we have Easter eggs and why are they made from chocolate?
Metro
While Easter this year will be different for many people, not just in the UK but worldwide, the tradition of giving and eating Easter eggs will still be observed in many households despite the UK being in lockdown…

Shinto News

Japan: Tomokazu Matsuyama Celebrates Meiji Shrine Centennial With Massive 15-Foot Sculpture
Hypebeast
Curated by Art Powers Japan, the festival of arts and culture celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Meiji Shrine, one of the most historical Shinto shrines in Japan dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shoken…

Shrine sets up large grass hoops to ward off virus
NHK World
The coronavirus outbreak has prompted a Shinto shrine in Kyoto to break away from a centuries-old tradition and set up large grass hoops that usually appear only in summer to fend off a plague…

Sendai Tanabata Festival Canceled amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Nippon.com
Sendai Tanabata Festival, which is held in the northeastern Japan city of Sendai in August every year, will be canceled this year due to the coronavirus crisis, the organizer said Friday…

Looking for solace in Japanese mythology during a pandemic
The Japan Times
For well over a millennium, religion and folk beliefs have been offering comfort and remedies in the face of deadly epidemics that have plagued Japan. Now, amid growing anxiety over the invisible pathogen that has been claiming tens of thousands of lives around the world, some Japanese are turning to faith and mythology for solace…

Other News

US: Sex spell that would force a man into bed with his female admirer is discovered on ancient Egyptian papyrus
Mail Online
The newly-translated spell demands that a man called Kephalas face ‘anxiety at midday, evening, and at all times’ until he has sex with a woman called Taromeway…

Brown hares and chicken ‘treated as gods when they first arrived in Britain’
The Telegraph
Brown hares and chickens were considered gods when they first arrived in Britain during the Iron Age, research suggests…

Malawi: Traditional ritual under threat from Christian preachers
African Arguments
Gule Wamkulu is a treasured tradition that locals argue should be preserved…

Churches that Defy Public Health Orders: Pride, Not Devotion
Patheos Pagan: John Beckett
I’m watching the churches that insist on continuing in-person services with a combination of curiosity and disgust…

Wild animals return in Italy to Rome among the ruins
The Australian
At the centre, where jets of water once kept emperors cool, a rabbit was enjoying the spring sunshine this week…

How a peasant farmer found the Venus de Milo
The National
IT was 200 years ago today that one of the world’s most famous statues, the Venus de Milo, was found in the ruins of a long-lost city on the island of Milos or Melos, the south-westernmost island in the Cyclades group of islands in the Aegean Sea…

How artists in Kyoto made contemplative work in turbulent times
Apollo Magazine
This year the Metropolitan Museum of Art has dedicated its rooms for Japanese art to a suggestive exploration of the long tradition of work from Kyoto, in the exhibition ‘Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination’…

Midsommar: All The Swedish & Pagan Symbolism Explained
Screen Rant
Ari Aster’s 2019 film Midsommar includes detailed depictions of Swedish and Pagan symbolism in celebration of the solstice – here is what it means…

13 Essential Occult Rock Albums
Kerrang!
Rock music has always gone hand in claw with The Devil, witchcraft and all manner of occult shenanigans…


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