Return Of The Goddess

“March 25th is celebrated as Lady Day or as the Return of the Goddess from the Underworld – the return of Spring from its long Winter hibernation.

In the Roman Catholic Church, March 25th in the old liturgical calendar is called the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Annunciation means an ‘announcement.’ This is the day that the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was pregnant with a child.

Naturally, this had to be announced since Mary, being still a virgin, would have no other means of knowing it.

Why did the church pick the vernal equinox for the commemoration of this event? Because it was necessary to have Mary conceive the child Jesus a full nine months before his birth at the Winter Solstice (i.e., Christmas, celebrated on the fixed calendar date of December 25).

Mary’s pregnancy would take the natural nine months to complete, even if the conception was a bit unorthodox.

This is also the month of the Hag, the Time of the Old Woman, and is notorious for bad weather. In the Scottish Highlands, each week of March has a name: the Sweeper, the Whistler, the Sharp-Billed One, and the Cailleach – The Hag herself.

At this season, the folk who sail the North Sea ask kindness of Aegir and Ran, god and goddess of weather and tides.”