tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post4497864889985061674..comments2024-02-26T00:59:26.907-08:00Comments on Ana the Imp: St Valentine or Juno?Anastasia F-Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-49646376086752110282009-09-09T16:53:24.191-07:002009-09-09T16:53:24.191-07:00That's super, Rehan; many thanks. I'm sur...That's super, Rehan; many thanks. I'm sure you know the story of the Silversmith's Riot. Well, when I was in Ephesus, in the amphitheatre, I shouted out "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." People looked at me as if I had gone mad. :-))Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-78235917563505722092009-09-08T22:15:46.492-07:002009-09-08T22:15:46.492-07:00This list is endless! Diana’s festival, too, was o...<b>This list is endless! Diana’s festival, too, was ousted by the Christian church into the festival of the Assumption of the virgin on August 15. Mary suckled the infant Christ much the same way as Isis is seen to suckle Horus whom many an ignorant Christian have mistaken for the Madonna and worshipped. (See Frazer’s chapter on ‘The hanged God’ in <i>The Golden Bough</i>) <br /><br />The Roman festival of shepherds, known as the Parilia was replaced by the festival of St George of the dragon in April. <br /><br />Similarly, what better way to duplicate the water feast into the festival of St John the Baptist on 23 June? St Augustine denounced and forbade this festival, condemning it as a heathen practice. Frazer goes on to write</b><br /><br />We may conjecture that the church, unable to put down this relic of Paganism, followed its usual policy of accommodation by bestowing on the rite a Christian name and acquiescing, with a sigh, in its observance. And casting about for a saint to supplant a heathen patron of bathing, the Christian doctors could hardly have hit upon a more appropriate successor than St John the Baptist.Rehan Qayoomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02391797858691917631noreply@blogger.com