The Spirit of the Badger

That's one of the distressing things about this time of year.
As the days lengthen and warm, the boar badgers roam afield looking for sows.  Old Brock is a randy old beggar and no 60 mph speed limit will act as a warning to him.  So every early Spring, the Beaker Folk become a little sad about the black and white fuzzy bundles laying on the side of the road, or squashed flat in the middle.

So today we celebrate the "Spirit of the Badger" festival.  A whole day of celebrating Brock the Badger, and wishing him well and safe passage - either across the A421, or on his way to the Badger Afterlife, as the case may be.

We're interweaving the Spirit of the Badger around our celebrations of "Saint" Thomas Cranmer.  Seems quite appropriate, as badgers and Cranmer alike have met early ends at the forces of oppression - respectively "Bloody" Mary and the Motor Car.  And both have a tendency to black and white.

So we wear our black-and-white capes for the day with pride, as we say "Goodbye Brock".  And try not to get run down on the way to the White Horse for a celebratory, solsticial Quick One.

The Rites of Spring

Well I think everyone's recovered from the Equinoctial Festivities now.

Never in the field of alt.worship can so many people have had just such a bouncy service.  Certainly the first time we've had a procession into the Moot House of people on Space Hoppers.  Touch of class there, for sure. Although it is rather tricky for the acolytes to bounce along while carrying those candles.  A couple of nasty wax burns is the price you pay for devotion.

Thanks to Hnaef for getting that bouncy castle into the Moot House.  Everyone had a lovely springy time during the Getting Rather too Close for Comfort of Peace.  Although on the bright side, all that kissing and hugging was rather damped down by the Spring Onion that we passed round during the Allium Dei.   An interesting and creative thought, although it does seem to be repeating.  The price you pay for authentic, traditional worship, I guess.  Also it did cause rather a lot of choking and gasping for water during the singing of "God is rather nice".

Once again, Hnaef's Equinoctial Tightrope Walk went horribly wrong. I'm thinking that we should now regard pulling the Executive Arch-Assistant Druid out of the duck pond as a set part of our equinoctial liturgy.

Well the sun's over our side of the equator now.  The days lengthen apace - the lengths of the days now already being longer than the nights for various wacky astronomical reasons.  And every day in every way it's a little warmer.  On the down side, Pouring out of Beakers is a little earlier every day now.  But hey - it's Spring!

And now I must retire to try and remove this very large spring I rather unwisely attached to my feet to do my Zebedee impression.