Feasts

The feast project is an attempt to create a set of community celebrations which:

• keep us in touch with the natural cyclic processes of our own region
• avoid capitalist "Hallmark Holidays"

It would be fantastic for each feast to have its own traditions and ritual to celebrate its place in the year, but so far most feasts are just big meals.

Feast Procedures

• The menu is planned in the weeks before the feast, and a sign-up sheet for ingredients is made.
• Feasters should bring some ingredients from the list, money to pay back those who did bring ingredients, or a prepared food/drink.
• Those planning to attend should RSVP so that enough food can be planned. At the same time, they should sign up for what they will bring.
• Those who can congregate at around 4 o'clock to start cooking, with their ingredients.
• The target time for dinner is between 7 and 8 pm. Everyone should be there by 7.
• Right now, they all happen at the Redbud Cooperative house, 214 West Eufaula in Norman. People that drive should park in the church lot across the street.
• There is a place to put appetizers (on the table), main courses, and desserts.
• Before we eat, everyone sits down around the table, joins hands, and we say words. Starting with whoever is sitting at the head of the table, everyone says one word. It can be any word! Then the person who started it says "let's eat!"
• Vegan food is encouraged, but anything is allowed.
• Alcohol is allowed (encouraged!) but people need to be responsible for their own behavior, sober or not.
• Dishes are done in after the eating. Do not leave your mess for others to clean up!

There are two groups of feasts, the solar feasts and the lunar feasts. Both are scheduled astronomically. Only the Solar Feasts are still being observed.

Solar Feasts

The 8 Solar feasts are equally spaced throughout the year. Four of them are on the solstices and equinoxes and the other four on the "cross-quarters". That means that they occur on the first/last and middle nights of each season. They directly correspond to (and are named for) Pagan Sabbats, which are scheduled the same way. The Pagan Sabbats, in turn, are at the roots of many Christian and popular holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, Groundhog's Day, and Halloween. However, they are not always on exactly the same day, because our feasts are not scheduled by the Gregorian Calendar, but by the actual movement of the Earth through space.

Lunar Feasts

The Lunar feasts happened in 2006, but they are no longer being held. Instead, we are concentrating on the solar feasts, to try to make them memorable and meaningful events.

The Lunar feasts happened on each full moon. This means there were 12 or 13 Lunar feasts each year, and the dates that they fall on move around. Sometimes Lunar feasts come very near Solar feasts. The names of the moons started off as English or Native American folk names, but many of them are being renamed as we have them, to make them match what is going on in Oklahoma at that time of year.

How the dates are determined

The dates for feasts are always posted at OCHA and on the GreenbriarCollectiveCalendar, GreenbriarYahooGroup Calendar, and here. However, anyone can figure out the dates!

• First, you need to find out when the astronomical events in question happen. You can look that up at various websites, such as the United States Naval Observatory(Phases of the Moon and Solstices & Equinoxes).
• For the cross-quarters, the date/time is halfway between the nearest Solstice and Equinox.
• Now change the time into Central Time. If the event happens before noon, the feast is the night before. If it happens before noon, the feast is that night.
• Which moon is which is determined by the season, not the month. The 1st full moon of Spring, for instance, is the Planting Moon whether it comes in March or April.
• The Blue moon only happens when there are 13 full moons in a year. There are different ways to decide which one is the extra, and we haven't decided which one to use.
• If a Lunar Feast falls on the same day as a Solar Feast, it's easy: the two are combined!
• If a Lunar Feast falls one day away from a Solar Feast, then the Solar Feast is absorbed into the Lunar Feast. That is, the feasts are combined and held on the night of the full moon.
• If the Lunar Feast and Solar Feast are two or more days apart, then both feasts are held on their own days.

What needs to be done?

• Come to the feasts!
• Discussions (at the feasts?) about traditions, rituals, new names, etc.