Cybele, Q. Cassetti, 2010, pen and inkAnother beautiful day. Bright blue skies, peachy dawn, and clear as a bell. How can we not be exhilerated by the change in seasons, the change in time, the whiff of promise that this jolt into the season of the sun brings us. Nuf said.Its all just plain wonderful.
I am still reeling from LibertyFest yesterday. I am dreaming of patterns, floral patterns, all swirly and wonderful with my ink pen automatically drawing and drawing and drawing. However, there are pop up displays to design along with photoshopping everything for a publication we are working on, so the dreamy buzzy haze that I am in, needs to evaporate so as to talk about these things, testing for cancer and all sorts of "get real" topics are happening as we speak.
More on the bees.
There is a Lithuanian Bee Goddess, Austja, who is celebrated with feasts, dancing bees and the like. This is from www.thebeegoddess.com:
AUSTEJA (Austheia) is the Lithuanian Bee Goddess with whom some interesting rituals are connected. It was believed that bees chose their own homes according to how generous the farmer was; when a queen hived off, the people followed until she set up a new location, after which the two families were considered linked through "biciulyste", a kind of kinship-via-bee. Neither bees nor honey could be bought or sold, because they were gifts, not products.
The Lithuanian language hd several wrds for "death", one of which was used for both bees and people, other words for oher beiings. If a dead bee was found, it was buried in the Earth, not left unburied.
Austeja's feast was iin August, and the festivities were believed attended by dancing bees.
Bring back biciulyste!
There is a Lithuanian museum: The Museum of Ancient Beekeeping which features:
The farmstead of the museum spreads on the hill at the Tauragnėlė Rill.
The Museum was set up in 1984 by the initiative of Bronius Kazlas.
Wooden sculptures around the museum tell the history of beekeeping in Lithuania. Their creator is carver Teofilis Patiejūnas.
In the museum you can learn about the protection of bee-hollows from bears and about different kinds of beehives, made of the trunks. Beehives of this kind were used in Lithuani from the 15th until the beginning of the 20th century. Some sculptures are beehives themselves: the God of bees Babilas and the goddess Austėja are representatives from Lithuanian mythology.
The main building was constructed in a traditional way. The beekeeping equipment and tools are presented here. The photographs will explain how to climb the tree to reach the bee hollow. Here you will find a beehive made of straw and many more interesting things. In the next building, which by its architectural style represents a granary, you will learn about melliferous herbs and bee products. In the barn you will find the tools which were used to make beehives.
Across the Tauragnėlė Rill you will arrive into the world of old myths. The wooden sculptures illustrate the origin of the bee in mythology of different cultures: Egyptians, American Indians and Lithuanians.
The Museum is departmental. Its holder is the Aukštaitija National Park.
So more to think about with pictures. This is a very lively topic.