as above, so below

Happy International Moon Day, folks! Look up to the skies and catch these nightly spectacular stellar extravaganzas. Brought to us by the Earth's guardian celestial orb - the moon, our lunar sentinel. 

wonder | wander | women are eternal moon maids and Luna devotees. 

International Moon Day marks the anniversary of the first landing by humans on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969. 

fact & fantasy for the survival of the human race

The UN General Assembly declared International Moon Day, a United Nations-designated international day to be observed annually on 20 July, in its resolution 76/76 on “International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space” in 2021.

cosmic delights

wonder | wander | women kick off our birthday celebrations - starting the month of July and ending in September. Because our birth needs so much more than just one day of celebration each year. 

As the year shifts from winter and spring into summer and fall - so too does our perspective on what has transpired so far. Birthdays are benchmarks that mark our progress throughout life and lifetimes. 

sacred time

Our cosmic calendars are loaded - July is set to be a life-altering month filled with emotional depth, surprising shifts, and opportunities for powerful breakthroughs.

Lammas | Lughnasadh | Loaf Mass Day

The 2024 dates for Lammas | Lughnasadh | Loaf Mass Day are August 1 to 12. Many cultures celebrate Midsummer - this week we also mark 8:8:8 Lion's Gate as well as the peak of the Perseids meteor showers.

We are halfway through the summer in all its glory - with its COVID spreading county fairs, backyard barbeques, political rodeos, and Olympic upsets. 

image c/o National Today

At Lammas we honor the past with a feast of bread to celebrate grain from ancient cultures. Because of its association with Lugh - warrior, king, master craftsman, savior - it is also a traditional time of year for craft and music festivals. 

Folks gather and feast as skilled artisans showcase their workmanship and sell their creations. 

audacious & vivacious Olympics 2024

The spectacular extravaganza at the opening ceremonies for the Olympics 2024 in France was wild, wonderful and wondrous. Controversial, hilarious and quite telling in how it was received and how folks perceived the audacious and flamboyant presentation and performance. 

Just like the circus of politics around the world today - reactions and sensitivities are both too close too the surface as well as often too superficial yet overblown. 

opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024,
Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

Is ignorance bliss? or is it the road to hell through "good" intentions? Savior or savage? Save or salvage? Too similar and so very different. Burdened with heavy issues and concerns we all seem to be taking things too seriously yet not significantly enough. 

precious child's breath

Mahala celebrates her birthday on September 1 - this year I will be with her in London to celebrate together. Can't wait to be with my one and only spawn and favorite being of my life.

Issa’s digital decoupage of Mahala’s art

Numerology charts claim being born on the first day makes you a self-starter with very innovative ways of creating opportunity. Never afraid to be the first to try something new. 

Determination and endurance are powerful and a great help to get through times of struggle to reach success. As solar systems are aligning in the Universe our planets are aligning with our sun. So too are Mahala's life years and numbers lining up - 1, 2, 3, 11.

Mahala birthday girl - Earth angel? NYC bug!

breaking bread

Lammas Day celebrated every August 1 is the first of three autumn harvest festivals that falls between summer solstice and autumn equinox. It is known as Loaf Mass Day to Christians and Lughnasadh which is the name used for one of the eight sabbats in the Neopagan Wheel of the Year. 

The other two harvest festivals are Mabon and Samhain. Lammas was historically a festival that celebrated the first wheat harvest of the year.

Lunar Lammas 2023

It was a time of gratitude and celebration for the abundance of the land and the fruits of agricultural labor. Communities would come together to harvest the crops and bake the first loaves of bread using the newly harvested grain.

birthday bliss

It's been six months and this long drawn visit of wonder | wander | women finally comes to an end - all too soon. Especially as it's been a week closing with several birthday activities. Intimate one on ones, group meet ups, family gatherings. 

It's just never enough - no matter how well prepared or purposefully planned. Stormy weather, blustery winds, and hard rain all week are not the best send off at all. 

clouds clearing overhead

Good thing our little island knows best how to host a fun fiesta and have a blast of fun. Food, food, lots of incredible food. Friends, family, all our relations. At home, out and about, or out of town. Whatever, however, forever! 

an equinox of grace & grief

“Autumn Equinox is a time – a sacred moment – for grieving our many losses, as individuals, as a culture, as Earth-Gaia. At this time we may join Demeter – and any other Mother Goddess from around the globe – in Her weeping for all that has been lost.

The Mother weeps and rages, the Daughter leaves courageously, the Old One beckons with Her wisdom and promise of transformation.” ~ Glenys Livingstone, PhD, “Autumn Equinox: Thanksgiving and Grieving,” Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess

Ninnion Tablet replica

For millennia, in Greece, this Seasonal Moment has been the holy celebration of Persephone’s descent to the Underworld, and in the earliest Goddess tradition, She descends of Her own volition to comfort the dead: the process is one of gaining of wisdom and restoring beauty – She is the Seed planted in the Earth, that will sprout again, grow to maturity and carry life into the future. 

spring around the world

It's nearly April 1st! The flowers are growing, the trees are in various stages of bud, and the clock has flipped forward so we can have more hours of daylight...to work. We suspect it's actually so that people who have to attend work can end early and have a spare hour or two to gather their share of Vitamin D.

2022 Feb 02

2022 is the Year of the Black Yang Water Tiger. Tiger year is quite the contrast after the plodding, nose-to-the-grindstone energy of the metal Ox of 2021.

pixabay.com

Tiger energy is dual in nature - the excitement, clash, dramatic highs paired against swan-dive lows. All set amidst periods of absolute stillness as the Tiger waits for its prey to drop their guard.

holiday countdown

Contrary to popular belief, the theory that the lyrics to “The 12 Days of Christmas” are coded references to Christianity, has been debunked. 

While it posits that the song was written to help Christians learn and pass on the tenets of their faith while avoiding persecution - the song really isn't a coded primer on Christianity. 

celebrating online, 2020

Forever the irreverent resisters, wonder | wander | women created our own version this year to celebrate our reunion Stateside - finally, COVID be damned! The Countdown begins. . . .now. 

Pentatonix version of 12 Days of Xmas

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. . . .a partridge in a pear tree.

The partridge in a pear tree of course represents Mahala - only and fave spawn of Issa. Whose arrival Stateside is the best Christmas gift for us both.

Happy Michaelmas Day

Michaelmas (pronounced Mickel-mas) - or the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Michael and All Angels - is celebrated on the 29th of September every year. As it falls near the equinox, the day is associated with harvest, the beginning of autumn, and the shortening of days.

Harvest Home and Golden Corn, 1875. David Payne, Annan Museum

In England, it is one of the quarter days - traditionally the four quarter days in a year are: Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer (24th June), Michaelmas (29th September), and Christmas (25th December). They are spaced three months apart, on religious festivals, usually close to the solstices or equinoxes.

St. Michael, the warrior archangel

Michaelmas is still observed in Waldorf schools, which celebrate it as the “festival of strong will” during the autumnal equinox. Rudolf Steiner considered it the second most important festival after Easter — Easter being about Christ (“He is laid in the grave and He has risen”).

August 2020 world wide events

wonder | wander | women are happy to include all and enjoy wide and diverse occasions to celebrate. August is a month that packs many special holidays - both enjoyable and solemn.

Religious festivals, stellar sights, harvest celebrations, cultural extravaganzas - even with most of the public gatherings significantly scaled down due to travel restrictions or pandemic lockdowns - communities and families gather together more intimately.

Perseid Shower - Tucson AZ - Eliot Herman

palm fronds on Palm Sunday

This Palm Sunday it was a joy to see folks around the world get creative with the palm fronds they put up. Unlike the past years, with current COVID-19 restrictions, most of us chose to self isolate and keep safe.

an Old Testament biblical version

festive feasts

The holidays are officially here. Occasion for wonder | wander | women to eat out and celebrate more. As you can see from our past few blog posts, we are applying ourselves to the task!

Entrance of Ventanas at the Modern, Fort Lee NJ

Patio of Ventanas at the Modern

While our UK half was pining for more Thanksgiving celebrations, Mahala is lucky to be working at a place where they do celebrate with a special spread to celebrate the day.

mixed blessings

wonder |wander | women are always eager and excited to honor and celebrate a variety of diverse occasions, traditions or beliefs.

Back home on Negros Island

We were born and raised in a mixed household. Filipino by birth nationality. Spanish on our grand/father's side. Chinese on our grand/mother's side. Benedictine Catholic in education. Taoist in practical application.

East Coast, United States

Now that we have relocated to the western hemisphere we added the celebration of Jewish holidays as well. We are all too happy to be celebrating the new year three times each year now - on January 1, on Chinese New Year and on Rosh Hashanah.

London, United Kingdom

let SHEdom reign

wonder | wander | women love to share aspects of our lives from both sides of the world. East, where we were born and raised. West, where we have relocated and have our adoptive homes now. 

MAY feasting flavors & festivities

Only on our eighth day of May and wonder | wander | women have been celebrating each day with fun and festive feasts.

May 1 - May Day, Beltane, US Labor Day 

festive fierce female | Year of the Boar

2019 is the Chinese Year of the Female Brown Earth Pig. In celebration of the new year and in anticipation of Google+ disappearing in April, wonder | wander | women is now on Medium.com. 

Chinese Food for Good Luck 

The Lunar New Year starts from February 5th, 2019 and ends on January 24th, 2020. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

See what this lunar year of the boar has in store when it comes to love, wealth, health, and happiness. 

boxing day

Boxing Day is a secular holiday celebrated the day after Christmas Day. It originated in the United Kingdom, and is celebrated in a number of countries that previously formed part of the British Empire.

Boxing Day History

Boxing Day is on 26 December, although the attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place either on that day or two days later.

In some European countries, such as Romania, Hungary, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia, 26 December is celebrated as a Second Christmas Day.

Oxford Street Shopping

In the liturgical calendar of Western Christianity, Boxing Day is the second day of Christmastide, and also Saint Stephen's Day.

There are competing theories for the origins of the term, none of which are definitive.