Happy winter from MUSKRAT Magazine! In the Northern Hemisphere, we are celebrating the beginning of winter and the presence of the storytelling season. During this time, we acknowledge the challenges and successes faced in the prior months and look forward to a new season with the anticipation of community gatherings, feasts and celebrations. Today we are celebrating winter by inviting our readers to the 2nd Annual Gchi Dewin Indigenous Storytellers Festival.
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Traditionally winter, with its longer nights, is the storytelling season bringing communities together with all kinds of stories told around a fire. Historical stories ensure the transmission of important knowledge and events for families and nations while other stories are entertaining and meant to both scare and tug at our funny bones and heart strings. On January 13th 2017 MUSKRAT Magazine is hosting a special Winter Storytelling Festival guaranteed to make you laugh and cry and all our readers are invited to attend!
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For Anishinabek, the thirteenth moon of Creation is Mnidoons Giizis, that translates from Ojibway to “Blue Moon” or “Big Spirit Moon”. In December, Mnidoons Giizes will purify and heal all of Creation, a process which may take a three-month long spiritual journey. During this time, we can receive instructions on the healing powers of the universe and transform into our own vision of the truth. The 13 Grandmother Moon teachings are from “Kinoomaadiewinan Anishinabek Bimaadinzinwin, Book Two. Author Arlene Berry.
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Most people think that Winter Solstice is an entire day, however the Solstice is a moment when the Sun is precisely overhead the Tropic of Capricorn. In 2016 the moment is approximately 5:44am EST when the sun shines at its most southern point, directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. “It is darkest before the dawn.” After the Winter Solstice, the days will gradually get longer and the nights shorter until the summer solstice on June 21.
