Litha / Midsummer

I'm feeling much better, but unfortunately it's Ron turn now for the stomach flu. He left for work this morning, but had to come back for a sprint to the toilet...

I promised to tell you about my Litha / Midsummer! I attended two lovely celebrations.

Saturday the 21st we drove back from Lier to the Mastbos in Breda. Under "my" tree we had a picknick with friends and did a ritual. The weather was wonderful and we enjoyed ourselves very much! The ritual was dedicated to Titania and Oberon, queen and king of the little folk.
Before we started I found a good branch to use as a staff / big wand to cast the circle. Later I took it with me to Lier, where I removed the bark. Now it's home with me and I want to decorate it a little. Great to have a part of that magnificent tree...
We had all brought a liitle jar with water. We wrote down two wishes (one for ourself, one for someone else) and tear them into shreds in the jar. Then we did a guided visualisation to charge the wishes. After a while we were interrupted by two women, who kept on quarreling which way they would go. It wasn't nice to be disturbed, but we also burst out into laughter.
After the ritual we drove and walked to the river Mark, where we emptied our jars in the flowing water. In the end the water flows to the sea. That way our wishes were entrusted to the Gods and the elements.

Sunday the 22nd we went to the LithaLier Midsummer festival, organised by PFI Belgium, Camelot Boom and Greencraft. On fields in the outskirts of Lier was a magical fair with stalls, workshops, music, covered wagon trips, tree walks, etc. For the owners of our cottage I bought a little pixie figurine with a harp. We left it in sight on a shelf in the cottage when we went home with a bottle of wine and a thank-you-note.
There were very interesting stalls from all kinds of sellers: bee products, gemstones, crafty work, herbs & spices and lots more. I walked around several times. I was enchanted by a beautiful wooden Book-of-Shadows-box with gorgeous image burnt into it, but it was too expensive. Absolutely worth the price, but I didn't have it.
When I was looking at some brochures in the last booth someone threw a ball of paper towards me. It was Wynndig! I know her from an e-maillist and met her several times. Good to see her again! She gave a workshop chanting and of course I attended. We sang the most well-known chants. I didn't know all of the chants, but they aren't difficult to learn. We had fun and it sounded quite good actually. Some girls could add a second voice, that sounded even better!
Unfortunately we couldn't stay for the ritual. We had walked around a lot and Ron's knee was hurting. So we said our goodbyes and drove back to the cottage.
You can see my pictures here!