{"id":12715,"date":"2022-03-17T19:54:09","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T01:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12715"},"modified":"2022-03-17T20:06:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T02:06:02","slug":"celebrating-spring-with-a-castle-burning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12715","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Spring with a Castle-Burning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k4nGJggJU5Q\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Pagan writer Rhyd Wildermuth, now living in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ardennes\">Ardennes Forest,<\/a> or as he prefers, &#8220;The Forests of Arduinna,&#8221; offers this video of a local end-of-winter celebration called <em>Buergbrennen<\/em> (castle-burning).<\/p>\n<p>He sees it as an ancient Pagan celebration taken over by the Christian church. Maybe so. Or maybe some Luxembourgish <a href=\"https:\/\/research-information.bris.ac.uk\/en\/persons\/ronald-e-hutton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ronald Hutton<\/a> will discover that it was started by a parish priest in the early nineteenth century as a folkish morale-builder for his congregation.<\/p>\n<p>Doesn&#8217;t matter. Either way, it fits Clifton&#8217;s Second Law of Religion, that all true religions have torchlight processions, at least occasionally. No torches? All you have then is a social movement or a social club.<\/p>\n<p>No animals or policemen were harmed in the making of this video<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rhyd.substack.com\/subscribe?utm_source=subscribe-widget&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=49868939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">You can subscribe to Wildermuth&#8217;s writing on Substack.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pagan writer Rhyd Wildermuth, now living in the Ardennes Forest, or as he prefers, &#8220;The Forests of Arduinna,&#8221; offers this video of a local end-of-winter celebration called Buergbrennen (castle-burning). He sees it as an ancient Pagan celebration taken over by the Christian church. Maybe so. Or maybe some Luxembourgish Ronald Hutton will discover that it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64,417,296,244],"class_list":["post-12715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-equinox","tag-luxemberg","tag-pagan-ish","tag-spring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3j5","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10263,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10263","url_meta":{"origin":12715,"position":0},"title":"A Pagan-ish Easter Ceremony in Poland","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"R\u0119kawka is a celebration held in Krakow the Tuesday after Easter, so loosely speaking, it is a spring equinox festival. My friend in Krakow calls it \"a civic holiday with Pagan roots.\" R\u0119kawka is also one name for the tumulus (artificial mound) in the video. The celebration has long included\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"equinox\"","block_context":{"text":"equinox","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=equinox"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":798,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=798","url_meta":{"origin":12715,"position":1},"title":"New Pomegranate Contents","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the rush of travel and then preparing for the spring semester, I forgot to post the contents of the latest issue of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies (Volume 8, no. 2, Nov. 2006).So here is what's happening in Pagan Studies:\"Santeria Sacrificial Rituals: A Reconsideration of Religious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":314,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=314","url_meta":{"origin":12715,"position":2},"title":"Pastors on the playa Over\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Pastors on the playa Over the past several years, the annual Burning Man event in Nevada has gained a higher and higher profile. In some quarters, this event is viewed with alarm. Is it a convocation of \"earth-worshipping pagans\" and a preview of Hell? Does the Lord tell you to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":119,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=119","url_meta":{"origin":12715,"position":3},"title":"Saint Valentine . . .\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Saint Valentine . . . the pagan? Islamic clerics in Saudi Arabia (our good friends, the Saudis) denounce Valentine's Day as a \"pagan Christian holiday\" and forbid its celebration in the kingdom. Other news reports speak of reprisals against shop owners selling Valentine's Day items. Ah, wonderful, a jihad against\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4920,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4920","url_meta":{"origin":12715,"position":4},"title":"End of Year Lists: Books, Movies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Religion Dispatches lists five important new books on alternative and metaphysical spirituality in America \u2014 I prefer that to saying they are about the \"nones,\" which is a vague term \u2014 yes, well, so is \"alternative.\" Catherine Albanese of UC-Santa Barbara has done important work in identifying first the non-theistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13427,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13427","url_meta":{"origin":12715,"position":5},"title":"Ronald Hutton&#8217;s Gresham Lectures Available Online","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The five lectures that Ronald Hutton gave this past spring in the Gresham College series Finding Britain's Lost Gods are available for viewing online. Each lasts about an hour. Gods of Prehistoric Britain Paganism in Roman Britain Anglo-Saxon Pagan Gods Viking Pagan Gods in Britain Finding Lost Gods in Wales\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12717,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715\/revisions\/12717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}