RA Pocket Shrine 230/? – Kiss with Confidence

/ February 1, 2021

Today is the first day of spring. In Ireland. Yes, officially. It’s St Brigid’s Day, and also the Celtic feast of Imbolc (the spring festival). This year I am opting to go for the Irish way of counting the seasons. Cos frankly, after this winter, with the darkness, the cold, the stress and the covid, I really need the feeling of hope that spring brings. So here’s hoping for sunshine, flowers and milder temperatures, soon.

Today also marks the first RAPS of 2021. It has been a long time coming – Deirdre asked me in May 2020 would I make her a pocket shrine. When I warned her that it would take me a while, and she would have to remind me every once in a while to get a move on, she probably did not think it would take this long… But finally the shrine has been made. It has already been received by Deirdre, and so I can now present it on my blog.

With a tin as beautiful as this, I did not want to put holes in it nor spray it. I left the gorgeous kiss as it was, added a bit of bling on the other side and then went in search of some kiss-worthy material.

Found it.

Does anyone remember Astrov saying that?? I must have been distracted otherwise when those irresistible words were spoken. Or maybe I was dreaming of this 👇🏻?

Sorry, Rosalind Eliazar, for obscuring you… it’s just for dreaming purposes.  Oh man, that #romanticherohair is doing me in! Honourable mention to the forearm tendons/muscles and the hairy fuzz.

With a bit of Astrov in the pocket, it is easier to get over missing UV in the theatre, I hope. Here’s to many a happy thought for Deirdre!

Happy spring to you all! 💐

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45 thoughts on “RA Pocket Shrine 230/? – Kiss with Confidence”

    • I had a look at the post again and you are right, the images are coming across almost like paintings. Ha, inadvertent Rembrandt-lighting, created by my tungsten lamp and the dark inside of the tin? 😉

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    • Candlemas is a Christian holiday celebrated every February 2, or 40 days after Christmas. The term Candlemas comes from “candle festival”, itself translated from the Latin festa candelarum. For the faithful, it is a question of celebrating the fact that “Jesus is light”, as well as the purity of the virgin Mary.
      However, it seems that this festival has more ancient origins, and could be the resumption of a Roman rite, the amburbiales, linked to the purification of the city. Rite celebrated with torch processions around Rome 3. The Christianization of this pagan rite would be the work of Pope Gelasius I (in 494) or of the Emperor Justinian (in an edict of 542), sources differing on this subject.

      In the Latin world of southern Europe, around February 15, it was customary to celebrate Lupercalia. For Lupercus was their god of fertility and flocks. Then this Roman festival was brought forward to February 2. That is to say precisely forty days after Christmas.
      Earlier in Celtic countries like Ireland:
      In the Celtic world of northern Europe, the rite of the Goddess Brigid / Berc’hed / Brigantia prevailed. Brigid, Goddess of light and water. Also Goddess of poetry, renewal and healing.
      As often, Christian evangelizers, faced with the importance of the cult of Brigid among the Celts, substituted their Saint Brigid.

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      • To add to that, there is also the point that the beginning of February is the mid-point between the winter solstice and the March equinox, something that the ancients would probably have been aware of.

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        • It is the origin of the celebrations that interests me (my mother is Breton). Without current sciences, our “ancestors” had an empirical knowledge of the world in which they lived. Their myths and beliefs endure (not only because of the religions which have hijacked them, recovered them) but because their foundations are based, for many of them, on timeless truths.

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    • Coming out of winter, the Celts celebrated purification and fertility after the dark months. Thus, the peasants walked through the fields in processions, carrying large torches and begging Brigit to purify the land before sowing. After the dark months, the glowing disk of the sun is more and more present. And the roundness of the pancakes: named crêpe” here, image this solar disk. Then the days get longer and the first grain sowing begins.
      The Celtic feast of Imbolc is February 1, the eve of that of Candlemas. It’s the start of lambing season. So at Imbolc, tradition has it that we start our meal by drinking sheep’s milk mixed with grain alcohol. The last milk available to humans before it is reserved for lambs. As well as the last seed before it is sown.
      Adage, dicton: “At Candlemas, winter either dies or takes hold. “

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    • IKR?! It has always felt far too early for me, too. In Germany, February is the height of winter. But clocks are moving differently in this little Atlantic island. Thanks to the gulf stream, it never really gets that cold here, snow is rare, and from February spring really moves forward. By mid-February, the daffodils will be out.

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  7. Beautiful shrine and well worth the wait for Deirdre (projecting) a bit. Since I couldn’t get away to see the play, most Astrov images are new to me and frustratingly lovely. My fingers itch to comb through that impressive head of hair.

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    • That hair is just… my god… 😵. And I have the sneaking suspicion that we are getting much more out of Astrov by way of the photos than by the play itself *coughs*… After all, Astrov is not the main protagonist of the play. But reading our SM conversations on Astrov, one might think he is 😂

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    • Haven’t you still watch the BBC movie? It is still going on to be available for streaming yet. Ask us to give you its references.

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      • Here in the mountains it is the sun that you notice most: for almost two months around the winter solstice the place here is always in the shadow of the mountains. Good thing that I like snow and winter in general! Last week was the first day that – for only a few minutes – the midday sun peeped over the mountain top and we had direct sun in the yard! For the first time since November! It’s amazing every year how much joy this little moment brings! 😀 But for real spring weather, with flowers growing etc we will have to wait until April. (not complaining though – I need to make the most of my new skis!)

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        • That’s such an interesting story. The sun in the mountain is like a giant clock – or the mountains are like the dial of a sun dial, I guess. I can imagine how special it feels when the sun finally makes it over the mountains again…

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  10. Pingback: Shrine Update | Guylty Pleasure

  11. This shrine is gorgeous! And in the perfect tin!
    I’m firmly in the #teamlawn corner, but Astrov’s look is to-die-for, especially the romanticherohair and period costume. He’s a bit like John Mulligan I suppose – the eyecandy has me ignoring the dubious character traits, something I wouldn’t do in real life, I might add!

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