Nowruz: Iranian New Year

Nowruz is an ancient celebration which began in greater Iran some 15,000 years ago. It marks the beginning of astronomical spring is about celebrating and reaffirming ties with nature and with friends and family. It is a public holiday in several countries and has been recognised by UNESCO as part of Humanity’s Intangible Cultural History.

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A response to witches hexing Donald Trump

This post refers to the ongoing mass binding spells which have been organised in the USA since February 2017 aimed at Donald Trump and his administration. For the Pagan Awareness Network’s (PAN) statement on curses and hexes, please click here.

The Pagan Awareness Network does not advocate the use of spells, curses or hexes to invoke harm to others, and would like to demonstrate why, using this example.

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Mǎrţişor, the Romanian Symbol of Spring

On March 1st, Romanians celebrate the coming of spring by giving and receiving small trinkets tied with red and white string. These trinkets are called mǎrţişor and they mark the beginning of the agricultural new year. Before we learn more about the history and symbolism of the mǎrţişor, it might be useful to learn how to pronounce this word.

In Romanian, the letter ǎ is pronounced like ‘urgh’ as in ‘urgh, do I have to wake up’. The letter ţ is pronounced like the ‘zz’ in pizza. The letter ş is pronounced like ‘sh’ as in shadow. Finally, the accent on this word is placed on the last syllable, so mǎrţişor is pronounced m-urgh-zz-ee-shore. The word derives from martie which is the name for the month of march. Now that we’ve established the etymology and pronunciation of this word, we can move on to its history.

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The Pagan Awareness Network supports marriage equality

We recognise the right of our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) volunteers and members, and members of the wider community, to live and work free of prejudice and discrimination. This includes the right to marry the partner of their choice.

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