Floralia: Festival Of The Roman Goddess Flora (Shrine Altar Reenactment)

April 28, the 2,248th anniversary of the Dedication of The Goddess Flora's Temple! April 28, 238 BC/BCE was the date Her Temple was completed and Dedicated. Here is a video I made in reference to the Roman Celebration honoring Flora, The Goddess of Flowers! I came up with my own celebration of the day! The display features five centuries of prints/engravings (and my own work): 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, 1900s and 2000s. I am not an artist, but I am very pleased with how the two drawings and clay statue/sculpture/figurine turned out. I hope you like my idea with the dollar store figure!



Photos:

Colored Troops Civil War Reenactment Held At Fort Mifflin On April 11, 2010

A fine day for a Reenactment. A Civil War Union USCT Encampment was held on April 11, 2010 at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia, PA. Featured participants included the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, 54th Massachusetts Company A, 3rd and 6th U.S. Colored Infantry, Camp William Penn Team and the United States Colored Artillery 12th USCHA.



Cannons in front of the information area:


A shot facing the outer wall of the Fort and bridge:
































































The host for the above photographs -
http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u213/portaltothepast/Reenactments/Civil%20War/Colored%20Troops%20April%202010

Here are seven video clips of the day with each part given a brief title ...

Lunch Call:


Preparation:


Present Arms:


Aim Fire:


Cannon Demonstration:


Closing March:


Lowering Of The Flag And Final Words:

This Weekend: Colored Troops Civil War Reenactment

An amazing event will be taking place at Fort Mifflin this weekend. Colored Troops Civil War Reenactment. The program is based on the Union Army's Colored Regiment (in more archaic terminology). Friday to Sunday - tons of activities and exhibits! Not to be missed!

Links with information:
http://6thusct.blogspot.com
http://www.fortmifflin.us/events/cal_list.php?op=evlist&catview=0
http://www.3rdusct.org
http://www.3rduscoloredinfantry.150m.com/new_page_2.htm

Victorian-Era Print Of The Goddess Eastre

This is a bit different for the Easter Holiday. Here is an image of Eastre - you will note the r and the e are in different places. Eastre (or Ostara as She was named in the 1800s) is The Goddess Of Spring and the namesake of the day that is celebrated with bunnies, eggs and more. The image itself is quite rare - no definitive information is available on it ... as a matter of fact, no information is available on it at all. I would define the picture as Victorian Scrap (perhaps from a calendar) since it assuredly dates from the 1880s or 1890s. It is also rare due to how The Goddess is depicted - particularly the moon in Her crown. Extremely rare for someone to have drawn that in the Victorian Era. It would not be unreasonable to speculate that the image depicts The Goddess Diana since She is typically drawn wearing the moon crown, but given the setting and the animals, this is certainly that of Eastre. The fragment is a delight to behold since She looks so much like the charming girls ubiquitously-seen on scrap pieces of that age combined with the traditional elements of Her Presence. Enjoy. Here are two shots of the scrap since it was difficult to get one good one:

German Imports For Easter 2010

I always stock up when Aldi puts their German holiday imports on their shelves. I have been going to Aldi since the 1980s (in Germany) and it was great to see the chain arrive in America in the 1990s. Most of the food you see comes from Aldi ... the only exception is the edible grass. I purchased that in Acme.

Some Artifacts Pertaining To Good Friday

Here are a picture and video clip of three items: a Crucifix, a statue of Mary, The Blessed Mother and a statue of a Disciple (I believe to be the Apostle John). All of them can be considered artifacts pertaining to Good Friday ... the Crucifix itself and Mary and John at the Crucifixion of Jesus.

The Cross is French in origin and dating to the late 1600s (although I have seen a photo of a Cross supposedly Finnish and from the early 1800s). The statues may be Austrian or Italian and date from the late 1700s to the early 1800s. A nice lot - definitely museum pieces!



Check out the skull and crossbones! Very common in religious art of that time. I have seen those (along with reapers) on tombstones in Germany and Austria (1500s to 1800s) and in the USA (1700s). Heavy patina.


A (blurry) video of the three:

The Roman Festival Of Veneralia Dedicated To The Goddess Venus 2010!!

Thursday, April 1, 2010 - the day of the Roman Festival of Veneralia dedicated to The Goddess Venus. I endeavored some ancient reenacting today, and did as the Romans did. I tried to be as historically-accurate as possible. I erected a nice Shrine and Altar. Therein you will see a soaking-wet and dripping Venus Statue. On this day in antiquity, the Romans washed all of the Venus Statues and adorned Them with flowers. In that spirit, I made sure She has been ritually cleaned and prepared with the proper offerings. She was originally associated with vegetation so I added plenty of vegetables in addition to fruit and some peanut snacks (German import purchased at Aldi). The Venus De Milo to the right is a clay statue I made earlier this year. The image to the left is an albumen print photo dating to the late 1800s. It features the specific Capitoline Venus (based on the Aphrodite Of Cnidus or Aphrodite Of Menophantos). Happy Veneralia!!













The nineteenth-century photo of Venus mentioned above:


Some quick video footage of the set-up: