Latest news with #pagan
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Banished review – cultish terrors lurk in the Australian outback
Weirdos in animal masks, summary executions, rituals that envelop you in a strange sense of predestination; thanks to the folk-horror crowd, you can't go for a country walk these days without expecting to stumble into some uncanny pagan savagery. This Australian thriller subscribes unquestioningly to all of the above tropes, but its delicately splintered narrative and feel for outback disorientation and dismay mark out a distinctive trail – until it disintegrates to the point the film can only turn in circles. Prodigal city girl Grace (Meg Eloise-Clarke) comes back to her home town in the bush to search for her missing brother David (Gautier de Fontaine), who saved her from their abusive father. Nosing around this depressing outpost, she hears rumours of a mysterious commune out in the wilderness drawing in local vagrants and drifters. Her uncle (Tony Hughes) warns her off investigating – but of course she ignores him, as well as the pile of keepsakes hinting at her family's long involvement in cultist shenanigans. So she slings a few grand to her shady former geography teacher Mr Green (Leighton Cardno) to escort her out into the scrub. Intercutting Grace's forlorn interrogations with her panicky isolation in the countryside, director Joseph Sims-Dennett initially has one narrative chase another's tail; they dovetail into a first half whose general oppressiveness grinds us down, while the fragmentation prickles us into alertness. It's heightened by a sharp and impatient visual sense keen to root out grim outback picturesque as well as broken bones and toxic microbes inside Grace's beleaguered body, and meting out action in abbreviated, comic-book-style beats. Once Grace makes first contact, and comes back once more within the family embrace, the film tries to go full-on phantasmagoric. But the highly allusive storytelling style ultimately leaves insufficient meaning at the core of this quasi-psychedelic breakdown and too much generic pagan cavorting and leering. Even so, it's a credible enough attempt at launching an Aussie branch of the global folk-horror brotherhood. The Banished is on digital platforms from 28 July.
Vogue
26-06-2025
- General
- Vogue
Handfasting Ceremony Rituals and Traditions, Explained
Did you know that the common phrase of a couple 'tying the knot' at their wedding comes from the ancient Irish handfasting ceremony? This wedding tradition serves as a symbol of the couple's bond and commitment to each other. The practice involves a wedding officiant, close friend, or family member wrapping the to-be-weds hands together with a rope or braided cord in a knot. While it isn't commonly practiced outside of Ireland, other cultures have similar rituals in their wedding ceremonies to mark the couple's connection, like the lasso ceremony or the Hindu granthibandhan ceremony. Want to incorporate this unity ritual into your own wedding? Read ahead to learn more about the history and practice of handfasting. What Is a Handfasting Ceremony? A handfasting ceremony is an ancient Celtic and pagan tradition that has become a beautiful ritual that still occurs at Irish weddings. 'It's the binding together of a couple as part of their wedding ceremony,' explains Tara Fay, a luxury wedding planner based in Dublin. 'It signifies a couple's commitment to each other and the binding together of two people. When tied properly and a couple pull their hands free from the ropes or cords, it should leave what resembles an infinity knot symbolizing their infinite love.' She adds, 'It is normally done with a single rope or cord, but ribbon or any type of binding can be used.' History Behind Handfasting So where exactly did this 2000-year-old ceremony come from? 'Its roots are in ancient Celtic and Pagan traditions,' says Fay. 'A couple had their hands bound together by a druid so they were tied to each other for a year as a sort of trial marriage—essentially a modern engagement. Either one of the couple could opt out over the course of the year. Otherwise, they would be married at the end of the year.' Today, the traditional practice was updated to occur at the time of the wedding rather than engagement. Many couples choose to do it as a nod to their culture, as well as a way to represent that they are linked together spiritually in their love and marital bonds. The Meaning Behind the Cords and Colors The meter-long cords for a handfasting ceremony can be found in a variety of colors—cream and green are particularly popular, but you can also use just about any hue under the sun. According to Fay, these shades don't have any traditional significance—rather, a couple can ascribe a deeper meaning to certain to colors if they wish. 'Sometimes, people use different color ribbons that have significance for them. We would usually plait these for ease,' she says. 'Sometimes people use cords to signify children or parents.' How to Incorporate Handfasting Into Your Wedding If you or your fiancé are of Irish descent or are planning a destination wedding in Ireland, you might be curious about incorporating this ritual into your nuptials ahead of your ring exchange. Luckily, all you need to prepare is to obtain a fastening cord and explain the ceremony to whoever is performing it. 'A great time to do this is either immediately after the vows or as part of the vows. Tying is symbolic of binding you to your partner so saying the words you mean while being bound together makes the vows even more significant,' suggests Fay. 'You do need to have someone assist, so sometimes we get the mothers or fathers or siblings involved.' The wedding planner shares that there is no exact method you must follow for the ceremony, but the couple will need to join hands and whoever is helping with the ceremony will need to tie them together with a knot. It's also a nice idea for your officiant to add an explainer of the ceremony to guests in their wedding script so everyone is aware of the meaning of this special tradition. Tips to Personalize Your Handfasting Ceremony There are plenty of ways to make the handfasting ceremony feel even more personal to your wedding. Fay says she has seen ceremonies where the couple used ribbons from their invitations as their fastening cord or add bell charms—another Celtic tradition—to the rope. 'The main thing that we always say if someone is doing this is you—the couple—are the only ones that know which way you want this exactly,' she says. The planner also encourages you to be thoughtful about who you choose tying the knot. 'It's a beautiful way to incorporate other significant people in your life into your celebration,' she shares.
The Guardian
21-06-2025
- The Guardian
Celebrating an everlasting twilight: midsummer, Lithuanian style
Towards dusk a bonfire was lit and, one after another, the friends we were eating and drinking with hurdled the leaping flames, a pagan ritual thought to provide benefits including improved physical and mental strength, prosperity and fertility. Further heat came from a sauna we made using five sacks of logs – too many, we agreed afterwards. When it got too hot, we escaped into the cool shallows of the pond just a few metres away, repeating this cycle several times. As we soak up the long, light days of summer, I'm reminded of this magical time I spent in Lithuania celebrating the summer solstice, or Joninės as it's called there. A suitable translation is Saint John's festival, a public holiday celebrated each year on 23 and 24 June. The name pays homage to John the Baptist and coincides with his feast day, yet the traditions of Joninės are deeply rooted in the pagan celebration of midsummer, predating Christianity. Similar pagan festivals take place in the Baltic nations of Estonia and Latvia, known as Jaanipäev and Jāņi, respectively. It's a time when people travel from the city to gather in the countryside to eat, drink, sing and observe ancient folk traditions relating to fertility, harvest and renewal. I travelled by train from Tallinn to Riga, and on to Kaunas, Lithuania's second-largest city, to meet my girlfriend, Jūratė. From there, it's a further 50 miles east to just outside Čiobiškis, where we meet Jūratė's extended family – about 80 of them, from newly borns to octogenarians, of which Julė is the elder and true matriarch presiding over the Joninės celebrations. The journey from Čiobiškis to the surrounding countryside requires us to take the small Padaliai-Čiobiškis ferry across the Neris river – travel at its most rustic and serene. This is followed by a short drive through a forest, which brings us to what resembles a bespoke and bijou festival, with family members having travelled from across Lithuania and beyond, all of us laden with copious amounts of food and drink for the two-day celebration. It's beautiful countryside – fairly flat and wooded, full of waterways providing an abundance of blue mixed with the verdant hues of surrounding vegetation, and punctuated with bright, colourful splashes from the many species of wildflower, such as lupin, cornflower, chicory, yarrow and buttercup. We watch the Neris meandering downstream to the right, and two fishermen, Julius and Česiukas, attempting to catch a trout, perch, bream or perhaps salmon for the table. Meanwhile, Jūratė and her friend Eglė collect small posies of wild flowers to weave into flower crowns, symbols of love and fertility, while I rest on the riverbank enjoying this bucolic scene. At the centre of the celebrations, beneath a huge structure created from local timber, tables have been joined together to form one great community banquet, flanked by benches on either side. It's here I taste the intriguing-looking šakotis for the first time – a layered cake resembling a tree, made of butter, eggs, flour, sugar and cream, and cooked on a spit. Its jagged spikes look almost too sharp and angular to eat, but it's delicious. Dishes brought by Jūratė's family include salted herring, chanterelles spread on rye bread, a beef and vegetable stew which is very much to my liking, and a boiled tongue wrapped in smoked pig's ear, which is less so. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion Other delicacies include cepelinai, dumplings made from grated potato, filled with pork mince and served with bacon gravy and either sour cream or mushroom sauce. My favourite is balandėliai, cabbage leaves filled again with pork mince and served with potatoes. It's hearty fare for the longest day of the year, washed down with the exquisite cherry liqueur Žagarės. As another bonfire is lit, everyone gathers around the campfire to tell stories and sing traditional folk songs. It is believed that the brighter the flames, the more abundant the harvest will be. Beer, or alus, is in plentiful supply, but the more pagan among us opt for homemade sidras (cider) or the stronger still samanė (moonshine) all of which helps make camping a little more comfortable. A further ritual begins from midnight: the search for papartis, a fern that, legend has it, produces a magic white flower on midsummer eve. Couples wander into the forest to hunt for this mythical bloom, discovering, perhaps, far more besides. I'm told the most common date that babies are born is 25 March, some nine months later on Gandrinės or Stork Day – with the arrival of the country's national bird signifying the beginning of spring as they return from their winter migration. Yet another name for summer solstice is Rasos, or Dew festival, since it is believed that dew collected on the morning of midsummer is especially potent for fertility, while wild herbs gathered on the night of Joninės are believed to possess magical and healing properties, since this is when nature is at its most powerful. While paying our own dues to some of the ancient traditions, we also do things our own way, combining music from the radio station LRT Opus with further consumption of alus and Žagarės. I'm sure every family and group of friends celebrate differently, but all that really matters is being together, in nature, with skylarks visible high above and cuckoos audible in the woods. The magnificence of Joninės was captured by the Lithuanian poet and philosopher Vydūnas, who described it as the 'feast of the bonfire light meeting the all-encompassing sunlight'. As we make our way a few miles south to the hamlet of Mikalaučiškės for a gathering with some of Jūratė's friends – since Joninės is very much about celebrating with friends as well as bloodlines – I think of those words written by Vydūnas a century ago. Today's bonfire is already burning bright amid an everlasting twilight of deep orange, pink and blue, painted above the horizon. Baltic Gently organises various Joninės packages across Lithuania, from €75 to €130
