Green Tea is my friend this morning 🙂 Hope you’re all having a lovely Sunday. I’ll be on F&F discussing this:

University Of Missouri To Observe Pagan, Wiccan Holidays

The University of Missouri’s “Guide to Religion” includes nearly 10 Wiccan and Pagan observances that professors are asked to consider when scheduling homework or tests. Students are asked to weigh the pagan festivals as they develop campus activities as well, the guide states.

The guide, created as one part of the school’s recently launched “Chancellor’s Diversity Initiatives,” suggests educators try to avoid due dates or exams on holidays listed therein.

“We also hope that the information 
 will be valuable to those planning classroom activities and other academic and co-curricular events,” the guide states.

In addition to many other religious holidays, the guide lists eight separate Wiccan and pagan celebrations, observances and festivals: the Autumn equinox; the Wiccan New Year, also known as Halloween; the Winter solstice; the Feast of Pan; the Spring equinox; Beltane, the fire festival; the summer solstice; and the Lammas harvest celebration.

The guide uses cheery, innocuous descriptions to explain the celebrations, noting Halloween as simply “a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, welcome those born during the past year into the community, and reflecting on past relationships, events and other significant changes in life.”

The Feast of Pan simply “celebrates the coming of spring and recovery of the Earth Goddess after giving birth to the Sun God,” the guide states. “Activities might include making candles, reading poetry and telling stories.”

The summer solstice celebrates “the Goddess manifesting as Mother Earth and the God as the Sun King.” Suggested activities include “lighting bonfires” and “watching the sun rise.”

At the fire festival, it’s time to jump the balefire or dance the May Pole, the guide suggests.

The Wiccan and pagan festivals are listed right alongside major religious holidays such as Easter, Christmas, Ramadan, and several other Jewish and Buddhist observances.

UPDATE: Thanks to RuBegonia, here’s the video 🙂

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16 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Shifra says:

    Great job, Tammy! Short segment but as usual, you manage to get your “zingers” in 🙂

    I got nervous, though, when the interviewee right before your segment was introduced as, it sounded to me, “John Tammy.” “oh no,” I thought, “they are really messing up everyone’s names on Fox. First, Tammy Edwards, now John Tammy.”

    Turns out, his name is John Tamny 🙂

  2. Alain41 says:

    Excellent. Even when brief, since you didn’t have to share time with anyone except the anchor, you could make your excellent points with thoughtfulness and some humor, no histrionics from others.

    I see that we’re supposed to celebrate summer solstice by lighting bonfires. I guess Missouri doesn’t have the Fourth of July police looking for renegade sparklers.

  3. Rob_W says:

    Excellent interview and great points.

    No surprise this is how university administrators are spending their time.

  4. geezee says:

    TouchĂ©, Tammy! lookin’ fab as usual, and as ever, right on the money in a winsome way.

  5. yayii says:

    Thanks RuBegonia and nice job Tammy. You nailed what that is all about.

  6. Kitten says:

    Job well done, Tammy! I too loved that it was only you and Tucker having fun at the expense of the Wiccas, Pagans, and school administrators. These liberals are so deceptive in the presentation of the school’s “Guide to Religion” policy. Much like a wolf in sheep’s clothing:

    The guide uses cheery, innocuous descriptions to explain the celebrations, noting Halloween as simply “a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, welcome those born during the past year into the community, and reflecting on past relationships, events and other significant changes in life.”

    What???

    In fact, the truth about Halloween is that Wicca and Pagans believe that the veil between this world and the next was thinnest at that time of year. Friends and relatives who had died would often return, with their souls inhabiting an animal – often a black cat.

    Tammy’s assessment is “dead”on, this is so not about getting a few more days off, but downgrading what’s important to the majority in this country by pushing this liberal agenda.

    This action by the school reminds me of another scripture: “Always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7). In other words, it is indeed possible to be an educated fool.

  7. Jeffrey says:

    I ENJOYED your segment via the DVR- so nice to see you! Wonderful job and who would know it was 0420? You looked beautiful 🙂

  8. Maynard says:

    Yes, Tammy nails it perfectly.

    But with this sort of nonsense being institutionalized, I fear we’ve lost the battle. I feel like giving up.

    So…who wants to celebrate Saturnalia with me?

    • RuBegonia says:

      Once again Maynard, you inspire research:

      Sat·ur·na·li·a
      [sat-er-ney-lee-uh, -neyl-yuh]
      noun, plural Sat·ur·na·li·a, Sat·ur·na·li·as.
      1.
      ( sometimes used with a plural verb ) the festival of Saturn, celebrated in December in ancient Rome as a time of unrestrained merrymaking.

      2.
      ( lowercase ) unrestrained revelry; orgy.

  9. TX Soldier254 says:

    The biggest take away I see is the backdrop; TammyBruce is dressed in Black with a city background in the Dark (Black) while talking about Wiccan’s, just a wee bit creepy.

  10. annagreye says:

    Well, the bottom line is there can’t possibly be enough Wiccans in the campus population to warrant the admin’s missive – I mean, are there? It’s clearly as Tammy points out – more about knocking Christianity down a peg.

    But I don’t want history to get thrown out with the bathwater – the real pagans were simply pre-Christian Europeans who practiced nature religions and their holidays followed the changing seasons. The Church back then, when busy converting these people, wisely placed the Christian celebrations of Christmas and Easter at the same time as Winter Solstice/Yule and Spring Fesitvals of the pagans, making conversion easier to swallow and also because these people were mostly agricultural and their lives were dictated by the harvest schedule. Halloween/Samhain was their New Year and a celebration of ancestors and communicating with them. The Catholics and the Anglicans also celebrate the Feast of All Saints, which also recognizes ancestors and dead relatives during the service, at the same time as Halloween/Samhain (technically Nov 1-2, not Oct 31). And b/c some people mistake Satanism for paganism – Satan is a Christian concept. Jews and Pagans historically had no concept of Satan or a fallen angel.
    I just don’t want the real history of the pre-Christian nature religions and their contributions to our calendar to get muddled by modern-day Wiccans and their spell circles and black nail polish!

    • Maynard says:

      And don’t lose site of Tammy’s extremely important note that eccentric people who jump into this fringe stuff not only aren’t particularly concerned about mainstream acknowledgement, but it’s actually detrimental to their practices. I mean, much of the appeal of joining the outsiders is to get away from the mundane mainstream. It ruins the fun when mainstream people start treating you with faux respect, because then you know your culture is too mindless to be worth rebelling against. (I’m not quite saying this right, but I don’t have the wherewithal to express it properly at the moment.)

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