(Mid-Winter Festival)
This
day, called Kirmeline, marks the symbolic awakening of snakes.
People put out food and milk for the snakes, and if these things are
consumed, a good year is foretold.
It
reminds me of Groundhog Day, when people wait for an oversized rodent
to come out and either see its shadow (foretelling six more weeks of
winter), or not (because, counter-intuitively, a cloudy day means that
winter weather will soon end).
When
is a snake a serpent?
When
we talk about real snakes such as rosy boas or diamondback
rattlesnakes, we usually use the word snake. Serpents,
on the other hand, are usually symbols or mythological
creatures.
Just
what do serpents symbolize? Sometimes they are symbols of evil, such
as the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Sometimes they symbolize the
creative life force. Because snakes shed their skin through molting,
serpents can be symbols of rebirth or transformation, even healing.
The Ancient Greek God of Medicine, Asclepius, has a rod entwined with serpents. Sometimes serpents are cast as guardians; statues of
hooded nagas served as guardians of temples in Angkor, Cambodia, and
sometimes the Buddha is pictured sitting beneath the hooded serpent
king Mucalinda, who shields the Buddha as he meditates.
Sometimes
serpents are considered dragons, and other times they live in the
sea, as sea monsters such as the Loch Ness Monster.
Also
on this date:
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