Calendar of the Sun
13 Solmonath
Parentalia
Color: Blood-red
Element: Fire
Altar: Set with a red cloth, and unlit red candles, and symbols of Mother and Father.
Offerings: Written words of thanks for one's childhood. Be a parental mentor to someone
young.
Daily Meal: Soups or stews, and bread.
Parentalia Invocation
Perhaps you gave us life,
Sowed our seed, gifted us with
Your chromosomes and genes.
Perhaps you birthed us
Or were there to greet us
As we entered the world.
Perhaps you fed us, cleaned us,
Held us when we cried,
Sang us to sleep, taught us
Many skills, or perhaps
You merely led by example.
Perhaps you were tied to us by blood
Or by marriage, or simply came
Into our lives when it was needed.
Perhaps you were a parent to our bodies,
Or to our minds, or to our hearts,
Or to our souls.
However it was, you were there,
And we are grateful,
For the flame you kindled
Has warmed us ever since,
And we will pass it on.
(Each steps forward, lights a candle, and speaks the name of a parent, or one who has parented
them, and everyone else calls it back to them, as in "I honor Maria, my stepmother who taught
me to read!" "We honor Maria!" The next person lights their candle from the last one, until the
ritual is over. At the end, all chant in two-part harmony the names they have spoken.)
[Pagan Book of Hours]