Mark Green's Atheopaganism Blog

Winter is icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm
Raineth drop and staineth slop and how the wind doth Ramm
Sing: Goddamm!

—Ezra Pound

This parody of the famous 13th century English round “Sumer is Icumen In” perfectly reflects how many of us experience the month of January. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s dark, and it just…keeps…going.

In the mainstream Christian culture, there isn’t a thing to celebrate after New Year except for a couple of long “official” weekends with little if any widely acknowledged ceremonial significance, until Easter in March or April*.

That’s a very long drought between celebrations.

Pagans get a Sabbath at the beginning of February, commonly called Imbolc or Brighid. It is the earliest breath of Spring, when it can first really be seen that the days are lengthening again. I call it Riverain, as it is the height of the time of water in my region, but that’s a topic for another post.

Today, I speak of SLOGG.

SLOGG is a holiday whose express purpose is to break up the monotony of January and give us a chance to throw a party. As I described last year, it is an occasion for silly hats, board games and drinking the Scandinavian fortified mulled wine glögg.

That’s it. The significance of the holiday is that we are tired of being bombarded by the elements and it’s time to have some fun. Reason enough! So schedule a SLOGG party for the third Saturday in January (that would be the 18th this year), or perhaps a week later, and celebrate!

Here is a recipe for glögg to help with your festivities. Enjoy!

*  Except in places which celebrate Carnival prior to Lent