*Ø* Blogmanac March 22 | Festival of the Entry of the Tree

For the god Attis, ancient Rome
(Origins of Palm Sunday)

The priests of the goddess Cybele would carry pine (some say palm) trees through the streets and today, for the god Attis. Over time, the sacred rites of this day were appropriated by the Christians, and they attached themselves to Palm Sunday.

In Roman mythology, Cybele’s lover and son, or grandson, Attis, betrayed the goddess, and she drove him mad. In his fallen state, Attis castrated himself and died of haemorrhage, violets, springing from his blood. (Castration apparently ran in the family. Attis’s mother was Nana, who was impregnated by an almond of the tree sprung from the severed genitals of Agdistis – Pausanias 7.17.8. Note that Pausanias’s version of the Attis story differs from others; there are several Attis myths.)

Fortunately for Attis, when he mutilated himself she was remorseful, and Zeus helped her resurrect him after three days. (The myth of Cybele and Attis has inspired one of the greatest of all Roman poems, the 93-line Attis of Catullus.)

A felled pine tree was covered with violets and carried to the shrine of Cybele on Mount Dindymus. It might be that one main tree was carried solemnly, and participants and bystanders waved smaller trees and branches. At the shrine, in what is obviously a Spring Equinox symbol for this life-death-rebirth deity, strikingly similar to Easter, Attis was mourned for three days until in ritual he was resurrected by the love of Cybele, following which the devotees engaged in joyous and unrestrained celebration.

The God was dead on March 22; his holy blood ran down to redeem the earth. Two days of mourning followed, but when night fell on the eve of the third day, March 25, the worshippers turned to joy.

For suddenly a light shone in the darkness; the tomb was opened; the God had risen from the dead ... [and the priest] softly whispered in their ears the glad tidings of salvation. The resurrection of the God was hailed by his disciples as a promise that they too would issue triumphant from the corruption of the grave.
Frazer, JG, The Golden Bough

Note that March 25 is nine months (the human gestation period) before December 25; ie, Spring Equinox is nine months before Winter Solstice ...

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