Today, November 6, by my royal decree, shall hereby be celebrated as Musicmas. This is a day to honor music, musicians, and instruments. Let me tell you a little bit about the history and the interesting ways that we celebrate in the modern world.
Each year, exactly 5 days after their Samhain celebrations, the Ancient Celts would finally extinguish their bonfires. Five was a significant number to the Celts because it represented the points around the pentagram. There was a fairly complex ceremony involved, including dancing and the sounding of 5 horns — specifically, 5 carnyces. The carnyx, by the way, was an ancient battle horn. After the horns were sounded, druid dancers would perform a ritual stomping dance around the flame. Each successive step would kick up dirt that would eventually smother the fire.
Can you imagine the cacophony of noise? The cry of carnyces and the rumbling of druidic dance? It certainly must have been a sight to behold.
The culmination of the whole event was marked by the most highest of high priests dipping the largest carnyx (which represented the element of spirit) into the glowing embers. Some of these embers were scooped into the mouth of the horn, then the entire instrument was put on display at the city gate rather prominently.
When neighboring tribes visited, they payed respects at the gate by offering a “skaht” to the horn. The “skaht” was a verbal salute consisting of the utterance of 5 random consonant syllables. There’s a very interesting etymology here which eventually arrives at “scat” or “scatting,” which is an improvised singing technique used by jazz musicians today.
The Ancient Celts, of course, did not call this day “Musicmas.” They called it something else entirely, but the exact word was unfortunately lost to time. Reportedly, Christian monks found the word offensively difficult to pronounce, so they struck it from all documents.
The Romans had a similar celebration around this time of year that honored the Muses called Museanalia. In an attempt to more easily indoctrinate most of Europe, the Catholic church integrated the corresponding Celtic and Roman practices into one day, Musica Missa, which of course is Latin for “Music Mass.” Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of musicians, poets, instrument makers, and composers, is typically honored on this day.
Today, we try to honor some of the ancient traditions for Musicmass.
- Candles are lit in honor of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and others who passed away before their time
- The largest instrument within a household is typically decorated with strings of lights (to represent the glowing embers in the celtic carnyx). All instruments are cleaned and maintained.
- Musicians are honored by giving small notes or gifts of appreciation
- Everyone is encouraged to listen to their favorite music all day long
Perhaps the most interesting tradition, however, is the post-modern recreation of the “skaht.” Instead of saying “hello” on this day, two musicians will say five random consonant syllables when greeting each other. Traditionally, this is only done between musicians, but everyone is more than welcomed to try it out! When you see a musician, just say the first five syllables that come to mind! If they’re a true musician, they’ll know what you’re doing and appreciate it. It might be “Ca-Ba-De-Boop-Boop” or “Ta-Ha-La-La-Lee” or “Na-Na-Hey-Ma-Ney” … it doesn’t matter! I promise, the true musician in your life will love it.
Indeed, a merry Ca-Ba-De-Boop-Boop to you!
(This post was in response to daily writing prompt “Invent a holiday” … but the writing prompt box appears to be broken at the moment. Also, all information should be considered utterly and purely nonsense)
Good morning and happy Monday, friends!
I feel like i got a lot accomplished this past week. I finished my Samhain article and posted two songs with video!
It occurred to me over the past week that I am a little disjointed when it comes to some of my channels. I’ve had my “Misunderstood Disciple” YouTube channel up for a couple of years now as a family-friendly (my family is very conservative Christian) environment where I could post my music, but I’ve always steered clear of recording some of my more pagan or occult themed songs so as to not offend anyone. On this site, I’ve occasionally linked to something I’ve done there, but I’ve never the other way around, lest any of my followers (who are mostly relatives) see it. As I start to play live, it puts me in a bit of a tough spot because 1) I want people to be able to follow and listen to the songs that they heard at the show but 2) I don’t really want my relatives to find it.
The simple solution, of course, is just to let that channel die. I’ll start a new distribution under “Aerik Arkadian” through Spotify, YouTube Music, iTunes, and everywhere else… and I’ll post whatever songs I want. To help kick start that effort, I published “IO Pan!” last night and within the next few days, it’ll be streaming on all major platforms.
I’m going to do a series of acoustic songs — a mix of my originals (pagan and non-pagan), covers, and even my own renditions of pagan chants like We All Come from the Goddess.
If you’ve got a favorite pagan chant that you think would make a cool acoustic rock song, send it overt to me and I’ll play around with it!
In other news, I’ve started a couple articles — one as a recap on my experience at FPG and the other as an explanation on the “dark time.” I think both of those will be finished last this week. Also, it’s about time for my to begin thinking about Episode 5, so I’ll need to schedule an interview time with Coby Michael.
For right now, though, I’m just deciding what song to do next.
Stay tuned! More is coming soon.
Aerik Arkadian 
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