Pagan holidays, also known as Neopagan holidays, are observed by individuals who follow modern Pagan or Neopagan religions. These holidays are typically based on ancient pagan traditions and celebrations, and they often revolve around the cycles of nature and the changing seasons. In the United States, Pagans celebrate a variety of holidays throughout the year, which can vary depending on the specific tradition or path they follow. These holidays often embody themes of rebirth, abundance, and the interconnectedness of all living things. In 2023, Pagans in the United States will celebrate a number of significant holidays. Some of the notable holidays include: - Imbolc: Imbolc, also known as Candlemas, is celebrated on February 2nd.
Cinematic Cats
The most famous cougar in the American entertainment industry, a female named Kasey, lives in the Texas Hill Country. In fact, pretty much every cougar you see on TV or in the movies is Kasey.
Kasey is the official cat of Puma, the athletic shoe maker. (Puma, by the way, is one of as many as a hundred different names by which cougars are known—they’re also mountain lions, panthers, catamounts, Tennessee wildcats, mountain screamers and painters.) Kasey was the cougar in “Talladega Nights.” She is known as the gentlest, safest cat in the movies.
In a popular Chevy Colorado commercial, Kasey plays tag across a western plain with a guy in a pickup. She has appeared with Brett Favre in a deodorant commercial and Demi Moore in a sports drink commercial. She has acted in “Flicka,” “The Arc” and “Where the Red Fern Grows.”
Kasey lives at the Lone Star Wildlife Ranch near Geronimo, owned and run by 44-year-old identical twin sisters Jamie Ruscigno and Jewels Satterfield. They believe that constant prolonged human contact, including nighttime cohabitation, is the best way to socialize big cats. For the past 11 months, Jamie has shared her bedroom with three young cougars named Austin, Dallas and Houston. Last summer they were kittens; now they are 80-pound, 3-foot-long teenagers.
“You cannot take a cat to a movie set and work it unless you have an incredibly strong bond with that cat,” Jamie told me when I visited the ranch recently. “That takes months and months of being with that cat 24/7. The first thing I did after I got the cougars was refinance my house, because I knew what it was going to take.”
The Lone Star Wildlife Ranch sits on 10 acres northeast of Seguin. Structures take up little of the acreage, leaving most of it open. Green hills surround it in all directions.
Jamie explained her immersive style of training to me as we were walking from the one-story traditional frame house in which she and Jewels live to a complex of big-cat cages, which hold Kasey, the three boy cougars (in the daytime), and two Bengal tigers, Asia and Riah.
A large, high-fenced arena in which the cats can run freely adjoins the cages. Jamie and Jewels also have a herd of 17 show goats, for sale to Future Farmers of America students, two Great Pyrenees to protect the goats, five rescued dogs, and a rescued, housebroken goat named Stewart.
“The second I got around a big cat on a set, it just grabbed my heart,” Jamie said. “I just always wanted to be around them. They’re so wild. All their instincts are still there. They can be persuaded not to act on them by tons of love, but you have to be watching for those instincts every second of every day.”
Riah was the only cat visible as we approached the cages. Jamie walked up to the edge of her cage, to within conversational distance, as if she were approaching an acquaintance at a party. Riah weighs 500 pounds. She can run 35 miles an hour. She was lying on a waist-high platform in her cage, looking at us. Riah’s fangs were hard to comprehend. She could easily have taken my entire head into her mouth. In her lucent gorgeousness, she was like a drug. The bewitchment of a tiger at that range is unconditional. Its close presence invites you to visualize your own death, and its beauty is absolute in the way of a sea anemone or the moon.
She chuffed—an exaggerated lippy exhalation that Jamie said was a tiger’s way of saying hello. Jamie encouraged me to chuff. I did. It seemed like patently human mimicry, but Riah looked at me with lovely indolent amicability and chuffed right back.
In the cage behind Riah’s, Asia got up and started pacing and growling. She began talking to Asia familiarly, but Asia roared several times in consternation. The word “roar” is helpless to convey the sound she made, which was so granularly deep and massive it was hard to imagine it came from an animal. It was closer to a subterranean-earth sound. Evolution designed it to banish every immediate threat a tiger might face, and Asia’s roar seemed to permanently alter the environment. Once a tiger roars someplace out in the uncaged world, it is always there.
Jamie and Jewels moved to Texas from Los Angeles in April 2005 after 20 years in the film business as animal trainers and producers. They left mainly because they realized they liked animals a lot better than Hollywood people.
Jamie and Jewels chose Texas because they were raised in the Wenatchee Valley, in central Washing-ton state, which is populated almost entirely by Texan, Oklahoman and Arkansan migrants who arrived in the 1930s and ’40s after Dust Bowl crop losses and oil industry collapses.
“We grew up Southern as Southern can get,” Jewels told me. “All our family was from Texas.”
Jamie and Jewels are no-nonsense and outspoken and laugh easily, and they possess a kind of forbearing, lightly fatigued generosity that probably has to do with living almost exclusively for a group of exquisite, hard-to-satiate animals.
After I saw the tigers, Jamie and Jewels took me to see Kasey, Austin, Dallas and Houston. The glamorous Kasey, after squeak-chirping, which is the incongruous cougar way of saying hi, came gliding low-bellied out of her house and lay down to be scratched. Jewels got down and scratched her. She began to purr. It was exactly like the purr of a housecat through an amplifier. Cougars, Jewels said, are the largest purring cat. The bigger ones all have a bone in their throat that causes them to roar.
“Cougars act just like big housecats,” Jamie said. “They can be super-aloof, super stuck-up, super-playful. They’re the laziest cats. Eighty percent of what they go after, they kill. They’re so good at it they don’t have to do a lot of work.”
Cougars stalk and spring selectively. They may follow their prey for 10 miles. They are fast and startlingly agile. From a standstill, adult cougars can jump 12 feet straight up into the air and 15 feet forward. They can leap off 60-foot cliffs and land unhurt. In flight, they remain perfectly balanced. They can pause in midair and change direction. Their tails, as long as their bodies, act as stabilizers and rudders.
Behind Kasey’s cage, in the arena, Austin, Dallas and Houston were mock-stalking and mock-pouncing. Jamie and Jewels have watched them leap, turn their bodies into quasi-sails by arching their backs and spreading their arms, and rotate 90 degrees in the air before landing.
After we’d watched the boys for a while, I asked to see the master bedroom Jamie shares with them.
“Oooh, it’s really bad right now,” Jamie said. The cougars were outgrowing the space.
She and Jewels keep their house nicely furnished and well maintained, except in certain zones. We went through the kitchen to get to the master bedroom. A thawing block of chicken necks filled one sink basin, and a 5-pound package of ground chicken, also thawing, filled the other. The cats on the ranch collectively eat 42 pounds of meat a day: 1,260 pounds a month, 15,300 pounds a year. “Everything we do is to feed the cats,” Jamie told me.
The master bedroom was pretty trashed. The cougars had chewed up the windowsills, paw-printed the wall mirror over the bathroom sink, pulled down the closet racks, torn and eaten blankets and pillows, and tail-daubed the inside of the door with brief, vertical, high-up streaks of mud that would be completely unidentifiable if you didn’t know where they came from.
Jamie plans to keep Austin, Dallas and Houston in her bedroom for another month. “The longer they can keep that tight mama bond,” she told me, “the better they’ll be when they grow up. In the wild they live with their mom sleeping in their den for up to two years.” They sleep soundly through the night, and they purr with increasing softness before they fall asleep. Jamie sleeps well. She has a lot of cougars in her dreams.
——————–
Jeff Tietz has written for Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, among other publications.
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Some of the notable holidays include: - Imbolc: Imbolc, also known as Candlemas, is celebrated on February 2nd. This holiday marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It is a time to honor the returning light and the coming of spring.
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- Ostara: Ostara, also known as the Spring Equinox, occurs on March 20th. This holiday celebrates the arrival of spring and the renewal of life. It is a time to honor the balance between light and dark and the fertility of the earth. - Beltane: Beltane is celebrated on May 1st and is also known as May Day. This holiday marks the beginning of summer and is associated with fertility and abundance. It is a time to celebrate the union of the god and goddess and the blossoming of nature. - Litha: Litha, also known as the Summer Solstice, falls on June 21st. This holiday is the longest day of the year and celebrates the peak of the sun's power. It is a time to honor the light and warmth of the sun and the abundance of the earth. - Mabon: Mabon, also known as the Autumn Equinox, occurs on September 23rd. This holiday marks the beginning of fall and is a time to give thanks for the harvest and prepare for the coming winter. It is a time to honor the balance between light and dark and the changing of the seasons. - Samhain: Samhain, also known as Halloween, is celebrated on October 31st. This holiday marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. It is a time to honor the ancestors, remember the cycle of life and death, and celebrate the thinning of the veil between the worlds. - Yule: Yule, also known as the Winter Solstice, falls on December 21st. This holiday is the shortest day of the year and celebrates the rebirth of the sun. It is a time to honor the return of light and the beginning of a new cycle. These holidays are often celebrated with rituals, ceremonies, feasts, and gatherings. Each Pagan tradition may have its own unique practices and customs associated with these holidays. Pagans may also incorporate elements from other spiritual or cultural traditions into their celebrations. It is important to note that Pagan holidays are not widely recognized or observed by the general population in the United States. However, there are Pagan communities and organizations that host public events and rituals for those who wish to participate. Overall, Pagan holidays in 2023 will provide an opportunity for Pagans in the United States to connect with nature, honor their spiritual beliefs, and celebrate the cycles of life and the changing seasons..
Reviews for "Pagan Festivals and Celebrations: Dates to Remember in the US for 2023"
1. Kristen - 1 star
This holiday package was completely misleading. I thought "Pagan Holidays 2023 US" would be a unique and interesting experience, but it turned out to be a total letdown. The activities were poorly organized, the guides seemed uninterested, and there was little to no explanation about the significance of the pagan traditions we were supposedly participating in. Overall, it felt like a cash grab rather than a genuine cultural experience. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for an authentic pagan holiday experience.
2. Ryan - 2 stars
I had high hopes for "Pagan Holidays 2023 US," but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The itinerary promised a deep dive into pagan rituals, but what we got was a series of superficial activities that barely scratched the surface. The guides seemed unprepared and couldn't provide clear explanations for the rituals we were witnessing. Additionally, the accommodations were subpar, with uncomfortable beds and outdated facilities. If you're genuinely interested in pagan holidays, I would suggest finding a more reputable and knowledgeable tour provider.
3. Lisa - 1 star
I regret booking the "Pagan Holidays 2023 US" package. It was a complete waste of time and money. The tour was disorganized, with constant delays and rushed activities. The guides lacked enthusiasm and appeared to be reading off a script and ticking boxes rather than truly immersing us in the pagan experience. The overall execution was amateurish and far from what was advertised. I strongly advise fellow travelers to avoid this tour and look for more reputable and professional options. There's nothing pagan about this experience except for the name.