Day 270: Midwinter sacrifice

Morris dancing in Dundarave again, this time for the lighting of the bonfire as part of the Festival of Lights. And guess what? No rain today! Yay! My second chance at seeing what our new flash unit can do, and I must admit I was much happier with the results this time. Having freshly-charged batteries made a difference, but even then, 100 shots later and the batteries were pretty much done. Next time I'll have two sets on hand.

Before the dancing got underway, June said a few words about midwinter rituals, one of which involved a sacrifice to bring back the sun. The Tiddlies (and a stray Sheep) formed a hexagonal lock with the longswords and placed over the head of the "victim". On the count of three, they all drew their swords from the lock, "severing" the victim's head from his body (well not really, but that's the idea). And who better to be sacrificed than one of the organizers of the festival :-)

Midwinter ceremonial sacrifice