Halcyon Days

Tomorrow will be my dancing day,
I would my true love would so chance,
to see the legend of my play,
to call my true love to my dance.
Sing, O my love, O my love,
my love, my love.
This have I done for my true love.

~ Traditional Carol ~


In Greece, this was the period called the halcyon days - the weeks before and after the winter solstice.

The name comes from that of an ancient heroine, Halcyone, who loved a fisherman named Ceyx. A dream told her that her beloved had died at sea, and so she stood thereafter by the seashore, finally catching her lover's body as it washed to shore.

Transported by grief and unquenchable longing, Halcyone burst out of human form into the shape of the first kingfisher, and her dead mate magically revived and joined her in the same shape.

So kindly did the Greek divinities look on this loyal love that they blessed the couple.

Now, when the kingfisher is ready to lay its eggs, a calm descends on the sea until they hatch.
These are the halcyon days, a term used of any period of calm and peace.

~ By Patricia Monaghan ~

From "The Goddess Companion"