The Day Begins at Sunset: Primstav Poems

By Kari Tauring

The Day Begins at Sunset is Kari Tauring's first collection of poetry. It arose out of Tauring's studies of the Norwegian Primstav, a traditional calendar that marked pre-Christian Scandinavian agricultural practices as well as the church and saint days of the Catholic tradition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9781446744857

Book preview

The Day Begins at Sunset

by Kari Tauring

The Day Beings at Sunset

Copyright 2023

All rights reserved.

Kari C. Tauring

[e-mail]

www.karitauring.com

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law

Cover design by David de Young

Butterfly photo by Lotta Vihriälä

Published by Nordic Moon Press, Finland.

www.nordicmoonpress.com

Printed and distributed by Lulu Press in the United States of America and the European Union

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-4467-44857

Primstav - transitional calendar between pagan agricultural reckoning and Medieval church day reckoning. Based on Gregorian month count in a linear way that can also track lunisolar variance.

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Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Approaching the Stav - 2019

Palm Sunday Cyclone - 2019

The Summer Side - April 14

My Magnificence

Have You Seen God 2019

My Good Friday Sauna

Easter Saturday

Easter Sunday Eggs

Resurrection Trilogy

Why are you surprised?

Påskski 1943

29 Juli - St. Olaf's Wake

Exaltation of the Cross

Frigg's Rove

Winter Night October 14

Julstev

Einherjar og Enebærbusk og Bynke

Gregory the Great

Annunciation Poems

Bear Wake 2020

Being Other

February 6 - St. Agatha's Day

New Day Marks on the Primstav

Water Tiger Fire Horse

St. Agnus's Conversation

The Day Begins at Sunset

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Scandinavian (Norwegian) Primstav is a transitional calendar marking pre-Christian Scandinavian agricultural practices as well as the newly-required church and saint days of the Catholic tradition. It was a way for my illiterate ancestors to meet the needs of their earth-bound existence while still keeping track of their obligation to attend certain church days or be fined or jailed for neglect.

Prim comes from the Latin prima luna for the new moon. Stav is Norwegian for staff. The Primstav looks something like a yardstick, one side marking the winter season beginning on October 14, and the other for summer beginning on April 14. Stylized symbols for special days are interspersed with small hatch marks with 183 days on one side and 182 on the other.

Growing up Norwegian Lutheran, it was easy for me to skip this part of my heritage and plunge into the roots where mythology, runes, and earth spiritual practices fed my body, mind, and spirit. I saw how the values of