A healing holiday

[BluePrimula]

I am hoping to create a calendar of holidays for myself, as a way to start actively practicing paganism. I will likely end up choosing some preexisting pagan holidays to celebrate, but I'm also considering creating some of my own personalized holidays for me to celebrate. One type of holiday that I'm thinking I would really like to celebrate is a "healing" holiday. I have been through some major traumas in the past few years, and I am generally holding on to some pain from the past and feelings of anger/hatred for certain people who have hurt me. I really want to be able to feel my feelings, accept them, heal, and move on. For reference, I am in therapy - I'm not looking to entirely heal my post-traumatic stress using a single holiday, or anything like that. I just think that having a holiday and practices related to this might help me.

I guess what I'm mostly wondering is, are there any preexisting pagan holidays that involve these themes? If I were to create my own holiday, are there any times of year that might be ideal for self healing, self growth, or moving on? Are there any practices that you guys can think of off the top of your head that I could do for this holiday? I'm still unsure what form of theism I will want to practice, but if there are any gods in any pantheon that relate to this, I would love to learn about them. Symbols, plants, really anything might help. My practices on this holiday *could* be magic oriented, but they might also just be things that make me feel at peace, or help me "look forward" rather than back into the past. Of course I'm willing to exercise my own creativity and figure things out for myself; however, I'm new to a lot of this stuff and I know many of you are far more knowledgeable than me about these things. Any pointers you all could give would help me a lot!

[B. de Corbin]

Re: A healing holiday

I understand where you're coming from, and that sounds like an outstanding idea.

I'm a practicing atheist myself, so I tend to adopt any holidays that seem fun of meaningful for myself.

But, in terms of pre-existing pagan holidays, I suggest looking into holidays that celebrate new beginnings and\of rebirth, such a the Solstice, Yule, New Year, Ester\Easter, birthdays, and so on.

Also, since celebrations honoring the dead are also the celebration of life's continuance, holidays like Halloween or Day of the Dead might work.

Best wishes & happy trails. Wounds heal, but they leave scars. Shoot for the healing, deal with the scars later, when time allows.

[BluePrimula]

Re: A healing holiday

Thank you for the suggestions!! And for your kindness! I'll learn more about those holidays, and decide what I think fits best for this (Sorry for the delayed response, my life has been extra busy and tiring lately...)