Venus Day Violet
Gods, the violets smelled heavenly this year. Like a meadow in my hands, sweet and light and dewy and deeply floral. They are central to my honoring Venus Day in a few days. They'll be central to the Feast of Flowers celebrations as well. Just as Venus Day is a descendant of the Veneralia, the Feast of Flowers descends from Floralia and the celebration of spring in all its merry and abundant beauty from that old world we draw so much of our cultural symbolism from.
All the flowers and their symbols are a delight this month- but none are more beautiful in their cool, unassuming, delicate sweetness as the violet. Their color when crushed in water is the deepest indigo, a deep blue with a tint of red that adds passion to her hue. Violets and Venus go hand-in-hand. It's a romance between the glittering star and the lovely sweet violet. The garden-gathered violets are washed and presented to the altar of Pandemos; I invoke the sweet song of the violet and sing her gentle praises. Every year I gather the sweet violets from my mothers yard and make syrups, candies or dyes- practical and sweet things- a very me kind of ritual.
This year was for candied violets and lemon-custard vanilla candied violet tart. The dough tastes like crisp butter cookie and the filling is lemon yogurty goodness with fresh lemon zest, honey and lavender sugars. I love lemons, I love flowers, I love violets, I love spring. I hate being quarantined at the height of poplar-bud gathering season, missing the bloom of the white camellias... But that's okay. Life is like this sometimes; in these awful and uncertain moments, we make sweet memories while we can-- wherever we can.
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