Fragallia

Pirts day

December 25, 2025 · computed for Rīga

Every layer is read at this time; sunrise and sunset are the chosen day's.

Waxing moon 30% illuminated

As the moon waxed, strength was thought to be building. A pirts visit in this phase was taken more for enjoyment and vitality than for deep cleansing — a good time for warmth and company.

1 5 10 15 20 25 30
7

The cockerel and the staff

Good day Anti-phase: day 21

The day of word-magic. Everything spoken takes effect — blessing, curse, and lies most of all. Prayers were said to be heard quickly.

Was favoured
  • + Praying, using charms
  • + Settling matters with institutions
  • + Weeding out filler words
Was avoided
  • − Lies, gossip, idle chatter
  • − Breaking dishes, tearing paper
  • − Pulling teeth — the worst day
Symbol
a cockerel, a wind rose
Body
the lungs
Stones
sapphire, white coral, heliotrope

Health — a divinatory system, not medicine

Easy to catch cold. The worst day for pulling teeth. Latvian sources allow a surgical operation if the other indicators are favourable.

Dreams

Prophetic and quick to come true. A fighting cock in a dream — a sign of imminent disaster.

Moon in Pisces water

Dreams, intuition, mercy, art. The border between yourself and others thins — it is easy to take on someone else's mood. A good time for meditation and music; a poor one for agreements and alcohol.

Sources disagree on this day

Canon: Russian sources: the worst day for pulling teeth; operations are not discussed.

epadomi.com: astromedicus (LV): a surgical operation is permissible if the other indicators are favourable.

epadomi.com is a divergent branch, shown for cross-checking — not the reference.

Latvian folk tradition

a separate layer · by moon phase, not by numbered day
  • What is sown on the old moon does not grow; on the new moon it grows “twisting upward.”
  • This is the time of planting and gathering.

Source: Pēteris Šmits, Latviešu tautas ticējumi. Not the numbered-day corpus above.

♀︎ Venus 5. of the night

Planetary week

a third, independent system

Thursday · Jupiter ♃︎. Growth, learning, law, travel, generosity. A day for large questions: strategy, study, courts and institutions, long-term agreements, helping others. What is begun on a Thursday tends to grow. A good day to ask and to give — money included. The shadow side is exaggeration, promises beyond your strength, and the wish to teach others how to live.

Current planetary hour: Venus ♀︎ — hour 5 of the night.

Relationships, beauty, pleasure, art, reconciliation. A good hour to meet, to make peace, to tend to yourself, to make and to enjoy. Agreements reached now rest on liking, not pressure. The shadow side is idleness and waste.

♈︎ ♉︎ ♊︎ ♋︎ ♌︎ ♍︎ ♎︎ ♏︎ ♐︎ ♑︎ ♒︎ ♓︎ Meteņi Lieldienas Ūsiņi Jāņi Māras Miķeļi Mārtiņi Ziemassvētki ☉︎ 6.7 h

The year wheel

Last: Ziemassvētki
Next: Meteņi, in 40 days

10% through this eighth of the year

The sun

Sign
♑︎ in Capricorn, 4.3° earth
Day of the solar month
day 5
Next turning point
the spring equinox, in 85 days
Day length
6.7 h · sunrise 09:01 · sunset 15:46

The sun turned at its lowest in Capricorn, and the shortest day was kept as the year's true hinge — the cold was at its hardest, but so, tradition insisted, was the promise that light was about to grow again. Endurance, not comfort, was the virtue of this season; a fire lit now was lit in hope rather than in need alone. The body was told to bear with the cold rather than fight it.

The day, read as one

Four strands met on this day with unusual agreement: lunar day 7's word-magic warned that whatever was spoken took hold, blessing or complaint alike, while Thursday's Jupiter likewise favoured settling matters and speaking openly rather than small talk — a day better suited to quiet resolve than idle chatter in the pirts. The waxing moon and the Latvian phase-lore agreed that this was a gathering, building time, though both cautioned that healing ran slower now, echoing lunar day 7's own flat warning against anything surgical or invasive. The Moon in Pisces softened the mood further, thinning the usual boundaries and favouring quiet, unhurried company over sharp words or drink. Capricorn's sun, steady and unmoved by cold, asked only for endurance rather than ease — so a visit today suited reflection, gentle warmth, and careful speech far more than any bold undertaking.

Generated with Claude · cached for this day and updated when the corpus changes

Your lunar birth day

computed on your device · only the day (1–30) is used, never the date

This is folk and divinatory material, not health advice. It is written in the past tense on purpose — "was avoided", "was considered" — and describes what tradition held, not what you should do. A pirts visit is a real load on the heart and circulation; judge heat, duration and frequency for your own body.