Celebrating the summer moon

WINSTED — When the full moon appeared over the waters of Highland Lake recently, several area women were there to welcome the celestial body’s August appearance.

For the fifth year in a row, Jean Hinman held her annual Full Moon White Goddess Party at her East Wakefield home.

The party — open to women and girls only, no men allowed — took place the evening of Aug. 5, the first day of this month’s full moon.

Those who attend the celebration are asked to wear a white dress or all-white outfit — many women also wear costume tiaras and other fanciful accessories — and bring food or drink to share with others.

In addition, for the first time, this year’s guests were also asked to make a donation to the Winsted-based Foothills Visiting Nurse Service & Home Care.

“I decided that now there has to be a cause,� Hinman said.

But the event is more than a fundraiser.

The party not only celebrates the beauty and wonder of the evening sky above, Hinman said, but also provides an opportunity for women to celebrate themselves and connect with one another in a relaxed, social environment.

“You meet tons of new people,� Lori Claffey, who was attending the party for the fourth year in a row, said.“They are from all walks of life... and when the moon is just coming up, it’s beautiful.�

Lynne Dray, who was attending the fundraiser for the second time, said her favorite part of the evening was nightfall, when the women boarded Hinman’s boat to travel around the lake, singing songs as they sailed.

 â€œWhen it gets dark we go out on the boat and sing ‘Blue Moon’ and other moon songs,â€� Dray said. “We go all the way around the lake. It’s just so much fun.â€�

Hinman said event attendance has grown considerably over five years. The first time she held the event about 10 people took part.

Over the next few years the event grew to about 25 people. And last year, more than 30 women attended the celebration.

“And I don’t send out invitations, and I don’t require RSVPs,� Hinman said. “So, I’ve no idea how many people are coming.�

Hinman said she was first exposed to the idea of a Full Moon White Goddess Party while visiting with her next-door neighbor’s daughter, Debbe Paroso.

Paroso, the daughter of Jack and Marlene Rouleau, was visiting from Idaho that year, Hinman said. During a discussion, Paroso told her about some residents of Idaho who hold annual full moon goddess parties.

In ancient European mythology, the White Goddess is associated with the moon. And in Thailand, each month all-night parties are held on the beaches to celebrate the full moon.

 â€œDebbie said to me, ‘Oh, when the moon is full in August, we have a full moon party,’â€� Hinman said. “And we just had this fun idea to have a party here.â€�

After that first event, Hinman said, Paroso decided to leave behind the items she had gathered for the full moon celebration.

“She said, ‘Now you have to carry on the tradition,’� she said.

Hinman added that she intends to continue to hold the party as an annual fundraiser and hopes the celebration will continue to grow.

“I would love this to start a big thing nationally,� she said.

Latest News

Finding ‘The Right Stuff’ for a documentary

Tom Wolfe

Film still from “Radical Wolfe” courtesy of Kino Lorber

If you’ve ever wondered how retrospective documentaries are made, with their dazzling compilation of still images and rare footage spliced between contemporary interviews, The Moviehouse in Millerton, New York, offered a behind-the-scenes peek into how “the sausage is made” with a screening of director Richard Dewey’s biographical film “Radical Wolfe” on Saturday, March 2.

Coinciding with the late Tom Wolfe’s birthday, “Radical Wolfe,” now available to view on Netflix, is the first feature-length documentary to explore the life and career of the enigmatic Southern satirist, city-dwelling sartorial icon and pioneer of New Journalism — a subjective, lyrical style of long-form nonfiction that made Wolfe a celebrity in the pages of Esquire and vaulted him to the top of the best-seller lists with his drug-culture chronicle “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” and his first novel, “The Bonfire of The Vanities.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Art on view this March

“Untitled” by Maureen Dougherty

New Risen

While there are area galleries that have closed for the season, waiting to emerge with programming when the spring truly springs up, there are still plenty of art exhibitions worth seeking out this March.

At Geary Contemporary in Millerton, founded by Jack Geary and Dolly Bross Geary, Will Hutnick’s “Satellite” is a collection of medium- and large-scale acrylic on canvas abstracts that introduce mixtures of wax pastel, sand and colored pencil to create topographical-like changes in texture. Silhouettes of leaves float across seismic vibration lines in the sand while a craterous moon emerges on the horizon, all like a desert planet seen through a glitching kaleidoscope. Hutnick, a resident of Sharon and director of artistic programming at The Wassaic Project in Amenia, New York, will discuss his work at Geary with New York Times art writer Laura van Straaten Saturday, March 9, at 5 p.m.

Keep ReadingShow less
Caught on Camera: Our wildlife neighbors

Clockwise from upper left: Wildlife more rarely caught by trail cameras at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies: great blue heron, river otters, a bull moose, presenter and wildlife biologist Michael Fargione, a moose cow, and a barred owl.

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

‘You don’t need to go to Africa or Yellowstone to see the real-life world of nature. There are life and death struggles in your wood lot and backyard,” said Michael Fargione, wildlife biologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, during his lecture “Caught on Camera: Our Wildlife Neighbors.”

He showed a video of two bucks recorded them displaying their antlers, then challenging each other with a clash of antlers, which ended with one buck running off. The victor stood and pawed the ground in victory.

Keep ReadingShow less