Samhain and Imbolc continue Jocu‘s exploration into ancient legends with the Wheel of the Year series in collaboration with Evgenia Zhade. This is the second campaign in what will be an eight-deck series exploring all the festivals of The Wheel, including not just the main four holidays celebrated by the Celts but the quarter points held more dearly to the Anglo Saxon and Norse inhabitants of the ancient British Isles. According to the Kickstarter campaign page,
As winter arrives and darkness begins to fall, we explore strange worlds and creatures with the festival Samhain, before looking forward to the light of the coming Spring with Imbolc, largely celebrated as the festival of Bridgid but also an important symbol of the changing seasons.
Samhain was a time for honoring the dead, and would later become the modern Halloween. Legends and stories of heroes, monsters, and bizarre happenings were told during these times much like today, and the Samhain deck will explore some of the most curious tales that were said to have occurred during the ‘thinning of the veil’ between the lands of the living and the dead. Samhain’s back design references a recurring Jocu theme of The Green Man.
After the hard winter months, Imbolc was a time for renewed birth and energy as the snow melted to give way to new life. Snowdrops began to spring up through the melting frost and livestock once again started to produce milk. Imbolc explores the most important goddess of the Celts – Bridgid. The Imbolc back design features the traditional symbol of the Bridgid’s cross along with ritual candles which are lit to this day in the Christian variant of the holiday
Both decks come with unique artwork. Each character in Samhain and Imbolc comes from Celtic folklore and mythology. Evgenia’s aces for Samhain and Imbolc contain references to ritual and celebration of the festivals, as well as some cheeky nods to modern incarnations of the holidays. Also, the jolly jokers show the lighter side of the festivals. A nod to the old Irish custom of carving turnips for Samhain and the milking of ewes during Imbolc.
The decks are packaged in luxury matte tuck boxes with Jocu’s regular collaborator Boschiero & Newton in a traditional style with metallic foil accents and interior foiling. The planned eight-deck eventual series will sit together to form one single design when the decks are laid out together.
Printed on slimline card stock with premium B9 linen finish by Cartamundi and pledge starts at $15 on Kickstarter.
