Review – 2 Beautiful Calendars for the New Year

We have two calendars to review for the New Year: The Day of the Dead 2019 calendar and A Magickal Year 2019 calendar, featuring beautiful artwork by visual artist Lilla Bolecz (https://lillabolecz.com). Both are 16-Month calendars going from September 2018 through to December 2019.

Day of the Dead 2019 Calendar

Day of the Dead 2019 calendar is a glossy calendar featuring Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skulls in various designs and colors. The colors are vivid and alive and patterns are varied enough throughout the calendar that no months look alike. I can get picky with sugar skulls and it often takes me a while to find one that doesn’t annoy me in some fashion, but just about all the sugar skulls in this calendar pass the grade. The color palettes are always well controlled and there are hardly any clashing colors combinations among them. The calendar is definitely a lively addition to any corner that lacks color.

The artwork is by illustrator Denys Martynenko (denmartystudio.com) and an example of sugar skulls of his design are at: https://creativemarket.com/DenMarty/645986-Sugar-skulls-Set-Vector-Illustration . These skulls are not the same as featured in the 2019 calendar but they give a very good example of what they are like.

Each month provides the date of the full moon, as well as the solstices, Western secular holidays (AUS/UK/USA/CA) as well as Christian, Jewish, and Islamic festivals. Obviously Cinco De Mayo and Dia De Los Moertos are also covered.

Day of the Dead 2019: 16-Month Calendar – September 2018 through December 2019 on Amazon

A Magickal Year 2019 Calendar

The second calendar on review is A Magickal Year 2019 calendar, featuring beautiful artwork by visual artist Lilla Bolecz (https://lillabolecz.com). The pictures are line and crayon drawings with a more matte finish. They are simultaneously simple, very rich, and chock full of symbolism. An example of the artwork used is at: https://lillabolecz.com/yule-rebirth-of-the-sun-prints-and-pattern

While the colors are subdued, often reserved to one color along with black, the combination of the crayons weight and the thin etchings and line drawings create a pattern-like texture of images that is easy to rest one’s eyes on at a distracted moment. As you soak up the larger image, your eyes start to pick out the details of pears, bees, berries, and scythes and your mind ties them together with the associations between them, enriching the picture. The symbolism does a great job with evoking the change of energy in the month. Each month also features a caption for that gives a description tying together the events of the month and the illustration that goes with it.

It also provides the date of the full moon for each month, as well as the solstices, Western secular and religious holidays (AUS/UK/USA/CA) as well as Christian, Jewish, and Islamic festivals.

My favorite feature of this calendar is the variety of traditions that the holidays marked in the calendar are drawn from. Pan-Traditional, Wiccan/Pagan, and even Gaelic sacred days are to expected in a magickal calendar, but I was impressed with the addition of Vodou and Romany. The Germanic days are a nice touch too. This means from Vasilica to Fete Ghede, I have something new to look forward to learning about each month.

A Magickal Year 2019: 16-Month Calendar – September 2018 through December 2019 on Amazon