Virtues - Hospitality

Hospitality: Acting as both a gracious host and an appreciative guest, involving benevolence, friendliness, humor, and the honoring of a 'gift for a gift'.1

Hospitiality

noun \ˌhäs-pə-ˈta-lə-tē\

: generous and friendly treatment of visitors and guests : hospitable treatment

: the activity of providing food, drinks, etc. for people who are the guests or customers of an organization2

One night, a long time ago, on a farmstead somewhere between Skalaholt and Frodis-water, something strange was happening. Instead of the peace that descends in the dead of night, when all in a house are sleeping, there was noise. It wasn't a noise caused by the living, but by the dead roused to an undead animated state by great offence. The draugr, or animated dead, who was causing the noise, was a woman by the name of Thorgunna, and she was quite busy preparing food for her funeral party who had been denied their proper measure of hospitality by a miserly host. So great was the offence of being inhospitable, that it was enough to anger and rouse the dead.3

The relationship between host and guest is one of reciprocity, in which the guest is properly appreciative, and the host properly generous. So it is perhaps no surprise that both 'guest' and 'host' derive from the same Indo-European word, 'ghosti'.4 I believe that hospitality is sacred, and the violation thereof by either host or guest, a serious transgression that negatively affects the luck of those involved. As reciprocity is the basis for our relationships with the Kindreds, and hospitality an integral part of that reciprocity, I agree with the inclusion of hospitality in the ADF list of virtues.



(Apologies for the wonky formatting, the doc. to blog transfer didn't go too well with this one :( )

   

1. Our Own Druidry: An Introduction to Ar nDraiocht Fein and the Druid Path (p. 62). Tucson, Arizona: ADF Publishing.

 2. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hospitality

3. The Saga of the Ere-Dwellers - Chapter 51. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2015, from http://sagadb.org/eyrbyggja_saga.en

4. Serith, C. (2009). Deep ancestors: Practicing the religion of the proto-Indo-Europeans. Tucson, AZ: ADF Pub.