ChristmasCelebrations

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

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Christmas Day

As midnight ushered in the day of Christmas, tranquility descended on all the world, according to the old tales. Even in the darkness, all the birds awoke and sang, and such was the magic of the time that sparrows caroled as sweetly as nightingales. In the morning, men and women who walked into the wildernesses of the world might see all the beasts of field and wood lying placidly together, predator and prey, joined for one day to make a peaceable kingdom.

Saint Lucia's Day

In the Countries of the north, where winter darkness held longest, people's yearning for light found focus on the feast day of St. Lucia of Sicily, whose very name, they thought, meant light. That day was December 13, which in early calendars marked the winter solstice. When calendars were reformed, the solstice fell on December 21, but the feast of Lucia continued to mark the begining of Christmas in Sweden and in Norway. Old folk said that on the eve of the day, Lucia herself might be seen, skimming across the snowfields and frozen lakes, a crown of light upon her hair. In the towns, torchlight procession were held to summon back the luminescence that had withered away. And the daughters of each house rose in the early dark; dressed in white, crowned with wreaths of lingonberry or holly and blazing candles, they would take food and fire to their sleeping elders, singing all the while to mark the morning of St.Lucia's Day.

The Day of the Solstice

From time before memory, people danced to make magic, and throughout Europe, they danced at the solstice as a defense against the dark. The recollection of those early ceremonies lived on in the form of village sword dances, performed on the shortest of days, December 21. Clothed in elaborate ribboned costumes, men would circle sunwise--from left to right, in the apparent path of the sun -- using the swords they bore to form patterns in the air. The most important pattern marked the climax of the dance. It was a six-pointed star, the earthly symbol of the longed-for-sun.

Saint Nicholas' Day

When the old gods ruled the world, Odin the All-father rode the skies of Germany and Scandinavia in winter with a crowd of elves and spirits' those mortals who offered him reverence were rewarded with gifts. In later years, Odin's horse, elves and gifts became the accouterments of a Christian saint named Nicholas.

The most famous tale concerning him was that of three maidens whose impoverished father planned to sell them into slavery. Nicholas redeemed them with three bags of dowry gold, which he flung through their windows one night and which landed on their shoes, set to warm before the fire. For this deed, he became the patron of maidens.

Gift-giving was his most important act. In Germany and Holland, children set out their shoes on the eve of this feast day, filling them with hay and carrots for his white horse, just as provender had been left for Odin's horse by their ancestors. Nicholas, they knew, would ride over the rooftops in the night with his elvish companions, Knecht Ruprecht. Ruprecht carried a switch for use on naughty young ones. But Nicholas carried baskets of toys and sweets, to be left in the shoes of all good children.

Twelfth Night

The eve of the twelfth day of Christmas once was the time for ensuring the health of growing things that had been sent to sleep by the winter. In the west of England on that night, farmers trooped into their orchards to take wassail-- good health-- to their apple trees. The apple tree, long revered for its fruit, was thought to house its own elfin spirit. With songs and shouts, the men called upon the tree to awaken from its sleep. One reveler would be masked as a bull, symbol of fertility. And all made offerings to the tree's spirit to ensure it's fruitfulness. In a fork of its branches, they placed bread and salt, or sometimes a cake soaked in cider from the wassail bowl.

Iceland Christmas Cat

There is a legend of the Christmas cat in Iceland. Supposedly he would eat you if you didn't wear new clothes for Christmas. So, as the days grew shorter, women would be frantically making new Christmas clothes for their families to protect them from the Christmas Cat.

Brigit's Day

The British of ancient times had a goddess of youth and fertility named Bride, Christians called her Saint Brigit, and celebrated her feast on February 1. But the celebrations were far older than Christianity. Bride, as folklore tells us, was held prisoner during the dark months in the mountain of the goddess of winter, who used a silver hammer to cover the earth with ice. At the beginning of February, the young goddess was released. On the eve of the feast day in Ireland and Scotland, people set candles burning to summon the returning light of spring, which followed in Bride's footsteps. They then placed a bed by the threshold and called a welcome into the darkness. When morning came, they examined the ashes in the hearth. Signs of disturbance were a good omen. They meant that Bride was once more abroad in the land and that winter had been driven away.

Peek inside the Book of Shadows for spells, etc.