December's festival is a joyous celebration, a time of lights, music, feasting and merriment in the midst of darkness and uncertainty.   This festival is one of the low holidays or quarter days on the Wheel of the Year.  The ancient feast of Yule takes place on or about December 21 and is followed closely by the Christian holiday of Christmas a few days later on December 25th, and Kwanzaa which begins on December 26.  Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights usually falls during the month of December as well.

Like the other celebrations on the Wheel of the Year, this day goes by many names, the Winter Solstice, Midwinter, Yuletide, Saturnalia, Sol Invictus and Alban Arthan to name just a few. The Christian holy day of Christmas is a comparatively late addition to the litany of festival names, but Yule and Christmas have much in common, sharing traditions such as decorating trees, hanging mistletoe and wreaths, exchanging gifts, feasting, carolling, Yule logs, the lighting of candles and fires.

Where did it all begin?  The origins of Yuletide lie within the calendar of the seasons or “Wheel of the Year”, the natural cycle which lies at the very heart of existence and something which humanity has understood and celebrated for many thousands of years.  The earliest known examples of human artistic representation or symbolic expression are the rough calendars which were scratched by Palaeolithic humanity on animal bones some thirty thousand years ago, and somewhere around the same time, humanity probably discovered the solstices and the equinoxes, instinctively recognizing their meaning and significance.  The four days are natural events or astronomical co-ordinates, and they are pivotal points in the turning year.  There is abundant evidence from archaeological records to indicate that the solstices and equinoxes have fascinated humanity since that long ago time when we learned to observe the world around us, to measure the passing of time and the turning of the seasons.  In particular, the observance of the Winter Solstice and the celebration of the returning sun have held an important place in ancient cultures all over this island earth.

The twin motifs of Yule are fire and light, and winter solstice ceremonies are rooted in the desire to hold back the darkness, to preserve the light and to ensure the return of sunlight and warmth to the world after the long dark winter.   Neolithic people were farmers and hunters, and their relationship with the Wheel of the Year and the turning of the seasons was an intimate one.  Their lives were keyed to the rhythm of the seasons, and their very survival depended on it.  The greatest monuments of Neolithic humanity, their sanctuaries, stone circles, barrows and enclosures were aligned with the solstices, so marking the occasions was obviously of great importance to those who lived long ago.  (See also the site pages on Ancient Stones, particularly Newgrange.)   To have a profound longing for light and warmth in the depths of winter is a natural state of affairs, and the Winter Solstice rites enacted by the ancients were performed to drive away the darkness and bring the light and warmth of the Sun back into the world.

In the north hemisphere, this is certainly the darkest time of the year.  As  the Winter Solstice draws near,  daylight hours are short and the nights seem interminable.  One rises each day in darkness and returns home again each evening in darkness.  Native Americans call this the Long  Nights Time, and in the northern hemisphere, it is a time of cold and darkness, when much of the barren earth slumbers beneath a blanket of snow, and all is quiet.  December 21 is the shortest day of the year, and something to celebrate, for the Wheel is turning and soon the days will begin to lengthen again, heralding the return of Spring, the greening of the land and fertility.  At the Midwinter Solstice the Sun is reborn, and in a sense, humanity is reborn too: this is a time of  renewal, reflection and new beginnings.

The traditions of the ancients are still very much with us; however much we have forgotten their beliefs, and Yule retains its associations with long ago rites of Teutonic divination, with Celtic rituals, the Roman festival of Saturnalia and the Persian cult of Mithras, the soldiers' god.  In its most ancient form, the festival is associated with the return of the Sun, but also with the birth of Jesus Christ and a whole host of earlier solar gods and mythical figures like Sol, Apollo, Balder, Mithras, Hercules and Dionysus, deities who share special circumstances of birth, sacrificial deaths and the miracle of arising from the dead.  Theirs was the archetypal hero's journey - there is nothing new under the Sun.

The celebration of Christmas on December 25 may actually have originated in the Roman feast of Sol Invictus and Mithras, two solar deities who were worshipped in old Rome. There had been a cult of Sol in the Roman Empire since early times, and the cult is one which can be traced all the way back to the ancient Etruscans.  Around the beginning of the Common Era, the Greek god Apollo replaced Sol as the solar deity of the Roman Empire, but in the year 200 CE, the canny Roman Emperor Severus chose to identify himself with Sol (the Sun), adopting for himself the title of Sol Invictus or the Unconquered Sun.  Some years later, in 273 CE, the Roman Emperor Aurelian inaugurated the feast of Sol Invictus/Mithras on December 25, the day following the Saturnalia games.  This was a political and very wise move on the part of Aurelian, for at that time the Persian cult of Mithras was gaining hordes of converts among the soldiers of the Roman legions, and it was certainly to Aurelian's advantage to retain the loyalty of the soldiery. It is to the Saturnalia games and the old feast of Sol Invictus/Mithras that we may trace those Yule/Christmas traditions involving the exchange of gifts, evergreens, holly, mistletoe and rosemary.  Here too, one may find the origins of the puckish (and occasionally sinister) medieval solstice figure called "the Lord of Misrule".

In 529 CE, a civic holiday was decreed by the Emperor Justinian, and activities related to work and business were proscribed except for essential trades such as cooking, baking and other activities related to the holiday.  Some time later, in 567 CE, the Council of Tours proclaimed “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, (the interval between Christmas and the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th)  as an interval of prayer and festivity.   Believe it or not, during the late middle ages Christmas was not just one holiday; it was actually a holiday period of twelve consecutive festive days, known as "The Twelve Days of Christmas".  Sadly, the celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas has fallen by the wayside along with most of the traditional Epiphany festivities, although the holiday song remains with us.

It is interesting  to note that while Christmas was not celebrated religiously until the middle ages, most cultures (even Christian cultures) have always celebrated the Winter Solstice and the return of the Light in some form or other.  Yule logs were burned with great ceremony, special candles were lit, riddling tournaments were held, animals (usually boars) were sacrificed and eaten at feasts, and many alcoholic beverages were consumed.  There were dolls, gifts, masques  and seasonal songs or carols, and the mistletoe tradition of today is probably the surviving form of an early Celtic fertility ritual.  Wassail bowls (The word comes from the Anglo Saxon and means “be hale and hearty.) were downed in plenty, and there were attempts to scry or see into the future and portend what the coming year would bring.

Today, the Christmas tree with its lights, ornaments and garlands is a powerful symbol, and it is one which has its roots in the distant past.  The ancients viewed the evergreen, still glossy and bright green in the depths of winter, as a symbol of both immortality and rebirth.  Every Christmas tree also represents Yggdrasil, the World Tree on which Odin hung for nine days and nights to obtain the secret language of the runes.

And what of Santa Claus, Kris Kringle or Saint Nicholas as he is variously known?  Santa is the most ancient symbol of them all, the solstice shaman or priest who presided over the solstice rites of ancient humanity.  Santa's red suit, bells, sleigh and reindeer tell the story of his origins, and his magical flight across the whole earth in a single night is the ecstatic flight of the shaman.

Practitioners of the old earth religions celebrate Yuletide and the return of the light around December 21 with ritual, song, morris dances, mummers' plays and other festivities.  Christians celebrate Christmas Day on December 25 with religious services, feasting and the exchange of gifts.

For those who follow the Old religions, Yule is one of the four quarter days of the year and is classified as a low holiday or lesser feast.   A Yule log of hardy ash is selected and prepared, then lighted on the eve of the Solstice, and it is kept burning for twelve hours to ensure good fortune in the coming year.  There is some evidence that it is the ancient custom of the Yule log which underlies the modern tradition of the Christmas tree in which an evergreen tree is not burned ritually, but is lighted with candles or  tree lights and hung with decorations. This custom can be traced all the way back through the Saturnalia games of the Romans to the rites of ancient Egypt.  For Christians, the feasting, gifts, music and lavish church celebrations of Christmas follow the long interval of penance, self denial, cleansing and atonement which is called Advent.

Plants of the Season

The plants of this festive season are holly, mistletoe and evergreens, and they represent rebirth, fertility, the return of the light and eternal life.  Evergreens were cherished at this time of year as a symbol of rebirth and an affirmation of life amid the darkness and coldness of winter.  Holly was revered for its glossy green leaves and its berries as well as its sharp spines; it was (and is) an excellent plant for holiday wreaths, swags and decorations.

The parasitic holiday plant called mistletoe was also known as the “golden bough”. On the sixth night after the first New Moon following Winter Solstice, ancient Druids removed the plant from its host tree with great ceremony, believing that it bore the soul of its host tree, and that it was a magical plant with aphrodisiac and protective properties. Individual branches of mistletoe were separated into sprigs and distributed to villagers who hung it above their doorways as a charm against destructive natural forces such as thunder, lightening and wind. A sprig of mistletoe was placed in the cradles of infants to protect them from being stolen by fairies, and the act of giving a sprig of mistletoe to the first cow which calved after the New Year had the power to protect the herd for the year.

On the other hand, one must remember that it was a dart fashioned of mistletoe by the trickster god Loki which killed the Nordic god, Balder the Beautiful. After his death, the falling tears of Balder’s grief stricken mother Frigga were transformed into the white berries of the mistletoe, and when Balder was permitted to return from the dead for a part of each year, the grateful Frigga blessed the mistletoe, making it a symbol of love for anyone who walked beneath it.

Folklore

A wealth of medieval Christmas folklore and superstitions survives from medieval times:

• Animals in the stable or barn are capable of speech at midnight on the eve of Christmas.
• If one opens all the doors and windows of one's home at midnight on Christmas, all the evil spirits in the house will disappear for the coming year.
• One will have month of good luck for every Christmas pudding consumed.
• One born on Christmas will possess good luck all his or her life.
• A cricket on the hearth at Christmas means good luck for the year.
• “If Christmas on a Sunday be, a windy winter we shall see".
• One can use the Twelve Days of Christmas to predict the weather for the next year.
• The Christmas tree must be taken down and burned by Twelfth Night or bad fortune will follow.

At sunrise on Yule (or the Winter Solstice if you prefer), a ray of golden sunlight passes through the roof box above the main entrance at Newgrange, Ireland, and the beam travels up the sloping central passage of the ancient barrow, finally illuminating the very heart of the remarkable site for seventeen minutes or so.  How wonderful this is, what a splendid moment of connection with our ancestors!