Yuletide Yowling

​Yuletide Yowling and New Year’s Notes:
This is gonna contain some history and some religio-political rantings, so maybe just read a bit, then look at the pretty photos. If you’re into history, by all means, proceed!

As mentioned previously, we’ve had a really good Alban Arthan / Yule / Winter Solstice season. We did the obligatory tree harvest and decoration, baby Willow visiting Santa, parade of lights with Scouts, Lions’ Club Toys for Tots Fundraiser (4K toys just from little towns here in Van Buren County! Yay, us!), and the Stag Hunt, our family’s pre-Christian folkloric tradition. We did gift-a-palooza on the solstice, along with “Christmas Crackers” which are purely silly.
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We also went to New Year’s Fest in Kalamazoo, which entails going to a bunch of churches (I did not melt!) and public buildings to see and hear various performers – magicians, singers, ventriloquists, dancers, instrumental musicians, lecturers, etc. A fun way to start the calendar new year – and it only costs $7.
During some discussions online, a debate arose about the Yuletide season, New Year’s Day, Epiphany (when the wise men supposedly gave the Christ Child incense and gold instead of diapers) which is celebrated on January 6th. Specifically, when to celebrate what. And why.

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 I maintain that the Winter Solstice takes place at a very specific time, according to astronomical events. The sun enters the constellation of Capricorn. Its position in the sky makes it appear to stand still for three days. Solstice: Sol = sun, Stice = static or still, from Latin. It lines up with a certain node – and I’m not proficient in astrology OR astronomy, so I know not what. The earth’s axis is at or close to its furthest tilt toward the sun. Perihelion is when the sun seems to be closest to earth. It’s considered the first day of winter. All the other mythology stems from these visible, tangible, calculable events.
Many Mesolithic stone monuments, such as “Newgrange” in Ireland, have features where the sun shines through an aperture, or lines up with a particular menhir, on the Winter Solstice. In fact, there are monuments like that worldwide. In Britain and Wales, the pre-Christian people still used many of them to calculate time – when to move herds to a new pasture, when to plant, when to harvest. The ones for Winter Solstice were sometimes used for food rationing reasons. Google “winter solstice” + “monuments”, and you will find dozens. Add “British Isles”, “England”, “Wales”, and “Ireland” and you’ll find those specific to our British Isles Folkloric Tradition.
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The evidence that Christ was NOT born on Christmas / Winter Solstice is that:
1.) Shepherds were watching their flocks by night. This is only necessary during lambing season, which is February / March.
2.) Jesus’s mother and father were coming to Bethlehem to be taxed. Roman tax assessors / census-takers made the citizens come to them once every 5-10 years or so. We know that Jewish people were taxed, because there were written objections and records of physical protests. For one thing, they were taxed without representation. For another, Roman coins had images of a deified Caesar, which Jews believed to be idol worship. For yet another, taxation is theft!
3.) The inn was booked full, which means some big event was happening – Jewish people don’t do much to observe the Winter Solstice – but they were obliged to be there.
4.) The magi, which is a term for Zoroastrian priests, were visiting and giving gifts. That prolly means it was Nouruz, their Spring Equinox festival. That’s also the Persian New Year. A guy called Amu Nouruz brings kids presents. Elders go visiting.
The Council of Nicea deliberately and intentionally moved the celebration of Christmas to the Winter Solstice, in order to convert European and Eurasian people to the new religion. When the Gregorian calendar was implemented in 1582, it added a few days, thus the celebration ensued on December 25th. When Europe finally adopted the calendar, in the eighteenth century, 11 days went missing in October, which set back celebrations of Epiphany from January 6 to Dec. 25. That’s where the date of Christ’s birth on Dec. 25th comes from.

The man called Augustine had a bug up his rear about converting us “Heathens” to Christianity – he wrote about it extensively in the 3rd century CE – including outlawing our customs such as the Mari Lwyd which were performed around this time. “Dressing in animal skins and skulls” at the “calends of January” was proclaimed “devilish”. These traditions were and are performed on or around the Winter Solstice.
There are other “died and reborn” gods from other religious traditions. Zoroastrians believe that Mithras, whom they equate with the sun, was sacrificed and reborn at the Winter Solstice. There’s the Isis / Osirus / Horus legend, where Osirus died and was resurrected after 12 days. That might be where the “Twelve Days of Christmas” derives from. Asatrur / Northern Way traditions also have twelve days & nights of celebrations.

Our new year (Celtic / British Isles) was Nos Calan Gaeaf (see previous post). Why do we believe that was the new year? It was an Ysbrednos, a spirit night, when ancestors could communicate with their descendants. It was the day when rents were due – end of the year; and when all debts must be made good – end of the year. It was traditionally when slaughtering could begin – colder weather, so the meat doesn’t spoil – and when the harvest ended. The last grain crops and vegetables were left out for spirits (or the poor). There are many, MANY stories of ghosts, demons, and spirits who appear at this time. There are many customs related to communication with them, and traditional methods of divination performed at this time. The song “Nos Calan” meaning “New Year” – was performed at this time. That song later became “Deck the Halls,” sung at Christmas.

I kinda got in trouble for asking why Pagans, Witches, and Wiccans would want to observe Christmas. We, as a group, seem to put more effort into Christmas than our own holidays. Is it because we’re hiding our religion from relatives? Is it because we want to get presents? OK, I can understand, celebrating holidays with family, sharing their joyful traditions, visiting with relatives you don’t see often. I still do Channukah with blood relations and do some Christmas with my in-law family – just as an observer, not as a participant. Yet why do neo-Pagans actually celebrate the holy day of the Christians – then complain about how Christianity persecutes us, and women, and PoC, and LGBTQ+, and so on? It might have to do with the post I made earlier about Play-gans. However, there is plenty to celebrate during our own holy days in our own traditions.

Above, Left -- Shad cutting the tree while I hold it.
Right -- Bran and Me assisting the dead Stag, who had been killed by little "hunters".

Many of our European Pagan traditions were culturally appropriated by Christian people. Decorating with greenery, a genuinely older Celtic tradition – holly, ivy, mistletoe, evergreen boughs. There is a version of the song “Holly and the Ivy” that is pre-Christian. Santa Claus may have come from the aforementioned Amu Nouruz, Saint Nicholas, or Odin, or even the various Christmas Witches from multiple locations. The decorated tree may have derived from the Beltane custom of decorating a tree outside the home’s doorway, or the Clootie Tree / Raggy Bush / Wishing Tree tradition. The reindeer came from the Sami people, and may have origins with various Stag Hunt traditions (see previous entry). Gift-giving was done by Zoroastrians during Nouruz and the Romans during Saturnalia. Wassailing came from Celts and Anglo-Saxons. Likewise, caroling came from numerous house-to-house mumming and folkplay traditions. Lighting things – candles, house and tree decoration lights – came from alighting bonfires and candles to commemorate the days lengthening after the Winter Solstice. So did the Yule Log. Traditional foods came from our British Isles culture – figgy pudding, glog, wassail, egg nog, the boar’s head, and so on.

Yule / Alban Arthan also has lost traditions, or ones that transferred to Nos Galan Gaeaf / Samhain. Divination and spirit communication. Looking for footprints in the fireplace ashes. Baking trinkets into a cake or figgy pudding, with various predictive meanings: coins for wealth, rings for marriage, etc. Our Stag Hunt. Mumming, folkplays, house-to-house processions. Bonfires – although this is still done on New Year’s in Scotland, for Up Helly Ah and Hogmanay. The Lord of Misrule. Swapping places with hired people. Playing games of chance and sports at Yuletide. Setting out food for ancestors. We have a plethora of beautiful traditions for Yuletide and the new year.