Join us at the campfire for tales from around the world, told by storytellers of all backgrounds and creeds. From the heros and heroines of old, let us relearn and rediscover the wisdom of our ancestors. Shhh..the story begins..
In a bygone age, when life depended upon the proper rounds of tilling, sowing, harvesting, and recovery of the sun to begin each cycle anew, not only Christmas but all the days of the Winter Season overflowed with magic. These days were therefore devoted to rituals of the field to ensure good herds and harvests, rites of the hearth to protect the house, and ceremonials of the fire to drive away the darkness.
In France, Germany, and some parts of Britain, Winter began on Martinmas, Saint Martin's Day, celebrated on November 11th, when those who were gifted with vision might see the saint himself riding across meadow and grassland on his white horse, releasing from the folds of his cloak the first snows of the season. Martin was an early Christian saint, so generous that he cut his cloak in half to warm a freezing beggar and passed the wine cup given to him by an emperor to the humblest of his priests. Thus, he became the Patron Saint of Wine and of Vintners.
Bonfires were lighted on the Eve of Saint Martin's Day, and animals that would not be able to be fed through the Winter were slaughtered and salted down. Perhaps in observation of some older Winter sacrifice, the blood of the slain creatures was sometimes sprinkled on their owners' thresholds. Saint Martin's Day was one of great feasting, when the first of the new wine was imbibed with much enthusiasm. In memory of his patronage, German children placed vessels of water on their doorsteps with the plea that the water be changed to wine. On the morning of Martinmas, the water would indeed be wine. Beside the jug would lie a special cookie, shaped like a horseshoe...a sure indication that Saint Martin had ridden by some time during the course of the night.
Saint Andrew's Day...November 30th...was a holiday in Scotland, central Europe and Greece. For the Scots, it was a day when squirrels were traditionally hunted and eaten at family feasts. Farther south, the eve of Saint Andrew's Day was one of prophecy, when maidens might see in dreams the men they would eventually marry. In Rumania, the eve was said to be a time when the dead were allowed to roam free, and vampires haunted both countryside and village. Doorjambs were hung with garlic to keep away the fearsome specters, and no wise person would venture out onto the highways, for at the crossroads, the ghostly creatures would fight among themselves until the break of dawn.
When the ancient gods ruled the world, Odin the All-Father rode the skies of Germany and Scandinavia in Winter accompanied by a crowd of elves and spirits. Those mortals who offered him reverence were rewarded with gifts. In later years, Odin's horse, the elves, and the gifts became the accoutrements of a Christian saint named Nicholas who lived in Asia Minor. Because he was known to have calmed storms at sea during his lifetime, he became the Patron Saint of Sailors, and because he restored from death three murdered youths, he then became the Patron Saint of Boys. The most famous tale concerning him, however, was the one of three maidens whose impoverished father planned to sell them into slavery. Nicholas redeemed them with three bags of dowry gold, which he tossed through their windows one night and which landed on their shoes which had been set to warm before the fire. For this deed, he became the Patron Saint of Maidens, and French women would pray to him for husbands. Eventually, Nicholas also became the Patron Saint of Pawnbrokers, and his bags of gold are remembered in the three golden balls that are the hallmark of this trade. Gift-giving, however, became this saint's most important act. In Germany and Holland, children set out their shoes on the eve of his feast day, filling them with hay and carrots for his white horse...just as provender had been left out for Odin's steed by their ancestors. Nicholas, they knew, would ride over the rooftops in the night with his elvish companion, Knecht Ruprecht. Ruprecht carried a switch for use on naughty youngsters...but good Saint Nicholas carried baskets of toys and sweets to be left in the shoes of all obedient and dutiful children.
In the countries of the North, where the darkness of Winter was the longest, the people's desire for light and warmth found focus on the feast day of Saint Lucia of Sicily, whose very name, they believed, meant "light." That day was December 13th, which in early calendars marked the Winter Solstice. When calendars were reformed, the Solstice fell on December 21st, but the feast of Lucia continued to denote the beginning of Christmas in Norway and Sweden. Old timers maintained that, on the eve of the day, Saint Lucia herself might be seen skimming across the snowfields and frozen lakes with a coronet of bright illumination upon her hair. In the towns, torchlight processions were held to summon back the luminescence that had withered away, and the daughters of each house arose while it was still early morning, long before dawn, dressed themselves in white and, crowned with wreaths of lingonberry or holly and blazing candles, would take food and fire to their sleeping elders. As they brought this good cheer, the girls would sing joyously to celebrate the morning of Saint Lucia's Day.
From time before memory, people have danced to make magic and throughout Europe; they would dance at the Solstice as a defense against the dark. The recollection of such early pageantry lived on in the form of village sword dances performed on the shortest of all days...December 21st. Clothed in elaborate costumes decorated with ribbons, men would circle sunwise (from left to right in the apparent path of the sun) using the swords they were carrying to form patterns in the air. The most important of these designs marked the climax of the dance. It was a six-pointed star...the earthly symbol of the longed-for sun.
Christmas Eve was always a time for human feasting and, in some areas, for other things as well. In Scandinavia, so it was told, the ghosts of the dead returned in the night to visit the homes they had loved in life. Their descendants welcomed them and, after the meal of the living was finished, food was left out for the deceased. Then the mortals would retire so that their ancestors might come into the warmth and the light to once again make merry in their ancient Christmas revels.
According to the old tales, as midnight ushered in the day of Christmas, tranquility descended on the entire world. Even in the darkness, all the birds awoke and sang. Such was the magic of the time, that even the sparrows caroled as sweetly as the nightingales. In the morning, men and women who walked into the wilderness of the world might see all the beasts of field and wood lying placidly together...predator and prey...joined for one day only in the serene unity of a peaceable kingdom.
In order that the New Year might prosper, the old year...and the phantoms released by the Solstice Season...had to be buried or driven away. In villages from Britain to Austria, the old year in the form of a straw dummy called "Death" was carried through the streets and then drowned in a stream or buried or even burned. Some people in other villages, however, had more high-spirited customs. On New Year's Eve, costumed and masked as a disguise against malevolent powers, people paraded through their towns, striking houses with sticks, beating loudly upon drums, clanging bells and cracking whips. The noise of the "town rattling," as it was called, drove out the ghosts of the dying old year and brought the New Year safely in.
The eve of the Twelfth Day of Christmas was once 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 would troop into their orchards to take wassail...good health...to their apple trees. This tree, long revered for its fruit, was thought to house its own elfin spirit. With songs and shouting, the men called upon the tree to awaken from its slumber. One of the revelers would be masked as a bull, the symbol of fertility. All would make offerings to the tree's spirit in order to assure its fruitfulness. In a fork of its branches, bread and salt would be placed, or sometimes a cake soaked in cider from the wassail bowl. The branches themselves were either dipped in cider or sprinkled with the libation.
The ancient Britons worshipped a goddess of youth and fertility named Bride, a deity that the Christians later called Saint Brigit and whose feast day was honored on February 1st. The celebrations, however, were far older than Christianity. Bride, so it was said, 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. The beginning of February hailed the release of Bride. 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. Then they placed a bed by the threshold and called a welcome into the darkness. When morning came, they examined the ashes in the hearth. Any sign of disturbance found there was a good omen...it meant that Bride was again abroad in the land and that Winter had been successfully driven away once more.