Whilst a significant proportion of the
population seem to be pondering the, Mayan prophesied, end of the world (We Survived!), or
thinking about buying gifts and spending time with their families. In this post
we thought we would look at the social roots of the religious aspects of this
mid-winter festival.
Whilst the religious aspects of this
festival are now dominated by the various denominations of Christianity, who
believe that Jesus Christ was born on 25th of December, most people
will know that mid-winter festivals existed in the UK and Europe long before
the advent of Christianity and that many of the traditions and rituals that people
practice today have been appropriated from these ancient mid-winter celebrations . These
traditions and rituals centre around the longest Day of the year,or Winter
Solstice. This day varies between December 20-23 according to when the solstice
will occur astronomically. This was the time of year that feasting occurred
before the lean winter months where times got tough and starvation threatened.
Neo-pagans have different ways of
worshiping this time of year. Winter Solstice for pagans is a time of feasting
and the exchanging of gifts and is the holiday that the Christian religions adapted
into the Christmas that many celebrate today. The reasons for the assimilation
of these practices was to convince the original pagans to give up their
original practices; and accompaniments such as a Yule Log, mistletoe and Holly
were carried through to Christmas tradition from the Pagan tradition. However the central point of the pagan
festival is that this is the time of year that the sun child is born, thus
saying farewell to the long nights and beckoning the longer days and times of
plenty. This parallels with the
Christian Birth of Jesus Christ on 25th December. These are a few of many traditions and sites
that have been brought into the Christian Church from other more ancient
beliefs. The widespread green man
carvings that are very common in English churches are a more general example
with most likely pagan roots perhaps demonstrating
a fertility figure or a nature spirit
A picture taken at Dore Abbey, the former Cistercian abbey at Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, England in 1989. It shows a stonecarving of a foliate head or Green Man (a ceiling boss, no longer in position) with some of its original colouring intact. Picture taken by Simon Garbutt
Many neo-pagans gather at stone circles
such as stone-henge to celebrate the ending of the shortest day and rituals and
spells are spoken
Stone Henge Sunrise 1980's Mark Grant, Wikimedia
Commons CC-BY-2.0
If Pagan traditions had survived we would
actually have a longer time for feasting (maybe this is a reason why office
parties seem to start earlier and earlier).
In the transition from Pagan to Roman festivals there was the festival
of Saturnalia, which started on 17th December and lasted for 7 days until 23rd
December. During this time restrictions and inhibitions were relaxed and the
social order inverted. Gambling was allowed in public. Slaves were permitted to
use dice and did not have to work. Augustus limited the holiday to three days,
so the civil courts would not have to be closed any longer than necessary. This
continues today, with many making up the full week of celebrations and feasting
using their annual leave allowance if they are lucky enough to have one.
The Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941) explored
the issues of Christianity expropriating pagan rituals in The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and
Religion which s a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion,
The book scandalized the British public upon its first publication, because it
included the Christian story of Jesus in its
comparative study. However he has had a profound influence on the field of
anthropology, mainly through the thesis that that mankind progresses from magic through religious
belief to scientific thought
Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941) Image taken from Wikipedia
There has been much written about the
origins of our winter festivals and there are some references to further
reading at the end, however this poem by Susan Cooper encapsulates the spirit
behind the festivals of various denominations that we will most likely be
celebrating within this next week. Merry Yuletide/Christmas/Solstice to you
all!
The Shortest Day
By Susan Cooper
And so the Shortest Day came and the year
died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
Refrerences and Further Reading
Pagan Library, especially Reading Room 2
The Pagan Federation
Saturnalia
Frazer, James George, 1854-1941. The golden bough: a study in magic and religion
The canon : an exposition of the pagan mystery perpetuated in the Cabala as the rule of all arts / William Stirling ; introduction by R.A. Gilbert ; foreword by John Michell ; preface by R.B. Cunninghame Graham.
Our pagan Christmas / R.J. Condon ; foreword Barbara Smoker.
Christmas customs and traditions : their history and significance / by Clement A. Miles
Christianity : the origins of a pagan religion / Philippe Walter ; translated by Jon E. Graham.
Countdown to the Apocalypse The End!
This blog was hastily complied by John Kaye Lead Curator for Digital Social Sciences (also ex-catholic and confirmed athiest) with invaluable contributions from Emily Grey-Fow, Harry White and others that know who they are :-)