What is the true meaning of this time of year? Not what you think…

 

Anyone who insists on everyone calling this season “Christmas” because of their own beliefs is sadly mistaken. It is not really about Christ, in fact; it has been adapted over the years. So when someone confronts you because you said “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” they need to do a bit of research. Most of the celebrations and symbols are direct adaptations of past traditions, and the Midwinter celebration of fire, light and long life is much older than the pastiche of Midwinter revelry it became later on.

It’s the season known by some as Christmas, a time when people often think back to the late Bronze Age science fiction sagas of Mary, Joseph, a donkey, and an impending humble birth. But of course, Christmas was not the original name for the almost two-week period starting on the night of 24 December. It took a great deal of time, planning and slow conversion of symbolism, but many very ancient traditions remain. It wasn’t always about that humble birth, but that particular symbolism served a very useful purpose. 

The early Church had a problem on its hands: there were so many huge festivals around the winter solstice that got in the way of its rising influence and threatened its authority. By using the symbolism of the season, it managed to legitimise the hijacking of the Midwinter festivities for itself and turn people away from their original purposes. It seems, though, that we are slowly coming full-circle and that we are abandoning the religious accessories. How many similarities are there between the traditions of today's Midwinter and those before the Christian interval, and what type of festivals were there?

Saturnalia:

There was the week-long Saturnalia that covered the solstice period, where gifts were exchanged, slaves were served by their masters, people swapped their clothes, and lots and lots of drinking and eating took place. Because of its midwinter setting, candles were given to symbolise light and warmth, and there were even post-Saturnalia sales where younger family members were given some money to go out and spend there. This particular festival was a prevalent feature throughout most of the Roman period, and was such an important event that only a handful of Roman emperors dared bring any changes. Some of the madder ones tried to reduce it to five days, or even to just one evening, but most people carried on regardless for the entire week, or even longer.

Brumalia:

This was also a Roman festival that carried on in one form or another until at least the 10^th century in some parts of the empire, mainly in the east, but had all-but died out by the end of the time of Justinian in 565 CE. It celebrated the Earth and all things to do with hunting and farming, such as sacrifices of pigs and goats, as well as the downing of wine.

These revels took place because it was the saddest, darkest time of the year and it was important to remember that the light was about to return. The celebrations meant people could say goodbye to the increasingly darker days and welcome in the longer evening light. Different parts of Europe had variations of these events, but they all pointed to the main tenets of the darkness leaving and the light returning, the finishing off of the autumn fruits that had by now turned into strong alcohol, and being with close friends and family.

Yule/Jul:

Further north, the winter festivities were not that different. The god Odin had various other titles, including Jölnir, from whom the name of the festival comes. Various toasts were made, such as for the success of the coming year's harvest, the rulers, the gods and the ancestors. The culmination of that festival in Anglo-Saxon England was known as Modraniht, or Mothers' Night, and was a night of fire and sacrifice. What they all had in common was that folk brought along the food they had left and shared it all out. The food, especially the meat, was blessed by the most senior chieftain and they all participated in the debauchery until nothing was left.

Adapting the old for the new:

And it was these types of festivals that got in the way of any form of coherent building of Christian societies.

What to do?

This was an easy question to answer, and one that Rome had a great track record of: adapt these pagan festivals through their symbolism, and absorb them into Christianity without too many drastic changes. The people had to be coerced into this acceptance rather than have their already centuries-old celebrations banned to introduce this novel idea.

So although many early Christian thinkers were rather critical of all the winter excesses, they set out to make the period both holy and at the same time jolly. And so the great Midwinter festivals carried on but over time they carried more of an air of religiousness and formality. 

(By the way, the word jolly was at one time thought to have come from Jul, but it is most probably from the Old French, meaning pretty or nice.)

The symbolism and the adaptation of traditional behaviour had to be perfect to convert the midwinter festivals into somehow representing Christian beliefs, and it was telling the story of the birth of Jesus and overlaying the imagery of his appearance that made it the most appropriate way of coaxing people away from their original beliefs.

Symbolism

1. Decorating houses and halls with winter foliage was a way of demonstrating that there was still life around, despite the regression of nature. Mistletoe, holly and ivy had different connotations: mistletoe was the symbol of peace and love, hence the kissing; the Green King’s crown and garments were made of holly, and ivy was the representation of death, the death of the past year. Being an evergreen, winter-hardy plant, holly was also the symbol of fertility and long life, but it came to represent Jesus’s crown of thorns and the red berries of his blood, and inevitably eternal life promised in his story. In order to substantiate people’s roles in the world, the holly was a male symbol of fertility, and ivy the melancholy female representative of death. These days, of course, that would be understandably unacceptable, but the two were and are synonymous with the season.

2. Wreaths, always round, symbolised the circle of life: winter-to-spring-to-summer-to-autumn and back to winter, as well as the life cycle of people and families. These wreaths had nothing to do with anything concerning God or infinity, and the candles in an advent wreath (or crown) were added to provide a visual countdown to Christmas. Midwinter was seen as the birth of the sun deities, such as Mithras and Sol, so it was just a matter of converting this into the coming of Jesus.

 

3. Midwinter singing and drinking took place to drive away the evil spirits. As Christmas was supposed to be a celebration, it was easy to incorporate this, although it was toned down a lot from the originally-intended decadent blowout that the Romans put on. The Anglo-Saxon Modraniht mentioned earlier was easy to incorporate, as it meant Mother's Night, and Mary was always going to be given the role of the venerated and highly-favoured lady.

4. Even the candles are pre-Christian in origin, symbolising the rise of the sun. Many traditions around the world have candle festivals to bring human light to the darkest time of the year, but the idea of Christ’s light (the people sitting in darkness seeing the light, as Matthew and Luke wrote) was too convenient a symbol to drop.

 

5. Gifts were given at Saturnalia at an event called Sigillaria. They were generally small wax or earthenware figurines of particular deities that would represent different things to different people. Again, the gifts the Three Wise Men brought to the manger would serve perfectly to subsume this tradition into this new hybrid festival.

 

6. Dressing up and theatrical performances were the norm at Saturnalia. Traditional roles, like masters and slaves, were reversed; men and women swapped stereotypical clothing; later on in the Middle Ages, mummers, or guisers, groups of actors, musicians and singers, would pass round houses and perform folk plays. And things like carols and wassailing also took place at other times of the year, and were greetings of the season. It was also easy to Christianise these traditions, like creating plays that told the story of Jesus’s birth, and carols that moved away from evoking paganistic aspects like holly, ivy, midwinter and snow, and instead talked of angels, virgin births, stars and a plethora of miracles.

7. Fasting was not the monopoly of Christians: the period before the great feast was given over to fasting so that it would be a much more rewarding celebration. This of course sat very well in the new Christian narrative to get people in the mood and looking forward to the coming festivities, even if they were now about something totally different.

One of the reasons there are a lot of fruity, unctuous dishes, often a prized part of an animal to eat, and a log to burn, were all to do with the season – something to look forward to in the middle of the darkness.

Continuity of pre-Christian traditions

Many of these traditions carry on today in some form or another: 

1. Pigs are big: In the UK and Ireland, North America and parts of northern Europe, it is common to eat a Christmas Ham. This came directly from the ancient sacrifice of the Yule Boar. Even in Sweden there are cakes shaped like pigs, all evidence of how far we have come since those days, but still a continuous line from two or three millennia ago.

2. Happy music: Carol singing and wassailing were for the entertainment of the guests, and this tradition of seasonal merriment in music is not exclusive to the English-speaking world in the form of Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Twelve Days of Christmas. Other traditions have the same idea, such as the Czech/Moravian Bodejž se zbrunčila bába and Petit Papa Noël in France. There are plenty of non-Christian carols that have transcended the unsubtle Christian overtones and are staples of the period of the year.

3. Dressing up: Also in parts of Europe it is still common to cross-dress and enact stories to audiences, such as in the UK with pantomimes, where the main character is a girl dressed as a boy and his/her opposite number is often a mature man dressed up as a lady.

4. Cosy by the fire: The Yule Log was actually a whole tree that was cut up to provide warmth during the Midwinter festivities so that people didn’t get cold and could enjoy themselves in warmth. The fermented fruit would have helped...

5. Puddings and cakes: A lot of that fermented fruit was also mixed with the leftover ingredients, nuts, and any spices to disguise any dodgy flavours. It slowly transformed itself into something more “gentrified”, such as Plum Pudding in the UK, Julekake in Norway, Stollen in Germany, and Panettone/Pandoro in Italy. Some have alcohol or nuts in them, some not, but what they all have in common is the dried fruit and of course being served as dessert.

 

In the end, the meaning of this season is by far more complicated than I have laid out here, but one thing we can all say is however you reach this time of year, we should all try not to force our ideas of the festival on others, no matter which beliefs you have: relax, celebrate, enjoy the company of your friends and family, sing, eat, get drunk, and dress up how you want – so greet people in your own way and live and let live!

Coming out of the (broom) closet

I think it's about time I let you into a secret. I am a practising Pagan. I have been for nearly three years now, and I don't think I will ever go back to the mysogynistic, male-centric, patriarchal religion I was duped into believing as a child (duped not by my parents, I hasten to add).

Paganism comes in many forms: it is a free-thinking religion. There are many core beliefs which most Pagans adhere to, but on the whole, it is a pretty diverse crowd of people that are involved in it.

Ages Old:
Paganism is older than many people care to think - it stems from pre-historic times and has taken on various forms throughout history, some as insults by members of new religions, some as code names in times of the rise of Christianity's pious leaders who tried to do away with the old ways. Witch. Wise Woman. Druid. Pagan.

The Insult That Became Fashionable:
The word "Pagan" itself is supposed to come from the French word "paysan", or "peasant" in English. The gentrified city folk in the Middle Ages were often God-fearing, French-speaking
Christians and wanted to label the country-dwellers, who often adhered to the old religion, with something insulting and demeaning. So labelling them peasants was one way. They often had red faces due to their winter-scarred skin and many had long implements they used for their occupation, maybe brooms or pitchforks or scythes. And here lies the myth about the devil. The urban Christian priests used to condition their students that the devil was in those people and this was evident in these analogies.

The sure way to tell a Pagan is by the horned animal (the male symbol) they would place in a visible location and use in ceremonies. This is where the idea of the devil with horns comes about. So as you see, with the full might of the Roman Catholic Church attacking them, our predecessors had it tough.

The strange thing is that although the word "Pagan" has dubious origins, it is now one of the main names we call ourselves with.

Mistaken Identity:
We have many annoying stereotypes which follow us around: we're supposed to be long-haired, long-bearded bards with a love of lurid naked dancing and wild sex in the forest. The truth is, I wear a shirt and tie to work and prefer a ceremonial cloak to cover my nakedness. Wild sex is an optional extra (joke). Truth is, most of us do have an area we are interested in. For some it is natural medicine, for some it is philosophy, for some art and crafts, for some music, for others it is advice. I specialise in advice and art.

Beliefs - Look Down
Another myth about the place "Hell" occupies is that it is under the Earth. Another cunning spin from the Catholic propaganda machine. We Pagans don't look up to a god for our inspiration; we look down. Not to Hell, whose existence we don't even acknowledge. We look down to the Earth, the great life-giving planet bumbling through the Solar System. We look at Her abilities to regenerate, to give us the resources needed to survive on Her surface. We wonder at the small things all around. A cat as a whole is a lovely creature. But look closely at the fur, at the nose, at the shape of the ears, and you see why every aspect of Mother Earth's contents should make us want more and more to nurture and sustain what is left in this age of mass de-forestation, urbanisation and economisation.

Beliefs - Global Warming?
Many Pagans believe global warming to be a reality. Many believe the Earth is an intelligent organism capable of giving coded messages to those on Her surface. I fall into the second category, and although I believe in the fact that the planet is in peril, I prefer not to call the process global warming, but meteorological extremification.

There are now on Earth more people alive than people who have lived and died since the Phoenicians started to write. When we move, in transport or just walking, we create heat. Our office blocks generate heat through air conditioning, server use, computer use, heating and anything else in there plugged into the mains. Our homes generate heat when we cook, when we switch on the boiler, when we turn on the radiators, when we play games on the Wii, when we run a bath. A thousand years ago, one house here and there would have had no effect. In fact, right up until the Industrial Revolution reached the USA and even beyond, we were probably doing OK. But now, with us almost unable to go anywhere on the planet without encountering another human being, the Earth is getting a bit fed up.

On top of this, the trend towards a warmer planet is evident whether we were there or now, but we are accelerating this by being so numerous. The Earth is intelligent. She has a thermostat. In the summer of 2003, Europe was barbecued by three months of unbroken sunshine. I was lucky enough to be between jobs and took full advantage of it. But for the summers since then, we have been mostly subjected to temperate, cloudy, rainy affairs in the bulk of the normally hot summers. She is not stupid, our Earth!

We can point towards many phenomena which have occurred probably as a warning to us: earthquakes (see previous post), melting glaciers and ice caps, species suddenly dying out and others thriving, often in unusual places (insects making it much further north, for example). We need to cut certain things out of our lives to slow the process down.

Beliefs - Matriarchal Society:
Our rejection of the man as only rightful head of the family/clan is well-documented, and for good reason: look at the world around you. It is a man-made world, and I use the words wisely. Politics, war, sport, architecture, science, religion, to name a few - these are male-dominated areas. They are not all bad, that is not what I am saying: I merely wish to point out that these areas are male-specific. They could have had many more females in them if the Judaeo-Roman ideology of "strength = power" were not so inherent in our society, even in our enlightened times. Some religions promote male-only heads, stating that the female is too wishy-washy, too capricious to lead or to conduct serious research. Tell that to Margaret Thatcher or Marie Curie. It is a nonsense. Women have just not been given a proper chance.

Beliefs - Not Feminist But Feministic
And here is the main theme here: feminism was the worst thing to happen to the re-establishment of women in all areas of modern society. It made men, and traditionalist women, look down on feminism with such distain that it could have set the agenda back 20 years. Things could have happened much faster had feminists not made a point of making themselves look ridiculous by their often unrealistic demands and bra-burning rants, broadcast to millions, which instantly put most people off the idea.

Fortunately, in this new age, equality means a lot for our society, and most women know in a more dignified, confident manner who they are without the help of the feminists. In this new era of prudence and re-establishment of traditional ideals and family life, this period of coming down off the post-war cloud of decadence and hubris, the family is once again taking centre stage, the childhood stability offered by loving parents is a meaningful and honourable reason for bringing our world full-circle, back to its origins: the mother in her vital central role.

The seasons and their connection to woman:
The seasons of our temperate northern climate also share an important bond with the symbolism of womanhood.

Winter: Our year begins on the night of 31 October-1 November, when we experience the advent of winter, a time of reflection and inner contemplation. At the darkest point of the winter we celebrate, lighting fires and erecting a tree with decoration and light to drive off the negative feelings and bad spirits, welcoming in the period of the Sun, symbol of light, heat and masculinity, the fertiliser. The symbolic woman is still very young.

Spring: The arrival of spring is a joyous occasion, a period when the female is still a girl child, blooming into an adolescent and then a fully adult young woman. The flowers, animals and surroundings all suit the idea of fertility and growth. That is, until the arrival of summer.

Summer: This is when the female is a fully fertaile woman, a child-bearer, a giver of life. All around, life seems to be thriving, all around creatures reap the benefits of a plentiful supply of food, as if the mother has provided it for us. Midsummer is the time the sun starts to take longer to come up, but the preparation made by the introduction of spring and summer nurturing means life can go on much longer.

Autumn: The woman is becoming old, the days are getting shorter. She is a lot wiser, having experienced it all. The leaves are falling from the trees, the nuts are being gathered by the forest creatures. People harvest the fields and orchards to stock up for winter, and slowly the woman goes red, orange, then grey, then white. This is the moon time. Although the moon time started in mid-June, it is in September than it comes in earnest.

This is a shortened form of the cycle, but I hope it explained a few things. This is why places like Stonehenge and Avebury have lunar and solar calculations written into them. This is what they were for: deciding when the seasons changed and when certain agricultural tasks were necessary.

The Gods:
We do not believe in one god or one goddess, but in a series of gods and goddesses building up to a whole. This does not mean we see them in the same way as the Abrahamic God(s), or in the same way as the Greeks and Romans, with their myths and fables. We see the divine in small things, which form a huge entirety. We give thanks for the small things and salute them. We look after the small things in nature so they look after us. The large things in nature will then gain strength. This is why wine can gain in quality, through this process. This is why meat is much tastier if the animal is happy and well-fed in life. In total though, there are two main goddesses: the Earth and the Moon, and one main god, the Sun. Other planets and stars naturally form links to the seasons here on Earth.

Being a Pagan:
You don't need formal training to be a Pagan. You should not be weighed down by inhibitions, conventions and ideologies to be a Pagan. You don't need to have a supernatural talent to be a Pagan. You must not be self-righteous or opinionated. You just need:

• an open mind and heart
• not to be afraid of your body and that of others
• a willingness to observe the Earth and the nature on Her
• to follow your sensitivities and let your emotions and instincts guide you
• a goal to find more of your inner strengths and accept your weaknesses
• a willingness to follow the seasons and the cycle of the sun and the moon
• an openness to a possible supernatural world beyond ours
• a firm understanding of right from wrong

Being a Pagan means there is no overall book as such. Most Pagan beliefs and philosophies have been handed down through the centuries to us from those who went before. We are free to interpret them, and nobody will tell you. Only you yourself can judge, using your innermost instincts and judgements. This is letting the animal in us rise nearer the surface, and all the while being a civilised human being. We need to acknowledge the instinctual part in us. With this, we are able to interpret the future better. Sensitivity and an ability to deduce from a set of circumstances is the secret to successful divination and prediction, not the "conventional" biblical prophecy that certain people try to claim is a God-given gift. It most certainly is not. It is something that requires learning and study, maybe even a lifetime of knowledge-gaining.

Natural/Supernatural?

Many people talk about fairies and pixies, ghosts and spirits. This is another thing which needs answering. I want to concentrate on the fact that we believe very strongly in an afterlife, and some believe in a beforelife too. Many Eastern philosophies and wisdoms transfer themselves into Paganism with ease. The beliefs of reincarnation, is one, and karma is pretty much an integral part of our philosophies. The belief of doing to and having a positive attitude towards not only other people but many things and even concepts (which is where we diversify from Christianity) as we would want for ourselves makes us a very peaceful and contemplative group of people.

Finally...

I would like to finish by making categorically clear that our beliefs are not set in stone, that our conventions do not always fit the average person's ideas on life and personal conduct, and every one of us will have a different belief to another.

Being associated to Paganism is something I take pride in, and something I will not give up so easily. Having made it this far, I realise just how far-sighted I have become, how much easier it is to know if someone is telling the truth or not, and how walking alone in the forest in the still of the night is a frequent pleasure of mine, something others find very difficult to do.

But if you intend no harm, nothing will harm you.