A Bit of Background Detail

Towards the end of the year the internet is full of pagan postings bemoaning the fact that they hate Christmas. How all the pagan meaning has been profaned and announcing that they will be holed up in solitary misery until all the commercially decadent festivities are over – all of which sadly demonstrates a complete lack of awareness concerning our pagan ancestry and its customs. Let's understand one thing before we go further: the Church did not invent the Mid-Winter Festival ... it was there with all its rich pageantry of feasting and celebration long before Pope Julius I officially decreed, in the 4th century AD, that the birth of Jesus would henceforth be celebrated on the 25th December.

There are several factors that may have influenced this choice. December 25th was the date the Romans marked as the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (the birth of the Unconquered Sun), which was easily massaged to become the 'Unconquered Son' based on some obscure Old Testament verse (Malachi 4:2) where the Messiah was identified with the sun. The date was exactly nine months following Annunciation, when the conception of Jesus was celebrated in the Christian calendar. Biblical scholars, however, reckon it most likely Jesus was born late August or September, because 'when John leapt in Elizabeth's womb at the presence of Jesus in Mary' it was during the Festival of Lights (Chanukah) in December and that is more likely closer to his conception than birth!

More importantly, it was also around the birth date of Mithras, whose following rivalled that of early Christianity; although Mithraic iconography always portrays Mithras and the sun god as separate beings, in Mithraic inscriptions this god of the Roman Legions was often identified with the sun by being called 'Sol Invictus' – the Unconquered Sun. Finally, the Romans also celebrated a series of pagan solstice festivals near the end of the year, so the calendar dates were realigned to appropriate these sacred days for the Christian holy days, but without any historical evidence to justify this hijacking of pagan customs.

'But there's nothing here for us to celebrate,' some lonely pagans cry.

Au contraire, mes amies!

Professor E O James, an anthropologist in the field of comparative religion writing in Seasonal Feasts and Festivals, had this to offer:

From time immemorial the turn of the year in midwinter had been the occasion of rites of passage as a precaution against supernatural forces thought to be rampant, and to ensure the renewal of the waning power of the sun ... Therefore, the Church was confronted with a very firmly established and highly developed calendrical ritual, though it was not until towards the end of the fourth century that it was associated with the birth of Christ.

In Rites and Symbols on Initiation, Professor Mircea Eliade, a leading scholar of religion, also comments on the Germanic 'fundamental experience provoked by the initiates' meeting with the dead, who return to Earth more especially about the Winter Solstice'. She continued: 'In other words, during the winter the members of the band are able to transmute their profane condition and attain superhuman existence, whether by consorting with the Ancestors or by appropriating the behaviour that is the magic of the carnivora.'

This, these academic sources tell us, Winter Solstice or Mid-Winter Festival as our ancestors would have called it, is the most magical and mystical time of the year and should be celebrated as such with all the pagan gusto we can summon. It is an ancient fire festival that heralds the shortest day of the year; an astronomical turning of the tide to announce the rebirth of the sun and the promise of warmth returning to the land. It was a time of long nights and short days. It was cold and dark and not a time to be venturing out. It was, therefore, the perfect time to feast and create artificial light and warmth – and look forward with hope to the return of the sun.

In those far-off days, the British winter was more severe than now, but the Winter Solstice would have been a special moment during the year even in Neolithic times. This is confirmed by the layouts of those great late Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites, such as Stonehenge in England, Maeshowe in the Orkneys and Newgrange in Ireland. The primary axes of these ancient monuments were carefully aligned with the Winter Solstice sunrise (Newgrange) and the Winter Solstice sunset (Stonehenge and Maeshowe); Stonehenge's Great Trilithon was erected facing outwards from the middle of the monument, with its smooth flat face turned towards the mid-winter sun. The Winter Solstice was immensely important because these ancient people were economically dependent on monitoring the progress of the seasons.

The reasons for this are obvious – and demonstrate why the Mid-Winter Festival with all its trappings of feasting and plenty should remain one of the most important feasts in the pagan calendar – if only as a testament to those who didn't make it through the long winter darkness. Starvation was common during the long months of winter, which were also known as 'the famine months'. The old Mid-Winter Festival according to the calendar re-alignment now falls on 6 January, which the Anglo-Saxons called Wolfmonath, when wolves moved closer to human habitation to feed off the carcases of fallen stock. The festival was the last opportunity for feasting, before deep winter began; when a large proportion of the cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter, and it was the only time of year when a plentiful supply of fresh meat was available. The majority of wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and also ready for drinking at this time.

If we look at traditional Christmas cards and paintings from medieval times onwards, everywhere is covered in deep snow, and 'frost fairs' were even held on the frozen Thames at London. One of the earliest accounts comes from 250AD, when it was frozen solid for six weeks. As long ago as 923AD the river was even open to wheeled traffic for trade and the transport of goods for thirteen weeks; in 1410, the ice lasted for fourteen weeks. During the Great Frost of 1683-84, the worst frost recorded in England, the Thames was completely frozen for two months, with the ice reaching a thickness of eleven inches at London.

When the ice was thick enough and lasted long enough, Londoners would take to the river for travel, trade and entertainment, the latter eventually taking the form of public festivals and fairs. The Thames had frozen over several times in the 16th century – Henry VIII travelled from central London to Greenwich by sleigh along the river in 1536; Elizabeth I took to the ice frequently during 1564, to 'shoot at marks', and small boys played football on the ice. The first recorded frost fair was in 1608 and the most celebrated occurred in the winter of 1683-84 and was described by John Evelyn:

Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other stairs to and fro, as in the streets; sleds, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cooks, tipling and other lewd places, so that it seemed to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water. For sixpence, the printer Croom sold souvenir cards written with the customer's name, the date, and the fact that the card was printed on the Thames, and was making five pounds a day (ten times a labourer's weekly wage). King Charles II bought one.

The cold weather was not only a cause for merriment, as Evelyn explained. There were tragedies, too:

The fowls, fish and birds, and all our exotic plants and greens universally perishing. Many parks of deer were destroyed, and all sorts of fuel so dear that there were great contributions to keep the poor alive ... London, by reason for the excessive coldness of the air hindering the ascent of the smoke, was so filled with the fuliginous steam of the sea-coal ... that one could hardly breathe ...

Thames frost fairs were often brief, and scarcely commenced before the weather lifted, causing people to retreat from the melting ice. Rapid thaws sometimes caused loss of life and property. In January 1789, melting ice dragged a ship that was anchored to a riverside public house, pulling the building down and causing five people to be crushed to death.

This period from the mid-14th century to the 19th century in Europe is known as the Little Ice Age because of the severity of the climate, especially the winters. Snowfall was much heavier and lay on the ground for many months longer than it does today, but the Mid-Winter Festival meant that the longest night had passed and the weather would eventually improve. Anyone whose roots dig deep into the North-European gene-pool will be linked to ancestors for whom the Winter Solstice was probably the most important observance of the year after the Harvest Festival. So can modern pagans really claim that this time of the year means nothing to them?

Needless to say, Roman, Celt, Anglo-Saxon and Norse invaders also brought their Mid-Winter customs with them, and as they integrated with the native peoples, so these customs were melded into existing ones. The concentration of these observances were not always on the day commencing at midnight or at dawn, but at the beginning of the pagan day, which in many cultures fell on the previous Eve.

The Romans would have brought Saturnalia to Britain, an ancient festival held in honour of Saturn, held on 17th December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23rd. The 17th December was the first day of the astrological sign of Capricorn, the house of Saturn, the planet named for the god and its proximity to the Winter Solstice was endowed with a wide range of mystical meanings. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum with a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted and masters provided table service for their slaves – echoing the later medieval English custom of the Lord of Misrule. The poet Catullus called it 'the best of days'.

Although probably the best-known Roman holiday, Saturnalia is not fully described in any single historical source and our information is pieced together from several accounts dealing with various aspects of the celebrations. In an extract from classical writer, Macrobius's work, Saturnalia is a festival of light leading up to the Winter Solstice, 'with the abundant presence of candles symbolising the quest for knowledge and truth'. The popularity of Saturnalia continued into the 3rd and 4th centuries AD and, as the empire came under Christian rule, many of its customs influenced the later seasonal celebrations surrounding the Christmas observances.

Saturnalia is best known for its role reversal and behavioural license when slaves were treated to a banquet of the kind usually enjoyed by their masters; and there are hints of mask-wearing or 'guising'. Gambling and dice-playing, normally prohibited or at least frowned upon, were permitted for all, even slaves, where coins and nuts were the stakes. Rampant overeating and drunkenness became the rule, and a sober person was the exception. Wikipedia quotes Seneca, who looked forward to the holiday, if somewhat tentatively, in a letter to a friend:

It is now the month of December, when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. Loose reins are given to public dissipation; everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations, as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn and those for transacting business ... Were you here, I would willingly confer with you as to the plan of our conduct; whether we should eve in our usual way, or, to avoid singularity, both take a better supper and throw off the toga.

Some Romans found it all a bit too much for them and Pliny described a secluded suite of rooms in his Laurentine villa, to which he used to retreat: '... especially during the Saturnalia when the rest of the house is noisy with the licence of the holiday and festive cries. This way I don't hamper the games of my people and they don't hinder my work or studies.'

The Romans were also great gift-givers and the Sigillaria on 19 December was a special day of exchanging presents. Because gifts of value would suggest a social status contrary to the spirit of the season, these were often the pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria made especially for the day: candles, or 'gag gifts', novelties, of which the Emperor Augustus was particularly fond (he would have loved modern pound-shops!), while children received toys as gifts.

In his many poems about the Saturnalia, Martial names both expensive and quite cheap gifts, including writing tablets, dice, knucklebones, moneyboxes, combs, toothpicks, a hat, a hunting knife, an axe, various lamps, balls, perfumes, pipes, a pig, a sausage, a parrot, tables, cups, spoons, items of clothing, statues, masks, books, and pets. Gifts might be as costly as a slave or exotic animal, but Martial suggests that token gifts of low intrinsic value inversely measure the high quality of a friendship. Patrons might pass along a gratuity (sigillaricium) to their poorer clients or dependents to help them buy gifts. There was also a Roman practice of a verse accompanying a gift that could possibly be the forerunner of the modern custom of sending greeting cards.

Sol Invictus ('The Unconquered Sun') was originally a Syrian god who was later adopted as the chief god of the Roman Empire under Emperor Aurelian. His holiday was traditionally celebrated on December 25th, as are several gods associated with the Winter Solstice in many pagan traditions, including Mithras, that popular god of the Roman Legions, whose festival, Yalda, was celebrated on 21st December. Several Mithraic temples have been discovered in Britain and so the celebrations would have been known to those Romano-British who lived in close proximity to them.

The pagan Scandinavian and Germanic people of northern Europe celebrated a twelve-day mid-winter holiday called Yule and more modern Christmas traditions, such as the festive tree, wreath, and log, are direct descendants of those old Yuletide customs. Scandinavians still call Yule Jul, but in English from around 900AD, the word was often used in combination with the season: Yuletide. A 'julblot' was the most solemn sacrificial feast that was given to the gods to earn blessing on the forthcoming germinating crops.

Yule is the modern representation of the Old English words géol and géola, with the former indicating the twelve-day festival of Yule, and the latter indicating the month of Yule, whereby œrra géola referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and œftera géola referred to the period after Yule (January). The traditional Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as 'Twelvetide', is now recognised as running from Christmas Day with the Twelve Days being 25th December to 5th January. Or starting with the Anglo-Saxon Modraniht (Mother's Night) on 24th – the beginning of the 'Time between the Years' – the thirteen sacred days and twelve sacred nights.

In medieval and Tudor England, the Twelfth Night marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve! At the beginning of the Twelfth Night festival, a cake that contained a bean was shared and the person who found the bean would rule the feast. Midnight signalled the end of his rule and the world would return to normal. The common theme was that the normal order of things was reversed. This tradition dates back to pre-Christian European festivals such as the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Roman Saturnalia. Food and drink were an important part of the celebrations and many of the traditional recipes go back many centuries. A punch called wassail was consumed especially on Twelfth Night and throughout the whole holiday, particularly in Britain. Around the world, special pastries, such as the tortell and king cake, were baked on Twelfth Night and eaten the following day.

While mostly considered to be a British mid-winter custom, the appointment of a Lord of Misrule comes from the ancient Roman feast of Saturnalia. During this time the ordinary rules of life were subverted as masters served their slaves, and the offices of state were held by slaves. The Lord of Misrule presided over all of this, and had the power to command anyone to do anything during the holiday period. In the Tudor period, the Lord of Misrule is mentioned a number of times in contemporary documents referring to revels both at court and among the ordinary people. John Stow in his Survey of London, published in 1603, gives a description of the Lord of Misrule:

[I]n the feaste of Christmas, there was in the kinges house, wheresoeuer hee was lodged, a Lord of Misrule,

or Maister of merry disports, and the like had yee in the house of euery noble man, of honor, or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall. Amongst the which the Mayor of London, and eyther of the shiriffes had their seuerall Lordes of Misrule, euer contending without quarrell or offence, who should make the rarest pastimes to delight the Beholders. These Lordes beginning their rule on Alhollon Eue [Halloween], continued the same till the morrow after the Feast of the Purification, commonlie called Candlemas day: In all which space there were fine and subtle disguisinges, Maskes and Mummeries, with playing at Cardes for Counters, Nayles and pointes in euery house, more for pastimes then for gaine.