Yule
It seems like only a few short weeks ago the world was a blast of brilliant colors flying in the wind. Now I look out the window and I see nothing but a vast expanse of wintry white. The bare trees stand like sentries to a holiday wonderland. It is not death but the introduction to a new cycle of life. Yes, the Christmas season is now upon us and the world is going through some of the most interesting and wonderful changes. This is not just a season for the Christians. The Hebrew celebrates Hanukah while those of African-American descent are celebrating Kwanzaa. Right now all over the world there are Pagans getting ready to celebrate Yule or the Winter Solstice.
So what exactly is Yule? This is the shortest day of the year and comes from the Norse word Iul which means “Wheel” or the Anglo-Saxon word Yula also meaning “Wheel.” This is the time of the year when it is believed that the Sun God is born into the world and the warmth of the sun is returned to the earth.
There are several thousand myths associated with the holiday, but one of the more popular amongst the Wiccans is the battle between the Holly King and the Oak King. The Holly King takes over in this half of the year and at the Summer Solstice the Oak King takes over. This tradition can be seen in the traditional Yule Mummer plays performed in Britain and Europe.
There are symbols galore in the holiday. One favorite that has over the years lost its original meaning is the Evergreen tree. This has always been a symbol of the promise of new life in the coming spring because the tree never loses its green throughout the winter.
It is believed by some that presents under the tree represents semen (as the tree is a phallic symbol.) I think that this traditional meaning was lost due to political reasons.
In today’s age of technology and fear of fire, the trees have twinkle lights of multi-colored glass. In ages past candles were placed on the tree to represent the sun and the people’s desire for the renewed warmth of the bright day. The ornaments were originally presents placed throughout the branches. These were often offerings to the gods that they would grant boons and help the people survive the wicked weather.
Yule was also important to the common man because this was usually the last opportunity in the year for the tribes and clans to get together before they went their separate ways. One never knew whether or not they would see each other come spring because survival depended on the harvest through the previous year.
In the Temple family there is a tradition of making cookies for all the family. This may seem like such a simple (although very time consuming event) the act tends to show the rest of the family that even though we don’t often visit we are always thinking of them. Now as a fully Pagan household we have added to this tradition a bit of magick. We bake into each cookie a certain amount of prayer for a good year and prosperous days.
Since the addition of our daughter Raven, we now celebrate Christmas with our family and Yule with our friends.
Regardless of what traditions as a family people may partake of, there is one thing that seems to permeate the holiday as much as it permeates the world as a whole is a sense of unity. The season seems to bring people together in a sense of global community that gets lost through the rest of the year. Whether it be the Sun God or the Son of God the sentiment is the same. All people are brothers and sisters of the soul.
Imbolc
Imbolc is celebrated at or near February 1st. It is celebrated on the second by some due to its relation to the holiday of Candlemas. In the southern hemisphere it is celebrated in August reversing the polarity of the holiday. This particular holiday is not so much ignored, but misunderstood and therefore given less importance by some who practice the Old Ways. I believe this is mainly due to the fact that, considering its time of the year, it is a home and hearth holiday. It is not one that was celebrated with large groups but close within the home and family. This is also a holiday for the womenfolk (balanced out by the celebration of Lughnassadh for the menfolk.)
The general meaning of the word Imbolc, Imbolg is “in the belly” or Oimelc meaning “ewe’s milk.”
This holiday venerates the Goddess Bridgid the Celtic goddess of smithcraft. In the modern Irish calendar, Imbolc is variously known as the Feast of St. Brigid and La Feabhra, the first day of Spring. It is a holiday of light. Quite often the tradition shows the households lighting all the candles of the house in a form of sympathetic magick bringing back the sun in all its glory. This use of candles may have been the reason for the use of Candlemas.
I have heard that the custom of Groundhog Day can be traced back to Scotland where an old couplet goes: “If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.”
For anyone who cares IMBOLC is also a German acronym for “Internationale magisch Bildungsstatte fur okkulte Lebenskunst und Credo.” (No, it doesn’t have an English version, so you’d better be fluent in German.)
Ostara
What is Ostara? The short of it would be that it is yet another Pagan festival subverted by the Catholic Church and whose only purpose seems to be to find a way to justify noshing on chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps. However, we know that there is far more to it than that.
Eostre, as it is called in the Anglo-Saxon tongue is known as the Spring Equinox when the day and the night are equal in length. This is the time when the people would celebrate the coming of the Spring and the warm weather after seemingly endless winter struggle.
This particular holiday has been known to have origins with several cultures all feasting in the name of the goddesses to which it is given its name; for example, the Teutonic dawn-goddess Eostra, the Hindu dawn-goddess Usha or Ushas, The Greek Eos, and the Assyrian goddess of the morning Ishtar.
There are several wonderful traditions that originate with this holiday that have survived into the modern celebration. One of the most obvious would be the Easter Egg which is a symbol of fertility and regeneration. As a side note in the Catholic faith there is a story of an individual giving the Christ an egg before the Crucifixion and the Christ returning the egg which had turned to gold. However, many eggs were painted red in certain Germanic countries to signify the sacred blood.
Fires were lit to signify the change from the cold of autumn and winter to the warmth of spring and summer.
The rabbit or hare is sacred to several goddesses of various cultures (Grecian Hecate, Nordic Freya, Celtic goddess Cerridwen, and Roman Aphrodite) and is, of course, a strong symbol of fertility. Personally I never did understand the myth regarding the rabbit laying the Easter egg. That is just too weird even for me to accept.
A good friend told me once that the reason we have chocolate at this time of the year especially is because chocolate is considered a substitute for sex. I have eaten chocolate and had sex… you guess which one wins out.
Any Pagan can truly get into the spirit of the holiday with the simple act of “Spring Cleaning.” This is not just a time to throw open the windows and let out the stale air of the winter, but to go through and throw out the old to make way for the new. This can apply to the home, of course, but it also applies to the soul. Perhaps this is the time to do a reality check on one’s self, to find the old outworn ideals and replace them with new ideals. (New Year’s isn’t the only time for resolutions!)
So take the time to enjoy this time of the year, take long walks in the woods or in local parks and watch the world waking up!
Beltane
What is Beltane? I could be clinical and say that Beltane is the Spring Equinox and the month of May on the Gaelic calendar. I could also state that Beltane is spelled more ways that the Kabalah, but that would not do Beltane justice. It is nothing less than the light to Samhain’s dark. It is life where there once was death. The world is awakening in a cascade of colors and textures, scents, sounds and tastes. During the winter most of us have lost touch with nature because we usually hate going outside in the cold and the snow. Now the weather has turned warmer and we, like the hibernating animals, have emerged from our holes into the sunshine.
Beltane is a holiday of fertility first and foremost. It is the sacred marriage of the God and the Goddess. The animals of the world have come out of hibernation and the thoughts of the opposite sex are strong. The male and female energies are represented by the May Pole and the Cauldron. Although the Maypole is a rather new addition to tradition its male symbology is undeniable. Men and women dance around the maypole carrying ribbons of red and white for the blood and the semen coming together. Today in the Christianized version there are many brilliant colors, but still the merging of many things into one new thing still holds the same meaning.
The following comes from Robert Graves, “… drink from a well before sunrise. Wash in the morning dew, adorn yourself with greenery. Watch the sunrise, dance round the Maypole and otherwise abandon yourself to the season. A woodland frolic culminating in indiscretion is the order of the day.” This time of the year found couples (and those not necessarily couples) running off into the woods after the lighting of the balefires to take care of nature.
In France girls dance around the Maypole while one boy dressed in greenery (called Father May) dances in the opposite direction. In Bavaria the Maypole is erected in front of the local tavern and a gentleman wearing straw. In Scandinavia each home has its own smaller pole erected near the hearth.
Because of differences in climate and environment this holiday can be held anytime between late April and mid-June. All over Indo-Europe this holiday is referred to as Beltane, Bealltainne, Rood Day, Rudemas, Walpurgisnacht, and May Day. Farmers of the region would herd their cattle through the balefires for protection and assured fertility. Menfolk would jump the balefires for good luck. (Personally, if the Scotsmen got over the balefires without setting assets on fire… that was considered lucky.) There are many other superstitions that are associated with May Day most of which involve young girls finding out who they will eventually marry in the coming year.
The veil between this world and the next is just as thin as at Samhain and the activities of the sidhe are dynamic. For some it is considered unlucky to get married in May because although this is the time of marriage, it is a Divine marriage. That and the fact that children conceived at this time of the year were born in the winter and the survival rate of children at that time was quite low.
Solitary dedicants might find this the best time to give offerings to the sidhe of milk, honey, and nuts. These offerings should be left at the base of trees of fertility such as oak, birch, elm, or fir. It is also a good time to collect together the seasons first flowers to take to graveyards or to deliver to the nursing homes. Above all, take the time to literally smell the flowers and enjoy the warmer weather.
Midsummer
When Midsummer is upon us and the power of the Sun is at its highest we celebrate the warmth and life around us, however there is a sense of sadness since it also means the power of the Sun will begin to decline. So at this time of the year the pagan community takes the opportunity to bask in the warmth of the season.
Midsummer is not only a time to light the balefires or honor the power of the Good God; Midsummer represents something else for my generation. This is the central part of the year. We have the opportunity to look back at the accomplishments we have made so far in the year and look forward to the projects yet to finish. However, my generation can look back at the last three to four decades and take stock of the time we have spent and what we have done with it. We can look forward to the years ahead and see what we still feel we have yet to accomplish with our lives. In this time of our lives we are entering into the political arena and starting to make the decisions that will affect our children’s generation.
I am reminded of the Roman God Janus. He is depicted with two faces pointed in opposite directions. One would presume that this was a matter of deception, but he is the god of the gates. He looks into the past and into the future at the same time. We all need to look in both directions. But, as usual I digress from the point of the essay.
The holiday of Midsummer has been with us for some time however as is usual since St. John’s Day fell on the same day, in the 1300s the Church found it rather convenient to combine the two for the “benefit” of the common man. All throughout the Indo-European countries this holiday is celebrated in much the same way. The most common element is the lighting of the balefire and visiting sacred wells for purification. This also seems to be a fine time for revelry and drunkenness, but then, when isn’t it a good holiday for drunkenness and revelry?
In Denmark small effigies of witches are burned in honor of those who were burned for their beliefs. It was believed that in burning these effigies the witches souls would travel to the mountains. In Poland the young men dress as dangerous sea pirates and the women toss wreaths of flowers into the Baltic Sea. In Norway it is traditional to have mock weddings between even the smallest of children representing the blossoming of new life. In Sweden the folk of the local communities dance their version of the Maypole. In all of these countries the name of the holiday now refers to St. John the Baptist. Finding the name of the holiday pre-Christian is rather difficult. I would presume that the Church did a good job of subverting this holiday. However, the Summer Solstice has also been known as Alban Heflin, Alben Heruin, All-couples day, Feast of Epona, Feill-Sheathain, Gathering Day, Johannistag, Litha, Midsummer, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, Vestalia, etc.
This was always considered an excellent time for weddings. It was unlucky to wed in May because it was the time of the Great Union between the God and the Goddess. Also consider that nine months from Midsummer would bring us to near the end of March and the end of winter. Children would have a greater chance of surviving.
Once the Christian Church altered the holiday for the commonfolk it became the Feast of St. John the Baptist. It was unique in that most holidays for the Saints were centered around the time of their death, whereas this was centered on his birth. This makes the holiday very important from a liturgical standpoint. It is believed that most herbs should be harvested at this time of the year as their potency will be increased by the Saint’s blessings.
A small bit of history I found from my own family deals with this specific holiday. My family would light a huge bonfire in the middle of their farmland. The ladies would jump around the fire showing the crops how high to grow. As I understand this was done well into the early 1900s before my Great-grandfather joined the war effort and moved to the Americas. Also, the farm tools were purified in the fire while the young ladies would seek answers to the most important questions in the flames of the fire. (Like who they would marry in the coming years, how many children…)
Samantha and I are considering renewing this particular tradition in our own family, both to honor our most recent ancestors and to connect even closer with our Pagan roots. When I asked my father about this, he said that he couldn’t verify the story, but he knew that the family had some strange traditions from the Old Country which were lost with my grandfather when they moved into the city.
For more information about this holiday I would suggest visiting religioustolerance.org or wikipedia.org. These sources give some of the most current and unbiased information from all over the world
Lughnassadh
Having taken the time to work through what seems like hundreds of websites on the Internet I have come to the conclusion that only a handful of people must actually celebrate this holiday! The information is sparse at best and usually a great deal of repeating of the same information from dubious sources.
Lughnassadh, also spelled Lughnasa or Lunasa is quite literally “the Feast of Lugh” or the “Marriage of Lugh.” This is the time of the first of three major harvest festivals, Lughnassadh, Mabon, and Samhain. The corn and wheat have become ripe and ready to bring in from the fields. For this reason Lugh is known as the God of the Corn or in more modern times John Barleycorn of which there are several well-known folk songs. One of my particular favorites is the paganized version of “The Lord of the Dance” from the mid-1970s.
Though there may not be much said about Lughnassadh, there is more than enough to say about the God Lugh. Lugh is a heroic solar deity of the Tuatha De Danaan. He was born of the Goddess Ethniu, daughter of Balor, and Cian. Lugh was schooled in all of the arts and as such has been known as “The Many Talented One.” It was these gifts that he presented to the court of the Tuatha. His face was compared to the Sun and it was said that he wore red from sunrise to sunset. Mananan presented to Lugh a magick horse, corselet, and sword. It was prophesied that Balor would be slain and it was Lugh that fulfilled the prophecy by taking him out with a slingshot (seems very much a David and Goliath kind of story to me). Lugh fathered the hero Cuchulainn with his wife Dectera. Lugh does have a Welsh counterpart known as Llew Llaw Gyffes.
In Buckland’s work, “The Witches Book” he states that as leader of the Tuatha De Danann, Lugh is the renewal of Balor, king of the Fomors. This is obviously a matter of opinion as this is the only source I have found beyond Farrar’s “A Witches Bible.”
Many of the sites dedicated to the God Lugh were Christianized as parish churches dedicated to St. Michael, specifically St. Michael’s Parish at Roche Rock in Cornwall.
The holiday Lammas comes from the Old English for “Loaf Mass.” This name, though Christian in nature, is favored by many Witches and gives thanksgiving for the wheat which makes the bread for the rest of the season.
This is a particularly good time for thinning out plants for greater fruitfulness. The Old God/King is replaced by the new God/King of the latter half of the year.
This holiday is also known to the Norse as “Loaf Feast”; Feast of the Grain and Thor and Sif, and to the ADF as August Feast. Late in July the Hellenes celebrate Panathenaia in honor of the Goddess of the City.
The Southern hemisphere celebrates a similar holiday nearer to February 2nd, the time normally attributed to Imbolc in the Northern hemisphere.
There are a few other things that I would like to say regarding Lugh and these matters are written in Michael Jordan’s work “Encyclopaedia of Gods.” Lugh was also known as Torgrain and was mentioned in the Books of Invasions and the Cycles of Kings. However it is believed by Jordan that Lugh is a more recent introduction into the Irish pantheon. His proof lies in that Lughnassadh is an agrarian festival in a pastoral cultural setting. Perhaps Lugh superceded Trograin as Lughnassadh also has the name of Bron Trograin or “Rage of Trograin.” There appears to be a strong Romano-Celtic association in Continental Europe with place names such as Lugudunum (Lyons) and Luguvalium (Carlisle). Although having read Mallory’s work on the Indo-Europeans and the concept of the traveling language I am not sure that a coincidence of names proves a connection. There is a root of “leuk” which means light. This brings about the words LIGHT, LUMEN, LUNA, LUSTER, etc. Also the obscure LYNX from its shining eyes.
I have given a great deal of time to Lugh, but I have been reminded that the holiday also deals, in part with his foster-mother, Tailtiu who was responsible for the fertility of the plains now known as County Meath. In honor of her, and as I understand, at her request it is customary for there to be games. As all well know, this is the time of fairs; County Fairs, Renaissance and Medieval Faires, etc.
The grain has returned and the bread famine is over. We as Modern Druids cannot truly understand this aspect since we can always run down to the store and get a loaf of bread. An individual that wishes to truly understand may find it a good time to start the Atkins or South Beach diet and eliminate their carbohydrates. From Imbolc to Lughnassadh and then really ENJOY the bread at the potluck dinner!
Fall Equinox
The American Heritage Dictionary defines the Autumnal Equinox as, “The equinox of September 22 or 23 when the sun crosses the celestial equator going north to south, marking the start of autumn.” I think that seems a bit too clinical and doesn’t truly describe the true mystery of the holiday.
I say that this is a time of mystery because I am a child born into the season. I have always felt a connection to this time of the year when we are between the power of the Sun in the Summer and the power of the Moon in the Winter. I realize that it seems a very Wiccan thing to say, but the season is what the season is to me.
There are many names associated with this holiday, though most of the names have very recent origins which were applied, I believe, solely to give the holiday a more traditional sense. Mabon comes from the Welsh mythology regarding a God of Fertility and Harvest by the same name. There is also Alban Elfen which is believed to have been coined by Iolo Morgannwg. The word Alban is Welsh for Equinox but I find it difficult to find references in any language for Elfed. I thought perhaps the word meant Autumn but the Welsh phrase for the Autumn season is Yr Hydref. As is my usual custom… I digress… Other names include; Second Harvest Festival, Festival of Dionysus, Wine Harvest, Cornucopia (which by the way the cornucopia is believed by some to be a symbol of one of the horns taken from “Satan”. There are other older myths regarding this Thanksgiving symbol.) Feast of Avalon, Equiozio di Autumno, and the Teutonic name for this period of time is Winter Finding.
The Autumnal Equinox is considered a time of mystery and the end of the second of three Pagan Harvest Festivals. This is a time of balance when the darkness overtakes the light. It is a time for Wiccans to honor the Aging Deities and the spirit worlds.
All over the world, there are cultures giving thanks for the, hopefully, bountiful harvest. This is the best time for brewing and making of breads, preparing for the long winter ahead while sharing with family and friends. Personally, I like to take long walks in the woods because the trees are just starting to change colors and there is a certain change in the air that is unmistakable to those individuals born into this season. (And trust me, kids can feel it in the air, too… school is on its way!)
Surprisingly enough, it isn’t just the Western Europeans who gave honor to the corn. In the Greco-Roman harvest festivals the last of corn harvest was reaped and dressed up to honor the Corn Goddess. This is referred to as the Corn Dolly.
In my family, I am told that it was customary to tend to the graves of departed family members. I always thought that this was something that was done nearer to Samhain, but it makes more sense to do it before the veil between worlds is thinned.
Most of us do not toil in the fields as our Ancestors once did, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t take stock of the accomplishments that we have made in the past year. This is an excellent time to find out where we have been and where we need to be, in order that we may prepare for the coming year.
Samhain
Let us begin by saying that a Protestant is not a Catholic and Samhain is NOT Halloween. That is not to say that Halloween does not have its roots deep in the Irish culture, but that many of the traditions that we hold dear come from Christian theology and mythology more so than from the Druids and the Irish people.
In late October and early November, the harvest season has ended and the cold winter months are lurking around the corner. The cattle and stock have been culled to ration the feed for the long winter and the meat has been prepared so that there will be food for the local community. At this time of the year there is a switch from the agricultural to the all important hunt. I believe this is the source of the change from Goddess/Fertility to God/Hunt mentality prevalent in ditheistic pantheons.
There is no question that there is a prevailing belief that during these darkest months the dead walk amongst the living. It is this belief that has spawned a never-ending supply of traditions and superstitions. These “folk-tales” have fueled the fires of imagination for centuries and has been the inspiration for many of the modern day traditions we know and love.
Before I go into any detail about traditions, I should return to the Irish and explain what is most popularly believed to be the prominent celebration for the occasion. Because this was considered a time of plenty, with the crops in and the meat and bread aplenty, great feasts were held. (Of course, when there was plenty… any time was an excuse for a feast!) The Nordic people are known for boasting and toasting at Yule, but the Celts were inclined to begin their boasting at this time of the year.
According to Charles Knightly in his work, “The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain” the fires of the winter were lit from the Samhain fires, much in the way that the Beltane fires were used.
Because this time of the year is “between,” summer/fall has not quite finished, and winter/spring has not quite begun, this is an in-between time and the veil between the worlds is thinnest. As a note, you will find this “liminal” time at Beltane, noontime, midnight, dusk, etc. I would say, personally, that because the people in general were interested in the outcome of the coming winter, this was and still is an excellent time for divination.
What truly brought Samhain into the eyes of the common man was the introduction of the Christian celebration of “All Soul’s Day” and “All Saint’s Day,” and is also known as “All Hallow’s Eve” which is the origin of Halloween.
It is because of this that I am not inclined to go into detail about traditions of Halloween, because the traditions of Halloween are not necessarily the traditions of Samhain. Samhain is the Holy Day of the Ancients and Halloween has become the commercialized Modern holiday we know.
There are a few traditions that may co-exist. For instance Apples and Nuts are common at this time of the year and have been used for divination purposes. We all know about the hazelnuts and the Salmon. Apples are a key element in the myth of Pomona and her travels through the Land of the Dead.
According to A. Æ. Hunt-Anschütz on his website, “A Heretical History of Halloween”, many of our most popular myths regarding Halloween may be traced back to Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer. Their thoughts on the connections between Halloween and the Celtic culture were unsubstantiated. Although the new popular theory is that the Catholics aren’t as interesting as the Druids and stories of the Old Ways make for better storytelling.
If that doesn’t quite fit the bill for you, then by all means, keep your family traditions, but keep them within their modern context. While you are at it, take the time to sit down with your kids and watch “The Halloween Tree” from Cartoon Network. It may not be historically accurate, but it is a fun watch and can be the stepping off point for good conversation. Now, if you’ll excuse me… there’s a pumpkin just begging to be decorated!
