What the Yule---it's a New Year?
As the Yule season crept up and ambled past amidst the frantic preparations and planning that proceeded it I sat down and reflected on all the ritual we take so much for granted and perform each year with little thought to it's origin.
Every year we set up the Yule tree for December 21st, as I always have been accustomed to, decorate with Thorn, Berry and Mistletoe just as my granny did when I was a baby.
The Yule log, this year it was a fine piece of Cedar, is prepared for the ritual we share with all as well as the private one shared with the coven family.
Once all the days of Yule have past, sharing food, drink and blessings from the mother, we prepare for the New Year of the traditional Scot's custom of Hogmanay which has been passed down with it's quaint ageless ways I took on from those who have passed on to the summerland's long gone.
How surprised was I that our new friends in our new country hadn't a clue as to what these customs were or why we did what we do?
So much has been lost along the way just for those whose journey took them to the shores of a new world that imprinted the new customs of Christianity into the laws and traditions so thoroughly that simple rituals such as the passing of coal at New Year were long forgotten.
Yule is such an ancient custom with historical fact linking it to the germanic pagan tribes and also to the Roman god Saturn and was wide spread across Northern Europe. Saturnalia started on December 17th and gradually lasted till the 25th which is why Christian Romans eventually took over the festival as the birth date for their god.
Over the week it involved sacrifices to the god Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year, it even involved the school holidays so that the whole family could gather to celebrate. A time to eat drink and be merry was had by all, even the slaves.
Slaves even had a reversal of roles, which continued in the European tradition right up to the 18th-19th centuries for the serving class, were the masters would serve them up a banquet and the slaves would become 'masters' for a day.
The customary greeting of 'Ho" would be made as a praise to Saturn when people met at this time of year, strangely familiar to present day Santa with his 'HO HO HO'.
Seneca the Younger wrote:
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.
Yule-tide would continue from late December to early January dependant upon the lunar calendar but was moved to the 25th December when the Christian (Julian) calendar was adopted.
Yule was traditionally connected to the god Odin, one of Odin's names being Jolnir (old norse for 'yule figure') thought to be fertility rite as well as a cult function to the dead or ancestor worship.
The Scots ritual of Hogmanay occurs on December 31st to January 1st, normally friends and family gather to feast and drink to excess and is thought to have been a continuation of the old Nordic Yule tradition, some peculiarities are 'first-footing' were a person (normally a neighbor or friend) will step foot over the threshold after midnight bearing a gift to bring good luck and prosperity to the household. The gift normally consists of salt, coal, shortbread, whiskey or the black bun. Folklore dictates the man must be tall, dark of hair and preferably bearded. Although the customs change over the years we will still salt the boundaries of our land to guard and protect, sound the 'clangor', all brandishing pots and pans bashing them with wooden spoons to set a loud ritual walking around the house crashing to banish unfriendly spirits for the New Year.
Cleansing the home with sage or lavender prior to the stranger at the door calling after midnight with the gift of coal to bring luck to all.
Hogmanay also involves singing the timeless song of Old Lang Syne famous rendition of the poem by Robert Burns.
