As many of you know, or don't know yet, I love Christmas, the whole Christmassy season. Oh, please don't ask why, no one quite knows the reason. All talking in rhyme aside, Christmas, in and of itself, is a big deal. Always has been, always will be. It's a time when gifts are given, meals are planned, families gather and excess is abound. We light up the tree, wrap the gifts, send the cards, eat the meals and make memories. But how did this merriment come to be? There are lots and lots of reasons, some religious, some not-so-much. But all fascinating, and all culminating in this huge celebration. Over the next couple of days, I hope to share with you some information, some you might know, some you think you know, and some that you didn't know - and hopefully all entertaining. So, without further ado, I present to you the histories and origins of many of our Christmas traditions.
From the dawn of civilization (hey, that sounds like a movie trailer! "From the Dawn of Civilization, comes an epic story 10 Thousand Years in the making!!" ...anyway, sorry for the interruption.)
Okay, from the dawn of civilization when humans first began to write on walls, ("Zog was Here") we humans have had a very special relationship with winter: The days get shorter, the nights get longer, and Mister Sandman floats from rooftop to rooftop. And because the days are shorter, the wind blows bitterly cold, and - in the northern areas of our world at least - the earth became barren and cold, we as humans would turn inward to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Just as animals burrow deep in the ground or find caves and hibernate, we find our own shelter and create shelter for our domesticated animals. During these harsh and bitter months, the smarter of our ancestors noticed that at some point in the year, the sun stops its movement across the sky and begins to "turn around" and shine longer. Because of this, they declared this a holy time and celebrations began cropping up around the Winter Solstice. These celebrations would be the earliest origins of the holiday we now know as Christmas.
As we grew into societies, regardless of permanent settlements or not, the solstice time became more and more elaborate, and so the celebrations did as well. One of the earliest named celebrations came from our Norwegian ancestors. In the bleak midwinter the Norse peoples, afraid that the sun would no longer shine because the days were getting shorter, would find the biggest log they could find in the forest and burn it continuously. (That is they would burn the log, not the forest). This would of course "re-light" the sun, and there was much rejoicing. ("Yay.") They called this celebration "Jul". Now remember that the habit of pronouncing a "J" sound in Norvay, Sveden, or Daenmark is pronounced as a "Y" sound - as in "Yumpin' Yiminey, I yust go nuts at Christmas!" So pronounce the word for a cut tree that's used for "Jul" in proper Norse and what do you get? Yep, you get a Yule Log. This is, as I said, a Norse tradition, and those old Norsemen - comprised of the tribes of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes - came marauding onto the shores of England - thus giving old "Anglo-Saxon" England the holiday tradition of burning a Yule Log.
Speaking of Jul, those old Norse Anglo-Saxons gave us another word to use during this time of the year: Yuletide. We just found out where the word Yule came from, but what exactly is a Yuletide? In those ancient times, the Anglo-Saxon peoples had their own lunar calendars of 29 days each, but each calendar year also had two 60 day periods called "tides". In the ancient Anglo-Saxon calendar, the first tide was called "Litha Tide" and the second one was called, "Jul Tide". Those old Anglo-Saxons continued the original festivities of Jul including the burning of the Jul Log, but they would do so during the 12 day period between First Jul (December) and the After Jul (January). When Christianity was brought into Britannia (the Roman name for Angle-land as it eventually came to be known) these twelve days were celebrated between what eventually became Christmas day (December 25th) and the Feast of the Epiphany, or the Visiting of the Magi or Three Wise Men (January 6th), otherwise known today as... the Twelve Days of Christmas. This is why we still call this the "Yuletide season".
One last bit of trivia: Our English word "Jolly" - which is used ironically quite a bit during this season comes from the very same root word: Jul.
And so, this Jul celebration and it's burning of the wood, er, log, was incorporated into the already existing celebrations as practiced by the existing Celtic peoples of Jolly Old England when the Norsemen arrived. As many other ancient peoples did, The Celts noticed that almost all plants, trees and vegetation "closed for the winter" in their land. Nothing would grow in that harsh environment. Nothing, that is, except for Holly, certain Ivy plants, evergreen trees, mistletoe, and very special roses. Since these Christmas symbols require much more discussion, I will wait for another blog to give those their proper descriptions. But thus began the genesis of their connection to our modern Christmas
I hope you enjoyed today's foray into the inner workings of this amazing holiday. There are many more interesting bits to come. Happy holidays!
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