Folks would take cow horns and blast them on the tops of hills to waken people for early mass and heralding the hope of the season, responding to each others calls (Evans 279)(Danaher 243). There are several new moon poems in the carmina gadelica that sings to the moon when it is darkest, just like we are building or solstice traditions to do for the sun.

The solstice is the twice yearly event when the sun appears to be at its highest or lowest point above the horizon. Instead of the £99 it costs tourists to watch sunrise at Stonehenge there will be a community of pagans, druids and assorted curious people gathered at Callanish on the solstice who will not be charged or chaperoned.Maeshowe is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave on Orkney. Especially because we do set liturgies in my grove, the need to differentiate each rite with different features such as tales told, theatre, battles, invocations, and explosive offerings.In Alexei’s The Apple Branch, he presents a feature of solstice rites include the Mari Lwyd approaching the circle or grove, asking permission to enter in search of her child, and goes agro upon entering until is propitiated by a child given a gift symbolizing the child.The Wren’s connection and lore as the King of Birds shows that cunning above force makes a good ruler. These would be held any time within the ten days around Christmas. In county Armagh, a girl might hang a sprig of mistletoe in the doorway and kiss the first man who came in the door, he then would have to buy her a present (234).Crosses were part of Celtic paganism before Christianity and they’ll be part of them afterward. Once he saw that the days were getting longer again he realised that this was the natural cycle of the world, so celebrated.Whatever the exact origins of the rituals we practice this festive season, it does seem that there has been a growth of interest in traditional religions and practices. Other feasts were less homey and more public and generally involved a bit of traveling.You don’t need me to explain this tradition, its one we carry forward to this day.Caroling door to door was popular in several towns, folks often had to be carried home after consuming the liquor offered to them for their singing. Some villages had hurley matches after service. In the northern hemisphere the Winter solstice usually occurs annually between December 20 and December 23. The wrenboys usually had a Hobby Horse, or Láir Bhán, which means White Mare.

This may be re-reflected in the wrenbox that is connected to the top of a pole in wren ceremonies.

Oaks were seen as sacred and the winter fruit of the mistletoe was a symbol of life in the dark winter months. Here in the presence of dying vegetation, evergreens are seen as magic.In Munster, a small cross was made from tying holly to wood in the shape of a cross. Except for Church, folks stayed in. A new moon on Christmas Eve was considered a very lucky omen (240). At Winter solstice, the universal theme is the increase and acceleration toward darkness and the loss of light. The use of fire to mark the winter solstice may have contributed to the more recent Irish tradition of placing a candle in the window of your house during the twelve days of the Christmas season. We don’t have to go all out, just do what we can, it makes you feel good.Successful farmers usually slaughtered a bullock, a calf, a pick, or a sheep a few days before the feast day, sending portions to workhands, friends, and poorer neighbors along with eggs, butter and milk and fuel.If you hunt, this tradition is for you because you can give away all the deer sausage you want to people. Other households put them out before bed. This would also seem related to another Child of Light, little Lugh, who slayed his grandfather an Earth or Sea Giant, and by doing so attained rulership over all the other gods for a time. Joins are different than raffle games as in they are more like parties for all audiences. If the coinneal mór, or big candle, went out before it exhausted the wax, it was considered a bad omen of the death of the head of the household. We color within the lines here.The Christmas dinner was of the most focus and the largest of the year (Danaher 241). We would then be sane to believe that it is this great power of darkness is transformed, and being liminally juxtaposed, becomes winters own undoing. This to me speaks to the liminality principle in The 6th night of the moon ritual from Gaul would seem to confirm this. At the market, folks would sell their produce and procure their christmas purchases with the boon. Although Alexei claims that in rural areas, it used to be more of a public affair involving ceilidhe with songs and music, drinking, divinations, and parties (Kondratiev 134). We could practice this day centering it around procuring the seasonal spirit toward the effort of invoking the season.We could pull out the decorations when return from the market to aid in this accomplishment. The Winter Solstice falls on the 21st of December. In Killarney, nothing smaller than a 6lb candle was acceptable for this (279). We can pay for strangers food behind us in the fast food line. Remember these are Christian traditions for Christmas, so I recommend increasing prayer before all holidays; and while it is very auspicious to amp up your piety for the most important holidays, like Samhain and Bealtaine too, winter darkness is great for storytelling and prayers(Rees 12-13).A number of days before the festival, the home and farm was thoroughly cleaned(233). Mothers would give their children starch and whitening to whiten the berries on the garland(234). Nowadays at this time of year it is normal that people’s attention turns to celebrating Christmas, however, the ritual and history surrounding the solstice in this country and all over Europe, predate the arrival of Christianity by thousands of years and many festive celebrations have been adapted from much earlier traditions.The ancient people of northern Europe were hunter gatherers, many of whom worshipped the sun.

Thanks to modern technology it is possible to experience a small part of what the original solstice celebrants must have envisioned.

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