With a hot fairy in front of me and my witch in the back of my head, I am looking at the dark blue sky and feel almost equipped to face it. „Don‘t forget the crazy mouse“, my witch giggles and pours us another cup. Having the choice between vanilla or hazelnut, I feel memories of past Decembers flooding my senses. Of snow and of lights and music in the dark – I am talking about winter traditions in this post.
Whenever I hear someone complain about winter traditions, I mostly have to wonder. Why is it such a surprise or even a sarcastic comment that decorating a Christmas tree counts as magic? And why is preparing gifts for each other only seen as a burden? There are countless winter solstice tradition in the world. Some of them lost in time, some of them still known in reshaped versions – what they all seem to have in common is the need to encounter this day with something special. Something warm and nice. Something to look forward to.
I think that alone is a warm and nice thought, especially when you live in one of those parts of the earth where it is getting dark after noon these days.
When with the beginning of autumn the night sky changes towards its winter configuration, for me it means that Orion rises in the south in early evening, and it tends to make me nervous. I think of icy cold air that is not good for my very sensitive skin. I think of vitamin pills and family meetings, and I know that the next couple of months are going to be tough. Actually, very recently I have had the honor to explain to a friend who lives close to the equator what kind of measures we take to fight the darkness, and he was quite impressed!
So, let‘s take a closer look at this!
What is the magic of Christmas trees about?
The tradition of taking branches of fir trees to the inside seems to be a fairly old one. They date back to ancient, pagan times in northern Europe. Maybe the everlasting green of the fir trees were a symbol of hope and of endurance? A reminder that the cold and dark is not going to stay? An attempt to chase the evil spirits away?
Some suspicions go into that direction. And this kind of thinking survived through medieval times, until in supposedly the 15th or 16th century whole trees were put on market places to light the nights.
Really?! This kind of magical thinking in times when the witches were burning in central Europe?
My witch and I don‘t find this surprising at all. I see her giggle into her cup full of crazy mouse, as she begins to tell. „We also put out a little plate with bread crumbs for invisible visitors at night“, she giggles. „Or at least the maid did for all of us.“ Now she looks more serious. „We used the bright and boring kind of magic to protect ourselves from witches“, she admitted, and I am reminded of putting out a plate of cookies in a special night …
And she is right. Known gestures, such as doing the cross where seen as good spells, as something that helps to keep the evil away. Back in the days my witch lived, that was not put into question. Words, gestures, recipes were believed to have an effect on this world, and it better be a nice one rather than an evil one!
In times like these, I can draw strength from this kind of thinking.
I don‘t believe in god, and I definitely don‘t feel like celebrating the birth of Baby Jesus, and still I have always had a love for certain winter traditions. I love the Christmas markets in Germany, that last from the middle of November to Christmas or even early January. I love buying handcrafted things as presents, eat things I only eat once a year. I love music and lights in the dark, and of course, buying flavoured Coffee Beans at one of my favourite markets. And also historically, the date for Christmas of course has nothing to do with any special Baby being born on exactly that day. It was more of an attempt to overwrite already existing pagan holidays with this new, christian one. As harsh as this might seem from our point of view today, the survival of the Christmas tree seems even more deserved now, don’t you think?
This point in time, when the northern half of the earth is as far away from the sun as possible, seems to be an occasion for a lot of traditions in each culture around the earth. The longest nights call for a reminder that the light is going to come back, as well as for activities to lift up the soul until it actually does.
This is my favourite kind of magic, because it actually works. Tricking my soul into being awake and alive through sweets, fairy lights and flavoured coffee until the days are long again is my challenge for now. Lately, the music of Grimes is my favourite thing to speed up my thoughts and Layla giggles as I turn the volume up while she pours me another cup of hot fairy.
Vanilla, hazelnut and two girls dancing through their kitchen at night – magic is real indeed.
https://www.space.com/winter-solstice
https://www.nationalgeographic.de/geschichte-und-kultur/2020/12/warum-gibt-es-weihnachtbaeume-die-geschichte-hinter-der-gruenen
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/feste-zur-wintersonnenwende-100.html
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/germanisches-neuheidentum-wer-hat-weihnachten-geklaut-100.html
Mistress witch writes 