Christmas Day at midnight

Christmas Day itself was dominated by the great processional services of the Church which began at midnight. But in rural areas where hints of the practices of a more ancient pagan midwinter festival survived, cleansing and fortune-telling rites took place on Christmas Eve.
– Maggie Black, WI Calendar of Feasts

The Christian celebration of Christmastime has been modified with passage through the centuries from a time when the whole Christian year was a seamless cycle of religious feasts and fasts. Yet in fact, remnants of pre-Christian or pagan celebrations are still faintly visible in symbols and customs that have survived to this day.

The Latin word adventus signifies “coming” and in the Christian church, it is a time for spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Nativity (or birth) of Jesus. Perhaps the first mention of a Christian season corresponding to Advent is in a book of History of Franks, sometime around 480 AD, by St. Gregory of Tours. In that book, Gregory mentions that beginning on Martinmas (The Feast of St. Martin, November 11), fasting should be observed on the second, fourth and sixth days of the week until Christmas.

By the ninth century, the 40 days of Advent penance and intermittent fasting had been reduced to simple abstinence for the four weeks leading up to Christmas (Christ’s Mass). Over the centuries, even abstinence has been relaxed, except perhaps in monasteries, and yet the general character of the liturgy of Advent has remained more or less unchanged. Now, as it has for roughly a thousand years, Advent begins on the Sunday closest to November 30th – the feast day of Andrew the Apostle, Palm Sunday – and continues for the next three Sundays.

As they had from the earliest of times, herbs figured prominently throughout Advent: in decoration, for health and in food. Juniper (Juniperus communis) is a symbol of life and hope, and as the traditional evergreen of the sanctuary, it was used for wreaths and garlands. The pomegranate (Prunica granata), which appears in our supermarkets around the time of the Feast of St. Andrews, has been considered a sacred plant from antiquity, the juice being made into a spiced wine. Probably the most popular Advent herb is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) used as a strewing herb for holy places and remains a symbol of remembrance, love and loyalty. Along with rosemary, thyme (Thymus vulgaris), bedstraw, pennyroyal, horehound and rue, were “manger herbs”. Thyme and sage (Salvia officinalis) were used as preservatives in food and as smudging herbs to cleanse holy places.

Many traditional symbols, rites, festivals, feasts and holidays can be traced back to pagan celebrations because to make the transition easier, early Christians simply superimposed their symbols and themes upon older traditional fetes. Indeed, from ancient Scandinavia (the origin of so many English customs) comes a magnificent festival in honour of the god Thor. This festival called Yule (or Yeol) began with winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year, and ended 13 days later, usually around January 6 (called “Twelfth Night” by Christians). The Venerable Bede referred to Yule as “Mother Night”, it is thought, in reference to the honouring of female ancestral spirits.

Being a major fire festival, fires or candles burned throughout Yule and the Yule log was kindled from the remains of the previous year’s ash or oak log, believed to protect a home all year. Because it grew on their sacred oak trees, mistletoe figured prominently in Druid rites and celebrations and in ancient Rome during the Saturnalia festival, pine trees were decorated with images of Baccus. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when decorated pine trees first graced the Christmas parlour, but it is thought that Martin Luther may have been the first to decorate a tree with candles at Riga in Latvia around 1510.

Food has always figured prominently in midwinter celebrations and for Advent, feasts were a major part of the tradition. Stuffed goose was the first choice for St. Martin’s Feast (Michelmas) with beef and pork close seconds. On the other hand, St. Andrew, being a fisherman from Bethsaida, inspired a simple celebration with boiled fish and scones marked with the saint’s X-shaped cross. Yule foods always included sweet buns with dried fruit, currants and raisins. Our recipes make up a modern Advent Feast that reflects ancient celebrations of the Celts and Druids and helps keep the focus on surviving values of family, honouring the Ancestors, making holy oaths and peace.