Sacred Tree - Louise McClary

This is the time of the year when we look forward to the Winter Solstice, around 21st December, otherwise called the festival of Yule (the child), or Alban Arthan. It is mid-winter, the Goddess sleeps while the dark God rules supreme. However, the Sun God is now reborn as the Mabon, the child of promise, the future Sun God. The Oak King defeats the Holly King, and the days begin to grow longer. The Yule log is lit, gifts are exchanged and much feasting is enjoyed. Evergreen foliage is brought into the house as a reminder that nature lives on through the dark days of the year.

As Pagans it is easy to 'pooh-pooh' the Christian celebrations at this time of the year. After all, the church did not get around to deciding the date of the birth of Christ until the early fourth century. However we must not forget that in their enthusiasm to eclipse existing Pagan practises and festivals, the early Church fathers succeeded unwittingly in preserving some vestiges of the Old religion.

Just as Imperial Rome had a pragmatic approach to the existing religions of its conquered subjects, the early Church of Rome realised the importance of existing religious festivals and sought to reinterpret them as part of their new cult of Christ.

December the 25th, the date chosen for the nativity was originally the major festival of Natalis Solis Invicti 'the Birthday of the Invincible Sun God' in the Mithraic religion. It is important to realise that but for the temporary conversion of the Emperor Constantine (he reverted to Paganism on his death bed), Mithraism could easily have become the major religion of Europe (It had been declared the state religion of Rome in 274 CE by the Emperor Auralian).

The fact is that while birthdays were generally regarded as unimportant, and most people were unaware of their own birth date, the Church desperately needed a festival around the end of the calendar year to rival the Pagan solstice celebrations which were enjoyed so avidly by the rural population.

An alternative date used for the birth of Christ before December 25th became official was January 6th, which was already an ancient Egyptian festival day celebrated in Alexandria. It was a date around which the waters of the Nile frequently flooded the surrounding plain, bringing fertility to the land. Significantly, the God Aeon whose birthday was celebrated on this day was born to a virgin (Kore) at the time of a rising star in the sky (sounds familiar?).

January the 6th was eventually adopted as the Christian feast of Epiphany, to commemorate the time when the Magi found the infant Christ at the place where the star stood still. It also commemorates the baptism of Christ and the turning of water into wine at Cana, which has obvious references to the Egyptian festival in which water brings forth the bounty of the earth.

While the 'Christianization' of Pagan festivals preserved the dates of their observance, and sometimes, like Easter, even the names, the connection with divine nature was broken. This was however not obviously apparent to the majority of the population who even when nominally Christian still retained a reverence for nature, a simple rural paganism which involved the honouring of the land and marking the turning of the year with folk festivals and customs which echoed the religious observance of the past. Mediaeval Catholicism seemed to be tolerant of many peasant customs which while presented under a veneer of Christian observance had a certain 'otherness' about them which is hard to define. In the Puritan era most of these were branded as the Devil's work and outlawed, but many were so firmly a part of the social calendar in rural areas that they either survived 'underground' for a time or were revived in more enlightened times.

A local example of this is the Wassailing of apple trees which takes place around January 6th, notably at the village of Waldron, near Horam. Could it be that in the action of pouring a libation over the roots of an apple tree to wish it a success in the next harvest, and a prosperous year for the farmer, there is a faint echo of the Nile spilling over the levee bringing fertility to the crops in the coming year, a natural phenomenon which if it failed to occur would have brought disaster to the Alexandrian economy?

Some modern Yuletide customs, such as the use of mistletoe can be traced back a very long way (mistletoe is mentioned by Roman writers as being a sacred plant of the Druids). Others, such as decorating a tree date from Victorian times, and yet the habit of bringing evergreen foliage (particularly holly and ivy) into the home at this time of year is an ancient custom (it is still sometimes banned in churches), and the act of lighting candles on the tree can surely be said to be related to the coming of the light at the solstice, the birth of the Sun God.

The Yuletide feasting and merry making are obviously celebratory acts which would have been a feature of all festivals, whether Christian or Pagan, but the lighting of the Yule log (or in some traditions the Yule Candle) may hark back to the pre-Christian era. The essential feature of this tradition is that the log or candle is lit from a remnant of the previous year's, and not allowed to go out during the festivities. This has a certain resonance for modern Pagans, Yule being a festival of the returning light and the eternal mystery of the turning of the year. The Yule log is still very popular in the West Country, and though few modern houses boast a big enough hearth to burn such a large piece of tree it may be seen in many village inns around the countryside.

Present day festivities, with the emphasis on consumption, present giving and children are largely the work (some would say fault!) of the Victorians who reinvented the festival as a kind of 'Merrie England' revival. Father Christmas, previously having appeared as a sort of Lord of Misrule in mediaeval England, or as the presenter of Mumming plays now appears as a large, bearded, bibulous fellow, interestingly usually wreathed in holly after the fashion of the Holly King in the modern Pagan tradition. The Victorians also imported the Christmas tree custom from Germany and invented the Christmas card. Present giving, formerly a dwindling New Year tradition was revived in a big way and the phrase 'Christmas Shopping' first appeared in the language along with the first department stores.

Santa Claus, now conflated with Father Christmas was imported to America in the late nineteenth century from German and Dutch tradition. St Nicholas was originally a 4th century saint from Turkey who was noted for his benevolence towards children. He was usually depicted dressed as a Dutch peasant, until he was popularised by Clement Clark Moore's poem 'The Night Before Christmas' in 1822, which had him dressed in furs, smoking a pipe and riding a reindeer sledge full of toys. The diminutive form of his name, Santa Claus first appears in the 1860s. An advertising campaign for Coca-Cola in 1931 fixed his image for all time in the public imagination wearing red, fur trimmed robes and a droopy elf-like hat. The artist Haddon Sundblom was probably influenced by the folklore surrounding elves and gnomes in his native Sweden. Scandinavian influence also produced the idea of his home being at the North Pole. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer dates from 1949, a character in a song by Johnny Marks.

However you celebrate your Yule,

                        HAVE A GOOD ONE!

References:
A Dictionary of English Folklore by Jaqueline Simpson & Steve Roud
Sacred Origins of Profound Things by Charles Panati
Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton