The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year (29 page)

If Svatý Mikulaš, the Czech St. Nicholas, decides you

have been naughty, he will turn you over to the goat-hoofed demon Čert who will drag you all the way down to Hell.

Advent Thursdays

Advent candles are lit on the four Sundays preceding

Christmas. (If Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, it doubles as Fourth Advent.) The last three Thursdays of Advent were dedicated to Yuletide goddess/witch Berchta and her retinue. This was the time to scare evil spirits out from under the eaves by banging on pots and pans, playing fiddles and throwing dried legumes. Spinning is forbidden on these

nights.

In the Middle Ages, Advent, like Lent, was a season of

abstinence. Sex at any time during Advent might result in a child who would eventually become a werewolf.

December 9: St. Anne’s Day

In Sweden, the arrival of St. Anne’s Day meant it was time to start reconstituting the dried cod that would be served on Christmas Eve. St. Anne is also popular with the Finns

240 Addendum

who have conflated Jesus’ maternal grandmother with their

own female forest spirit, Annikki. Today, Finnish women

begin baking their Christmas loaves which will serve as

centerpieces and, like the Swedish Yule Boar, ensure pros-

perity in the coming year.

December 12: St. Lucy’s Eve

As well as marking the Old Style winter solstice, St. Lucy’s Day was an Ember Day, or day of fasting, beginning the

night before.

It’s not yet time to deck the halls but to dust, scrub and polish them in preparation for a visit from one of the many cross-dressing Slavic and Germanic Lucy’s.

On St. Lucy’s Eve, young men might read their futures

in the
Luzieschein,
balls of light dancing over the rooftops.

If you’ve started making Icelandic snowflake breads,

better hide them from the ravenous Yule Lads, the first of whom arrives today.

December 13: St. Lucy’s Day

Having survived the erstwhile darkest night of the year,

you can get up early and celebrate Swedish style with “Lucy cats,” coffee and candlelight.

December 20: St. Thomas’ Eve

In that region of the Czech Republic formerly known as

Bohemia, this was not a good night to venture into the

churchyard. At the stroke of twelve, all those who were

called Thomas in life rose from their graves to be blessed by the dead saint himself whose approach was heralded by

Addendum 241

the rumbling of his chariot wheels. At home, salt and holy water were cast about to petition the Apostle—Thor or

Wodan in disguise?—for his protection.

Poor English children who went “a-thomassing,” beg-

ging door to door on this night, were appeased with small

change. In return, they handed out blessings in the form of holly and mistletoe sprigs.

Meanwhile, on the isle of Guernsey, will-o’-the-wisps,

spectral dogs and white rabbits (who were probably witches in disguise) were also about after dark. They haunted all the nights between St. Thomas’ and New Year’s Eve.

December 23

On this date in 1893, Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy opera,
Hansel and Gretel
was performed for the first time.

December 24: Christmas Eve

Many Europeans are only just putting up their Christmas

trees today. In some places, the Christ Child himself will bring the tree, in others, he/she will only light the candles.

Forget cookies for Santa; in Greece, tonight was the

night to stuff the chimney full of pork sausages and sweetmeats for the kallikantzaroi. Try not to give birth today; a child born on Christmas Eve stands a good chance of

becoming a kallikantzaros himself.

You should also put out some grain for the Yule Buck,

fish heads for the Yule Boar and, most importantly, don’t

forget the resident household sprite’s annual bowl of rice porridge.

242 Addendum

If you are staying home alone tonight, try not to fall

asleep, and do not speak, no matter who or what comes in

the door.

On Christmas Eve in Lithuania, unmarried young men

and women might turn to catoptromancy, or mirror magic,

to identify their future spouses. Banding together, they took a mirror to an abandoned (Shall we read haunted?) house

and lit two candles before it. The mirror would fog up, presumably from all that excited breathing going on in the

unheated parlor, and as each participant wiped the mirror

in turn, he or she would see the face of the person in question.

Christmas Eve was one of two nights of the year on

which seals were most likely to shed their skins and appear in human form. The other was Midsummer’s Eve.

December 25: Christmas Day

Reckoned by some as the First Day of Christmas (for oth-

ers it is December 26), this is a relatively quiet day, supernaturally speaking. Scandinavians leaving for church before sunrise fit plenty of torches onto the sleigh to scare off any homeward bound trolls they met along the way.

Holly picked today will keep witches away.

December 25 (or 26) to January 5 (or 6). The Twelve Days

(and Nights) of Christmas.

Do many of your neighbors go away over the Twelve Days

of Christmas? If you notice a preponderance of wolves in

the neighborhood at this time, then they probably haven’t

gone away at all; they’ve simply assumed lupine form, as

Addendum 243

werewolves are famous for doing between Christmas and

Epiphany. Children born during the Twelve Days of Christ-

mas may become werewolves themselves.

In Alpine lands, these are the Smoky/Hairy/Rough

Nights. Smudge all rooms of the house with incense or

juniper boughs to smoke out the rough, hairy monsters

abounding at this time.

December 31: New Year’s Eve

This is Moving Night for Icelandic elves, so keep the Christmas lights twinkling and leave offerings of food outside the house. Those who decide to Sit Out at the crossroads and

question the elves do so at their own risk.

Another curious feature of the old Icelandic New Year’s

Eve was “pantry drift:” a magical white frost that trickled in through the pantry window, if it were left open, on the last night of the year. Pantry drift was supposed to taste like sugar and bring good fortune. If you wanted to partake of

it, you had to stay up all night in the pantry and collect it in a pot. A cross had then to be placed over the mouth of the pot or the “drift” would disappear.

Midnight on New Year’s Eve was the hour when a Finn-

ish maiden might gaze into a candlelit mirror or, better yet, two mirrors placed opposite each other on a black cloth.

There, she would hope to see the image of her future hus-

band wandering in the uncertain light.

Stroke a piglet tonight and you’ll have good luck all next year.

Float a fresh ivy leaf in water inside a soup tureen on

New Year’s Eve. Put the lid on and don’t disturb it until

244 Addendum

Twelfth Night (January 6). If the leaf remains green, you

can look forward to a healthy year. If it is spotted, take comfort in the fact that reading ivy leaves is a notoriously unpredictable method of predicting the future

January 1: New Year’s Day

Be careful whom you let in the door first today. If you plan to interview first-footers ahead of time, look for tall, dark, handsome men, and remember to ask them if they were

born feet first. Redheads need not apply.

Of course, if you can possibly arrange to have your

chimney cleaned first thing today, that would be the best

luck of all.

January 5: Epiphany Eve

Epiphany Eve is generally but not universally synonymous

with Twelfth Night. If you counted Christmas Day as the

First Day of Christmas, then Twelfth Night will fall on the night of January 5. If, however, you didn’t receive your par-tridge in a pear tree until December 26, then Twelfth Night is January 6.

At Epiphany, homeowners in eastern and central Europe

chalk a magically protective formula over the doors of their homes. It consists of the century followed by the initials of the Three Kings, Kaspar, Melchior and Balthasar, ending

with the year, e.g. 20K + M + B13. Before the Three Kings

rose to fame, it was the Drudenfuss or pentagram that was

chalked on the lintel.

In Lithuania, the girl who could stare at the moon’s

face for a full hour on the Eve of Epiphany, then wash for
Addendum 245

another hour before retiring to bed would be rewarded by a visit from a white ghost. The ghost would answer whatever

questions she cared to ask it, including, no doubt, whom

she would marry and when.

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside again,

the NordicYule Buck is back, capering behind the Star Boys in the village street.

Any lingering elves should be moving along today. Take

down your Christmas decorations and they’ll probably take

the hint.

If your stocking wasn’t filled on Christmas Eve you can

hang it up tonight and the Italian witch Befana will do the job.

Stick to fish, pancakes, or dumplings for dinner on

Epiphany Eve or run the risk of Frau Berchta coming and

slitting open your stomach.

If you have apple trees, anoint the roots of the oldest

one with hard cider. Pinch off any unseasonal blossoms but leave one apple on the tree for the fairies or the Apple-Tree Man.

January 6: Epiphany or Twelfth Night

Today is
Perchtentag
in Austria. Represented by both her pretty and ugly servants, our White Witch, Perchta, has her last hurrah.

January 13: St. Knut’s Day

Scandinavians take down their Christmas trees today. The

Yule Buck comes knocking once more in the form of
Nut-

246 Addendum

tipukki
, the Finnish St. Knut’s Day Goat-man. Offer him beer in return for a final blessing.

February 2: Candlemas

This is your very last chance to take down your Christmas

decorations, green or otherwise. If you keep them up any

longer, then you probably deserve anything the goblins can dish out!

St. Tibb’s Eve

If you’ve made it through the whole Christmas season and

still haven’t seen any witches, best to go home and wait for St. Tibb’s Eve.

Glossary

aspergillum
: a sort of holy watering can or wand. The original meaning of the word “aspersion” was a sprinkling

or scattering of water or dust. The purpose of an asper-

gillum is to cast holy water, not aspersions, over church, altar, home and people alike. An aspergillum may be a

fancy vessel or be as simple as a brush or leafy twig for

dipping in the water.

aurora borealis
: Latin, “dawn of the north wind.” See
northern lights
.

Balkans
: mountainous region north of Greece containing the nations of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia,

Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The Bal-

kan languages belong to the South Slavic family, except

for Albanian, which is descended from ancient Illyrian.

Baltic
: area of northeastern Europe at the easternmost end of the Baltic Sea. Although Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Poland have their own stretches of Baltic coast-

line, the term is used to refer to the language, traditions
247

248 Glossary

and ancient religions of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Estonian, like Sami, belongs to the Finno-Ugric family

of languages, while Latvian and Lithuanian cling to their

own ancient branch of the Indo-European family tree,

Baltic.

boggart
: tutelary, and sometimes troublesome, English house ghost, most often heard but not seen.

box
: evergreen shrub with tiny, shiny green leaves that lends itself especially well to topiary. The kind you are probably used to seeing at the edges of well-kept garden paths

is actually the slow-growing dwarf or “Dutch” variety;

non-dwarf varieties of
Buxus sempervirens
can grow to thirty feet. In addition to votive figures, the wood, which is smooth and hard, was used to make lutes, printing

blocks and—you guessed it—boxes.

broom
: the Common or Scotch Broom,
Cytisus scoparius
, whose yellow flowers brighten the moors in springtime.

Just as boxes were once made from boxwood, brooms

were often bundles of broom twigs. Meanwhile, “Butch-

er’s Broom,”
Ruscus aculeatus,
a.k.a “Box Holly” was sometimes commandeered as a Christmas green because

it bore red berries in December.

Counter-Reformation
: the Catholic Church’s answer to the Protestant Reformation. Also known as the “Catholic

Revival,” it lasted from 1542 to 1648 and focused on the

proper education of priests as well as a return to spirituality and mysticism. See also
Reformation
.

creosote
: the deposit left behind by the burning of wood or coal.

Glossary 249

distaff
: a stick which, in the thread-making process, acts as the hand-spinner’s third hand. The distaff holds the fluff of unspun fibers which the spinner draws out and feeds

to the whirling spindle controlled by the other hand.

The distaff eventually became part of that new-fangled

invention, the spinning wheel, but hand-held distaffs

and spindles remained in use for a long time because

they were portable: you can’t take a spinning wheel into

the pasture or along the road to market.

Elizabethan
: pertaining to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I who ruled England from 1558 to 1603.