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Pagan roots run deep beneath our Christmas rituals
It is not clear exactly when the celebration of Advent was first
introduced into the Church, but some theories suggest it is
related to the feast of the winter solstice that was dear to our
pagan ancestors.
This could explain why several strange folk customs still
survive in this period of preparation for Christmas, one such
being Luca’s Day, a popular festival held on Dec 13, and a
remnant from our sun-worshipping past.
In fact, all the religious feasts around the winter solstice
seem to combine elements of the sacred and “profane” – even
Christmas itself.
As found in texts from the year 1038, the late Old English term
for Christmas was Cristes Maesse – the Mass of Christ – but the
Hungarian name for the same festival seems to have very
different roots.
Linguists agree that Karácsony comes from the Slavic word
korcun, which means “passage” and refers to the passing of the
winter solstice, and the beginning of a new cycle.
FEAST RIDICULED
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of what we know
as the Christian Church, however. The first theologians
ridiculed the feast: in the Scriptures it is written that only
sinners – but not saints – celebrate their birthdays.
The very first evidence of the feast comes from Egypt in about
200 AD, and placed Christ’s birthday on the equivalent of May 20
in the 28th year of the reign of Roman Emperor Augustus.
Only from the fourth century on did western calendars make Dec
25 Christ’s birthday, upon an order of Pope Julius I, perhaps in
the hope of imbuing the long-held pagan rituals of winter
solstice with Christian meaning.
The Armenian Christian rite still ignores the December festival
– for Armenians the Lord’s birthday is on Jan 6, when we
celebrate Epiphany – and some Eastern Orthodox Churches
celebrate Christmas on Jan 7, which corresponds to Dec 25 in the
old Julian calendar.
But is our Dec 25 Christmas celebration really a “baptism” of an
archaic pagan feast?
Ancient midwinter festivals may well have guided the choice of
the December date: in the late Roman Empire, people marked
Natalis Invicti or Sol Invuctus (“the Unconquered Sun”) at the
winter solstice, to celebrate the fact that the darkest days
were over and the hours of sunlight were again increasing.
Natalis Invicti, which was celebrated on Dec 25, has a strong
claim to be the direct ancestor of our Christmas Day, and was an
important event for Roman adherents of the popular cult of
Mithras (who, some scholars note, bears similarities to the
figure of Christ). For Romans, Dec 17 also marked the start of
the great Saturnalia festival, commemorating the dedication of
the temple of the god Saturn.
The winter solstice, then, was an important moment in ancient
culture – the new year, and the new life cycle, began here, and
besides the Natalis Invicti of Mithraism and the Roman
Saturnalias, we should mention the Yule feast celebrated at this
time by Norse and German pagans.
Popular beliefs can never correspond exactly to the calendars of
official religion, but it is surely not by chance that the most
important pagan rituals coincide with the time that the birth of
the Lord is drawing near.
The most important evidence of these relics from the old
sun-worshipping religions is to be found nowadays in Luca’s Day.
Celebrated in many cultures all over the world, Luca’s Day in
Hungary is known as the most important feast of the witches,
after St George’s Day.
It cannot be accidental the Church set the Day of St Lucia, or
St Lucy, on Dec 13. Before the introduction of the Gregorian
Calendar in 1582, it fell on Dec 21, the winter solstice and the
shortest day of the year.
Column two
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Consequently, that
night was the longest of the year, when evil spirits and witches
could do their worst. And it can also surely be no accident that the
name itself – Lucia, Luca, Lucy – has its roots in lux, the Latin
word for “light.”
St Lucia was a virgin martyr who, according to one legend, withstood
such extremes of torture that she was suspected of being a witch,
and so was ultimately burnt to death – but perished only after
completing a final prayer.
HUNGARIAN FOLK CUSTOM
In Hungarian folk custom, Luca’s Day is still a time for guessing
the future by various methods, and performing rituals to gain good
luck.
Women’s work is forbidden on Luca’s Day, except for acts aimed at
assuring fertility and richness the following year – or in the next
cycle, as the old pagans had it.
There is also a tradition of starting to build a so-called Luca’s
Chair on Dec 13, and to add a little bit each day so that it is
ready in exactly 12 days, on Dec 25.
At Christmas midnight mass, the person who sits on the chair can
supposedly see through disguises and reveal the witches that are
hiding in the community.
Besides revealing witches – who tradition warns might “steal” the
cow’s milk, the chicken’s eggs, or put a spell on people – it is
very common on Luca’s Day to start trying to guess the identity of
one’s future husband.
Girls make 12 cakes, with a man’s name in each, and they eat one
every day – their future husband’s name will be the one contained in
the last remaining cake.
Luca’s Day symbolizes the rebirth of nature: the partial end of the
old world, and the beginning of the new. Very similar to the old
pagan solar rituals, it is a feast that holds the promise of new
life. The 12 days from Luca’s Day to Christmas can even be seen as a
micro-year: from the events of these days, Hungarians forecast how
the following year’s months will be.
Among the Hungarians of Transylvania, a peculiar method of weather
divination is still popular. They lay out 12 layers of onion –
corresponding to the months of the year to come – and they put salt
on each piece.
If the salt dissolves, that corresponding month will be wet,
tradition says. It is just another ancient ritual that adds to the
richness of this strange and special time.
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