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reetings from Australia. 

Welcome to this Red-Letter Day. Below you will find today's global celebrations, birthdays and events.

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Carpe diem! (Seize the day!)

Pip Wilson

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Today is

And the very night that is sacrosanct to us these people call modranect, that is, the mothers' night, a name bestowed, I suspect, on account of the ceremonies which they performed while watching this night through.
Venerable Bede, (c. 672 - May 25, 735 CE), writing c. 730

Take no scorn to wear the horn
It was the crest when you were born
Your father's father wore it
And your father wore it too
 
Robin Hood and Little John
Have both gone to the fair-o
and we will to the merry green wood
To hunt the buck and hare-o
'Hal-n-Tow' (traditional)

Here he comes with flaming bowl,
Don't he mean to take his toll,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!

Take care you don't take too much,
Be not greedy in your clutch,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!

With his blue and lapping tongue
Many of you will be stung,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!

For he snaps at all that comes
Snatching at his feast of plums,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!

But Old Christmas makes him come,
Though he looks so fee! fa! fum!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!

Don't 'ee fear him but be bold —
Out he goes his flames are cold,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
Folksong for the Snapdragon parlour game formerly played in Britian on Christmas Eve; Robert Chambers, (Ed.), The Book of Days: A miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, etc, W & R Chambers, London, 1881 (1879 Edition is online and 1869 edition here with CD-ROM available; See also The English Year: A Personal Selection from Chambers's Book of Days)

I'll swear him guilty.
I swallow oaths as easy as snap-dragon,
Mock-fire that never burns.
John Dryden; The Duke of Guise (1683)

And Robin Hood he to the green wood,
  And there he was taken ill.
And he sent for a monk, to let him blood
  Who took his life away;
Now this being done, his archers did run,
  It was not time to stay.
Old English ballad; one tradition says Robin Hood died on this day, 1247

"I never hurt fair maid in all my time,
  Nor at my end shall it be;
But give me my bent bow in my hand,
  And a broad arrow I'll let flee;
And where this arrow is taken up,
  There shall my grave diggèd be."
Robin Hood; Old English ballad

Christ have mercy on his soul,
That died on the rood.
For he was a good outlaw,
And did poor men much good.
'Husbandman's Song'; on Robin Hood

Ghosts never appear on Christmas Eve.
English traditional proverb

This night (you may my Almanack be)
Is the return of famous Christmas-eve:
Ye virgins then your cleanly rooms prepare,
And let the windows bays and Laurels wear;
Your Rosemary preserve to dress your Beef,
Nor forget me, which I advise in chief.
Author unknown, pre-1826

To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds.
St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, born on this day in 1491, 'Prayer for Generosity'

Come bring the noise,
My merry, merry boys,
The Christmas log to the firing;
While my good dame, she
Bids ye all be free,
And drink to your heart's desiring.

With the last year's brand
Light the new block, and
For good success in his spending,
On your psalteries play,
That sweet luck may
Come while the log is a-teending.

Drink now the strong beer,
Cut the white loaf here,
The while the meat is a shredding
For the rare mince-pie
And the plums standing by,
To fill the paste that's a kneeding.
Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674), English poet; 'Hesperides', 1648. Poem 1 of 7 from Christmas Poems of Herrick. A 'psaltrie' ('psaltery') is a stringed musical instrument of the harp or the zither family; 'teending' means kindling.

Habit with him was the test of truth,
"It must be right: I've done it from my youth."
George Crabbe, English poet, born December 24, 1754, The Borough, Letter iii, 'The Vicar', 138

On Christmas Eve the bells were rung;
On Christmas Eve the mass was sung;
That only night, in all the year,
Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear.
Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832), Scottish writer; 'Marmion'

I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.
Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), English novelist; in a letter, December 24, 1798

Not deep the poet sees, but wide.
Matthew Arnold, English poet, born on December 24, 1822; 'Resignation'

Culture is the passion for sweetness and light, and (what is more) the passion for making them prevail.
Matthew Arnold; 'Literature and Dogma'

Whoever does not eat well on Christmas Eve will have night visions of demons.
Old German Protestant proverb

One writes my autographs all day for my admirers, the other receives the flowers that are left really every ten minutes. A third whose hair resembles mine is obliged to send off locks of his own hair to the myriad maidens of the city, and so is rapidly becoming bald.
Oscar Wilde, Irish writer, in a letter home from the American lecture tour for which he embarked on December 24, 1891, boasting that he needed three secretaries to attend to the adulation of his American audiences

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse ...
'A Visit from St Nicholas' (aka 'The Night Before Christmas'), allegedly by Clement Moore, perhaps by Major Henry Livingston Jr  

Christmas carols lyrics

You may just think I am a red Jew son-of-a-bitch, but I'm keeping Thomas Jefferson alive.
IF Stone, progressive American journalist, born on December 24, 1907

Note: The solstice (Yule) can occur either on December 21 or 22. 
In the Book of Days, our information is on December 22.

Are you looking for more origins and folklore of Yuletide?
Click for the big Christmas page at the Scriptorium

December 24 is the 358^th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (359^th in leap years), with 7 days remaining.
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Modresnach – The Mothers' Night

This is a Germanic/Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon annual commemoration, an Odinist Midwinter festival held approximately on this date*, many practices of which can still be found in our Christmas traditions.

We know about it from the Venerable Bede (c. 672 - 735), a medieval monk, author and scholar, whose best-known work is Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Writing about the customs of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, Bede mentions their practice of celebrating a holiday he called "Modranicht" or "Modresnacht" on the eve of Christmas. (Modresnach is another spelling and seems the most commonly used, at least on the Internet.) Bede, writing in 730, informs us that Modresnach was the most important pagan festival in 8^th-Century Britain. Bede referred to this time of Yuletide celebration as 'Kilderdaag' – the time of slaughtering (animals for the feast – often a pig).

From the little we know, it seems that motherhood was celebrated on this night, and it had a divinatory function as well. It was apparently believed that dreams on this night foretold events of the year to come.

Traditionally, pine or other evergreen trees are decorated tonight to represent the tree of life. The decorated evergreen tree symbolises the Tree of Life, or Yggdrasil (World Tree). In Norse Mythology, Yggdrasil was a gigantic ash tree, thought to hold all of the different worlds: such as Asgard, Midgard, Utgard and Hel. Like Jesus on the Cross (often called 'the Tree' in the Christian tradition), Odin suffered on Yggdrasil.

Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days

The star on the Christmas tree

The star at the top of the Modresnach tree represents the pole star of the Star God or Goddess. Feasts and gift-giving were in honour of the bounties given by the Mother Goddesses to their human children. According to German folklore, at around this time a Yuletide witch known as Lutzelfrau flies through the sky on her broom, bringing mischief to mortals who neglect to honour her with small gifts.

Perchta is another witch of Germanic Yuletide. In the southernmost areas of Germany, children traditionally carry masks and carry a broom (besom), while going from door in door begging gifts in the name of Perchta.  

In the Orkney Islands, tonight was called Helya's Night – the night the children of the household were committed into the protection of 'Midder Mary' – Mother Mary, the Virgin Mary. This name superseded the older name of Modresnach. Perhaps Helya is a corruption of the Old Norse heilagr meaning holy.

In an old custom from the Orkneys, a mother would raise her hands over a slumbering infant, speaking these words:

Mary Midder had de haund
Ower aboot for sleepin-baund
Had da lass an' had da wife,
Had da bairn a' its life.
Mary Midder had de haund.
Roond da infants o' wur land.

These words would be repeated over all the children.  

Yule was greeted in Orkney households that were especially clean and tidy. This need for tidiness may have been connected to the fact that the trows were rife at Yule. These creatures were known to despise untidiness in a house – harking back to their original role as spirits of the dead. Three burning coals were dropped into water, lest the trows "take the power o' feet or hands". Also, a round oatcake was prepared for each of the children in the family; these 'Yule cakes' might have symbolised the sun.

Across many cultures, motherhood is commemorated in the guise of such deities as Mary, Isis, Yemaya and the Three Mothers (Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Parvati).

* Sources vary. Formerly, I had this at December 20, but based on the Venerable Bede's reference I have placed it at December 24.

"It is important to note that both the Anglo-Saxon word 'modra-(niht)' and the Latin 'matrum' are in the plural, not the singular. Modern Heathens often celebrate this holiday primarily as 'Mother Night,' conceived of as being the night the year is born, the solstice tide. This is very beautiful imagery, and certainly a most fitting way to celebrate this event. But we should not lose sight of the fact that the Anglian holy tide described by Bede was very clearly the 'Night of the Mothers', --what would in Scandinavian countries be called the disablot, Disting, or festival of the disir, the tribal soul-mothers. It is also clear that, since the festival is described as a sacrifice, it was intended primarily for the deceased mothers more than the living ones: the mothers who have gone through and past death to become sources of wisdom and soul-might for their living folk. Thus, while indeed it makes perfect sense to celebrate the solstice with the imagery of Mothernight, and honor today's living mothers, there is no question that the tribal soul-mothers are the ones who should receive highest mindfulness and honor on this holy night."
Matrons and Disir: The Heathen Tribal Mothers

The Disir (maternal guardian deities) and the Disting (Disablot, Disirblot) celebration in the Book of Days

Origins of the Christmas tree

The old Roman Saturnalian greening of the temple soon led to church decorations at Christmas (in old church calendars, Christmas eve is marked 'Templa exornantur': churches are decked) and eventually the Christmas wreath and tree emerged. The latter had an interesting path down the centuries to modern homes. Tradition has it that St Boniface in the eighth century substituted a fir tree for the pagan oak, as a symbol of the faith. While Church reformers often turned their zeal and malice towards "idolatrous" practices, Martin Luther fostered the ancient Christmas tree cult by using a candlelit tree as a representation of Christ's home, the starlit heavens. Fir trees decorated with candles, apples, fruits and paper flowers were introduced by German immigrants into Britain, and popularised later in the 19^th Century by Prince Albert, the German-born consort of Queen Victoria.

"Christmas Trees and Maypoles are remnants of the Scandinavian Ash, called Yggdrasil, the Tree of Time, whose roots penetrate to heaven, Niffheim and Ginnungagap (the gap of gaps). In Ginnungagap the frost giants dwell, in Niffheim is the great serpent Nidhögg; and under this root is Helheim, the home of the dead.

"We are told that the ancient Egyptians, at the Winter Solstice, used a palm branch containing twelve leaves or shoots to symbolise the 'completion of the year.' [cf Twelve days of Christmas, PW] The modern custom comes from Germany."
Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988

 

Wikipedia has an article on this subject

More on the Christmas tree may be found in Clement A Miles, Christmas In Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan, T Fisher Unwin, London, 1912

Celtic Tree Month of Beth (Birch) commences (Dec 24 - Jan 20)

Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Birch.

             

 Jesus, Odin, Mithras, Bacchus ...
Virgin birth, cross, Lamb of God ...
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Rural Dionysia, ancient Greece In this, the most ancient of the Greek festivals to Dionysus (Bacchus), the god of wine, the people went to great excesses with drinking and revelry. Slaves enjoyed full freedom today and peasants assailed pedestrians while riding by in carriages. Goats were sacrificed in the temples and special choruses, called dithyrambs, were sung today. The god's worshippers threw away as much self control as they could and indulged in excessive drinking and wild dancing sessions till exhaustion set in. Sometimes dancers in their ecstatic frenzy tore apart wild beasts. There was a religious element as well, with dithyrambs being sung and goats sacrificed. This deity was the same as the Roman Bacchus, and St Dionysus, Dionysius or Dennis is a christianized form of the pagan god. St Dennis, or Denis, is the patron of France, the home of fine wines. Etymologically the name Dionysus means the Zeus of Nysa and seems to be congruent with the Vedic (Indian) god Soma. Originally he was just the god of wine, then later of vegetation and warm moisture, then later of pleasures and civilisation. While at first he was seen as a mature man, Dionysus was later depicted in art as a rather effeminate beardless youth. We are told that as a youth he was made mad by the goddess Hera, so to be cured he went to visit the Oracle of Dodona. On the way he was carried ove