The Old Magic of Christmas / Linda Raedisch

 

The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year by Linda Raedisch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Here in the Northern hemisphere, Christmas and the Winter Solstice coincide with the darkest time of the year. Naturally, the dark lends itself to spookier mythology and the lore surrounding this holiday tends towards the dark end of the spectrum too. Many of the tales and traditions discussed in this book originate in Scandinavia and Germany, although the British Isles are well represented too.

I usually think of Halloween as the time for ghosts, goblins, and witches, but Christmas apparently has its own selections of these spooks, who have been co-opted into Christian ceremonies. I find it fascinating that some of these folk tales have survived in any form into the 21st century, but Santa Claus is certainly doing well, that jolly old elf! Mind you, he has been recruited by retailers to encourage us to part with our cash. This explains to me the Victorian habit of telling ghost stories at Christmastime, like the ghosts who visit Ebenezer Scrooge.

Gift giving, Christmas trees and other greens, mistletoe, feasting—all these traditions have pre-Christian roots, although Christianity has tried its best to assimilate them. The fireplace was the centre of the household before modern heating and the hearth spirits were accordingly important. Not all homes have a fireplace any more, but you may have a fireplace channel on television, showing a continuously burning wood fire.

This author made assumptions about the readers' knowledge. I'm not familiar with the feast days of the saints or when holidays like Candlemas happen, so I was continually looking things up to get a better idea of what she was referring to. But I am an uncouth colonial, living in the wilds of Canada (what Voltaire called “quelques arpents de neige,” a reputation that we are currently living up to).

I come away from this volume with a renewed desire to pursue more folklore and learn more history of the European countries that my ancestors came from.


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