Mid-winter has come down in history as a time of snow, ice and cold.  We have images of fur-clad hunters wending their way through snow covered valleys.  Much of this imagery has been absorbed into Christmas, through the efforts of Charles dickens if no one else.  Dickens depictions of Christmas and winter, especially from A Christmas Carol (1843), created the archetypal view of the season we now have.  Northern Europe went through a period known as the ‘Little Ice-age’ between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries.  Global temperatures dropped by an average of 0.5 C and caused severe winters.  The Thames froze over at least twenty times during that period.  It was memories of his childhood during the later part of the ‘Little Ice-age’ which gave him the inspiration.

 

Father Christmas or Santa Claus owes his original conception to Thor, the Norse god, who was responsible for gift-giving at Yule.  His goats are transformed into reindeer and his green coat emblematic of the spring he helps to bring, is turned into a red coat symbolic of animal and human sacrifice.  Terry Pratchett ‘reverse engineers’ the character in his novel The Hogfather.  He was later conflated with a Christian Saint – Nicholas of Patera to give us the figure children love all over the world. 

 

Goats in Celtic mythology are more associated with the Cailleach in Scotland.  There may have been a transference from Thor as Father Christmas to the Cailleach.  However, as goats are wild herd creatures and associated with mountainous areas, they may have originally been one of her patronages.   

 

The mid-winter period was of great danger as virtually nothing is available from nature.  The stores laid down at Samhuinn had to see you through to the end of winter in March.  Possibly, this is why gift-giving became a major feature of the season, especially to the poor and those less fortunate.  Even the Japanese have adopted Christmas as the ‘mid-winter gift giving festival’.  In the modern western world, where so few are involved in agriculture, we take food supply for granted.  We can walk down the road to the local supermarket and get whatever we like at any time.  If we produce nothing in winter, we can import it relatively easily.  Although deaths in November to March are still far higher than during the rest of the year.  January is by far the worst month for deaths on average. 

 

Like all the solar festivals it marks a turning point in the season.  The weather after the solstice is often far worse than the period preceding.  January is sometimes called the ‘wolf’ month, which may be because ‘faoilleach’ – ‘welcoming’ is close to ‘faoillteach’ meaning ‘wolf-like’.  The wolf being seen as the ultimate winter predator and therefore symbolic of the season. 

 

Storms were common and fishing and traveling were dangerous.  In Scots Gaelic, the month was known as An Dublachd – the Stormy Month, from  ‘Dubh’, ‘Black’ the colour of the skies. 

 

To paraphrase a prayer, it was the time when ‘the great peat fire warmed friend and stranger’ and ‘light in the window welcomed the traveller in from the storm’.  

 

Because it was the time of storms, it was a time when Manannan was asked to provide sea-ware or forms of seaweed and sea grass that could both be eaten and used as fertiliser for the land. 

​

Hunting and riding was common.  The yew, rowan, holly and mistletoe produce berries.   Geese arrive to over-winter such as in the Boyne valley.  The solstice is the ‘shortest day of the year’ or to be a little more accurate, it’s the day with the least amount of daylight.  In the Shetlands, it is just short of six hours.  After the solstice, daylight grows until February where it has become noticeably longer.

 

The darkness of the season is often matched by the mood of the sky.  Mid December to mid-January is usually the coldest period of the year.  It can also be incredibly dark even during the day as the sky is often a really dark grey or black.  Storms can be common but so can calm weather.  At upper altitudes snow and ice is pretty universal but snow is not that common before the solstice.  Though it may seem odd, frosted and iced fields are actually better for the spreading of manuring material such as seaweed.

 

Very few things are growing in December around the solstice.  Hellebore (Christmas rose) is one of the few flowering plants.  The season is dominated by the evergreens such as holly, ivy, and mahomia, which are the only things still in leaf.  Rowan trees and holly have clumps of blood red berries.  The mistletoe produces berries on oak and apple trees. 

 

Calves born around the spring equinox are weaned from their mothers. 

Beef and Steak Pie is the traditional meal on New Years Day in Scotland.  In Ireland Daneher records it was roast or boiled beef or boiled ox-head.  Corned beef made from animals slaughtered at St. Martins Day (11th November) was given out as presents.[1]  Hence, the name in Scotland of Fèis Lurgainn or Fèis Shlinneinn, Feast of the Shinbone.  The Gaelic for Winter solstice is  Grianstad a' Gheamhraidh (Scottish) Grianstad an Gheimhridh (Irish).  Both of which mean sun-stand of winter.  

​

The most important event of the period is the solstice itself.  During the course of the year, the sun rises between south-east and north-east.  The sun rises at its most south-easterly point for approximately three days culminating on the solstice, and then starts moving northwards.  Solstice means ‘sun standing still’. 

 

The sun is low on the horizon and sets quickly, which is the reason for the short days.  As well as the solstice, Orion rises due south of Taurus appearing to ‘skewer’ the bull constellation.  Although, we do not have a complete or even partial understanding of the Goidelic Celtic zodiac, this arrangement appears on the bottom plate of the Gundestrup Cauldron. 

 

Some commentators have suggested that the battle between Finenbach and Donn Cuailgne in the Tain Bo Cuailne, Cattle-raid of Cullen may be a representation of the solstice though others have suggested it is a depiction of the dark of the moon. The Pleiades rise due east and are framed by the constellation of Taurus the bull. 

​

[1] The Year in Ireland, Danaher, K., Mercier Press, 2023 (1972), Cork, Ireland​​