Question by Jason D: How did the pagans celebrate the winter solstice?
Does anyone know of what sorts of traditions and ceremonies were part of this event? I’ve heard that the winter solstice (maybe more than the summer solstice, the longest day) was perhaps the biggest celebration for pagans in the year, as the winter solstice was the start of days getting longer and more all important sun. Is this true? Also, is there a coincidence that Christmas is near this day?
Best answer:
Answer by Tomoyo K
It is the same way they celebrate Christmas today. Trees, Logs, Gift-Giving, Christmas Lights all have symbolical pagan religious meanings. It is different for every pagans of different countries.
Christmas was purposedly made on this date to coincide with the pagan tradition so that many pagan will convert to christianity so to speak. Howerve, we may look at it as Christianity being paganized. There’s no way Jesus could be born in December….the snow would be freezing cold for the sheep and sheperds out at night.
Jesus started his ministry at the age of 33 and died 3 1/2 years later. Counting back, if he died at age 33 1/2 on Nisan 14 which falls on our calendar in the last week of March or First week of April….Jesus was born on the last week of September or !st week of October which was described in the bible as a cold night…(fall season not winter)
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It is no coincidence. Christmas was a christian plot to get rid of the pagan celebrations, just like they used to burn down holy groves and build churches on the same spots.
Winter Solstice has many traditions, all connected by food. It was the time when you ate well compared to the rest of the year when you had to eat very little in order to preserve food. Traditional christmas dishes here in Finland are dishes that would be done out of foodstuffs preserved from the summer as well as the ham, of course. Vegetables would be made into casseroles, and fruits would be made into a fruitsauce to have with porridge.
Also, some believed that evil spirits roamed the lightless day, which of course meant that you had to stay inside and eat yourself into a stupor.
You may have heard of apple wassailing, the medieval winter festival custom of blessing the apple trees with songs, dances, decorations and a drink of cider to ensure their fertility. Here’s another, more obscure tradition that most certainly predates Christmas, and was probably once a solstice ritual, because it is so linked to the themes of nature’s rebirth and fertility. In Romania, there’s a traditional Christmas confection called a turta. It is made of many layers of pastry dough, filled with melted sugar or honey, ground walnuts, or hemp seed.
In this tradition, with the making of the cake families enact a lovely little ceremony to assure the fruitfulness of their orchard come spring. When the wife is in the midst of kneading the dough, she follows her husband into the wintry garden. The man goes from barren tree to tree, threatening to cut each one down. Each time, the wife urges that he spare the tree by saying:
“Oh no, I am sure that this tree will be as heavy with fruit next spring as my fingers are with dough this day.”
xmas was originally a pagan celebration, which was stolen by christianity. it’s tradidional to make a solstice cake, which is absolutely delicious!!!
happy yule!!!