Who put the star on the Christmas tree?

Thoughts on Christian and Celtic folklore and traditions at this time of year, and why you should be extra careful on that dangerous day, 6 January!

Christmas wasn’t always the 25 December. Yule or Juul is the name of the winter solstice festival celebrated by the Ancients on 21 December. It was an important pagan festival marking the return of the light, as this is when the Earth starts to tilt back on its rotational access and we start to gain minutes of light rather than lose them. To dissuade pagan practices, the 25th – just a few days later – was chosen as Christmas in 336AD by the early Christian emperor Constantine. Druids call the winter solstice Alban Arthan. This can be translated in a couple of ways. The obvious is a reference to King Arthur however, this festival is far older than him. The meaning that I attribute to it is that Alban Arthan means the ‘Light of the Arctic’ - also from the same root Aρκτον Greek or Arktos for Bear, so the Light of the Northern or Arctic Bear. The scientific name of the European brown bear is Ursus arctos – literally ‘bear bear’ from both the Latin and the Greek.

Ursa major, the constellation of stars in the northern sky known as the Great Bear, was well-known to the Ancients. Above it, is its cub Ursa minor, the Little Bear, whose tail ends in the bright Pole Star, Stella polaris. Imagine the earth as a ball pushed on to a long skewer through the south and the north poles. The part that emerges from the north end is called the celestial pole. The Pole Star Polaris sits scarcely more than 1 degree away from it, suspended in the sky above the North Pole. As the celestial pole is Earth’s axis around which it rotates, as the planet turns, it gives stargazers the impression that Polaris is fixed motionless in the sky, while all the other stars of the northern sky rotate around it. One of the old Finnish names is naulatähti the nailstar (Nuutuittuq Innuit). History records Polaris as used for navigation since the medieval times when it moved closest to the celestial pole.

Full moon and the Pole Star at the northern cape of Norway… at 2 p.m.

In the ancient Sámi tradition, the sky curved over the world like an upside-down cauldron – a big iron cooking pot – supported in the centre by the Pole Star, fixed at the top of the world tree, a wooden pillar, that separated earth and sky. Perhaps this is the original reason why we traditionally put a star at the top of the Christmas tree? As with all myths and religions, beliefs and legends are neither constant nor static but vary and evolve from tribe to tribe.

You may recall from reading Asterix the Gaul books by Goscinny and Uderzo, that the only thing that the fierce warrior Celts were afraid of was the sky falling on their heads. This was the answer to a question posed by Alexander the great to Celtic warriors. History has assumed it was naivety or bravado. However, shooting stars and comets are so bright they always catch attention and were often seen as omens of ill fortune. I imagine that the fear was that, one day, the Pole star might shoot out of position and, by removing the lynch pin that holds the sky, cause everything to crash down on the Earth in total chaos and destruction. We know the Ancients were very well aware of the stars. The Roman Pomponius Mela in De Situ Orbis (pre 500AD), wrote that the druids believed they knew “the size of the earth and the cosmos, the movements of the heavens and stars.”.

Cherries in December? No, a cup of tiny crab apples gathered on the Solstice.

My retired friend Mac commented, two days after Yule, that “it’s almost as if time stops or goes into neutral. In your youth you may be rushing about like a daft thing before Christmas but, if you don’t have children, parents or work to give you focus, all activities cease. There is only this grey flat light. There is no structure to the week. But perhaps the lack of activity just gives us the opportunity to just switch off for a bit.”

This is such a distinct time of year for all of us, whatever your religious beliefs, for the Earth has a profound influence on Nature and therefore us and our bodies – as we are Nature too. It’s not uncommon to feel flat, depressed, or give way to every cough and cold doing the rounds. The energy of the planet feels like the Titanic turning hard to avoid an iceberg but its still feels in suspense. The globe tilted on its axis is turning back, so lighter days will follow, but it’s slow, slow, slow. And we feel that inertia, that limbo that the binds the Earth’s energy in this hemisphere. The energy of Life itself is below the surface of the earth, deep in the soil stored in root, tuber and rhizome. Sometimes we too feel the energy drained out of us. There is little vitality left - except viruses which are not classed as truly ‘alive’. But, now past the Solstice we have a minute a day more - yet we won’t really notice it until around 12 January when we have one hour a day more light.

These two weeks between Yule and Epiphany are the days of death. Not wishing to dampen a joyous Christmas, but statistically more people die at this time of year than at any other. The most common day to die in the Northern hemisphere is 6 January – in Britain, there are an average of 25 per cent more deaths than other days. Indeed the top ten most fatal days all occur between 30 December and 9 January. Surprisingly, this cannot be explained by viruses and infection.

Epiphany 6 January in the Christian calendar, celebrating the visit of the three kings (the Magi) and Christ’s baptism - since AD361. Yet, ἐπιφάνεια, epipháneia, means ‘manifestation’ or ‘appearance’ (derived from φαίνειν, phainein, ‘to appear’). In the Celtic calender, from Samhain to the end of Yule, was a time when people felt that the threshold between the living and the other was liminal, thinner than at other times of year. Manifestations were common if you weren’t careful! The dangerous time of Yule visitations came to a close on Twelfth Night, celebrated with the wassail, blessing apple trees and praying for abundance in the coming year.

Botanically, the energy of the plants – those creators of all earthly foods – has left the shoots, leaves, flowers and seed. Life’s vitality has descended to ground level and hibernates below the soil. Best to take it easy; drink warm, nourishing soups made from the roots of plants where the energy is stored; hibernate; read; dwell inwardly; cherish and nurture yourself and your kin. Let what needs to die in you have a metaphysical, honourable death and tend the seeds of the new.

My very best wishes for the Solstice, Christmas, the New Year, Twelfth Night – whatever the language of your soul.

Mo Wilde xxx

---

From half-day Foraging courses, or Stone Age days, to the full immersion of a Summer Solstice Wilderness Fast, learn more about your roots in the natural world. If you would like to learn more about the old ways of being and doing, join me on a course in 2025. Gift vouchers also available for that last minute emergency!