Celtic Tradition for Your Holiday Celebration

Add a Celtic Tradition to Your Holiday Celebration

by Mara Freeman

Winter Solstice is the time when light is born out of the womb of winter’s darkness. Every year around December 21st the sun appears to ‘stand still,’ or rise and set in the same place for a few days.  It is the time of the longest night, when Earth’s very breath seems to falter in the face of the overpowering dark. Then, imperceptibly at first, the sun begins its long journey towards the south, and all of creation begins to breathe in the fire of new life.

In the cold northern winters of Ireland and Scotland, Christmas was the time for a joyous gathering of the clans who celebrated the return of the sun with feasting and merrymaking around a roaring fire. Here are a few Celtic traditions that will add a Celtic touch to your holiday.preparations:

Celtic Tradition – Trees of Midwinter

One of my favorite Celtic traditions for this time of the year is decorating my house with beautiful gifts from the Green World. This is a more ecological and stress-free way of preparing your home for the holiday season, plus it doesn’t cost anything and keeps you from the consumer-driven stress of the shopping mall. Evergreens top the list of course, especially the traditional holly and ivy. Red-berried holly may be hard to come by in some countries, but since it is the red berries of this tree that carry the most symbolic resonance – of fire and the returning sun – any red-berried branches will do. Ivy on the other hand, grows abundantly in most places in the Northern Hemisphere and can be twined and draped around the walls of the room to great effect. The two have always been paired together because holly with its prickly berries is traditionally masculine while ivy is softer and more feminine. But whatever evergreens that grow in your bioregion can be used to good effect, especially fragrant pines, spruce, fir  and juniper that will scent your room. They are not only beautiful to look at – and smell – they also provide sheltered spots for nature spirits and faeries who regard human dwellings as natural caves where they can enjoy their wintertime sleep.

Celtic Tradition – The Yule-Log

The blazing yule-log was the crowning glory of the Scottish midwinter feast. In Ireland the yule-log was called the bloc na Nollaig, or Christmas Block.

Decorate a large, dry oak log with long sprays of juniper or other greenery. Sprinkle it with a generous libation of ale before setting light to it in your fireplace or outside. When it has almost burnt down, keep a little piece of it on which to place next year’s log. This ensures the everlasting cycle of light and warmth for your home and family.

Practice an old Scottish ritual: Toss sprigs of holly into the fire as a symbolic way to burn away any bad feeling between family, friends or neighbors.

Celtic Tradition – The Christmas Candle

In Ireland, those who could afford it had a one-week candle called coinneal mór na Nollaig, the Great Christmas Candle. It was also traditional to provide smaller ones for each member of the family, with little colored ones for the children. The candles were lit with great ceremony on Christmas Eve and set in the window.

~ Place a candle in your window this season. If you want to follow the traditional Irish custom, choose a large red one. Light it on Christmas Eve.

~ Give smaller candles to your friends and family and let each person light theirs from the large candle, while making a wish for the coming year.

Celtic Tradition – Green Hope

The many centuries of ritual and ceremony performed by our ancestors have laid down impressions or “tracks” in the astral plane, making spiritual energy more accessible at this time of year.  That’s why, even if we don’t go out of our way to celebrate the Solstice or Christmas, a different kind of atmosphere can still be felt around us, a palpable sense of “Angels bending near the Earth to touch their harps of gold,” in the words of the old hymn. The possibility of peace, hope for the awakening of the human race and the healing of our world is rekindled within our hearts, and every tree becomes a Tree of Life, promising the greening and renewal of Earth.

May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch on your door and happiness be guided to your home by the candle of Christmas. – Irish Blessing

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About the Author

Mara Freeman, M.A., is an internationally recognized British author and teacher of Celtic wisdom and the Western Mystery Tradition, which she has taught for over thirty years. She is an initiate of the Western Mysteries and has also been very active in modern druid organizations. Her first book, Kindling the Celtic Spirit, (Harper San Francisco, 2001) has been hailed as the best modern introduction to Celtic spirituality and sacred traditions. Her most recent book, Grail Alchemy: Initiation in the Celtic Mystery Tradition (Inner Traditions, 2014) has been called ” a Celtic literary temenos of our time, a sacred space, in which to further explore one’s own inner journey and transformation.”  http://chalicecentre.net/