#midwinter traditions

[sheliesshattered]

About a week ago I had an idea for a silly little idea for a holiday season craft project: a yule goat about the size of a small dog (~20"x20") to sit in our street-facing garden window, with the orange Halloween twinkle lights underneath to make him look like he's been set on fire. Because Yule!

I made a basic wire skeleton and covered it in layers and layers of raffia, slowly building out the head, torso, legs, tail, and horns. I gave him a little billy-goat beard made from wheat stalks, and wrapped red raffia ribbon around him to hold everything together. Originally I had his horns more tightly coiled, but from far away he looked like a weird elephant or even a pig, so I restyled them as the very last step. But the horns have a nice curve to them now, so even though I had to undo it, it worked out for the best.

At sunset tonight we set him up in the window that faces out onto the street, with the twinkle lights underneath and coiling up his legs. After going outside to take some pictures, both Jack and I decided that the candles on the top shelf of the window (one which came on with a timer, the others which didn't) were throwing off the balance, so we've taken them out now, leaving just the Yule goat with his lights, and the hanging lanterns on either side.

I'm quite certain that our neighbors will be confused about what the hell we've put in our window to light up every evening for the rest of the year, but eh, I love my ridiculous little goat. If all the crows (and ravens!) hanging about haven't clued in the neighbors that we're a devoutly pagan household, I'm not sure a flaming Yule goat will do much to move the needle, lol.

[unlicensed]

midwinter greetings for @trashicalgirl !!!!!

[spiky-berry21]

AHAHAHAGUSJFZTUXBH- *cough cough* pardon me. Just finished Calli's little character poster after... Multiple hours, and here it is!

Transcription (so sorry for the blurriness 😭):

Born: December 6th, 1899

Murray bridge, South Australia

Born and raised on the murky expanse of the Murray river, Calliope was always one for life on her family's cattle farm. And, undenounced to her parents, the life of a small-time bank robber in the latter half of her teenage years. Considered more wayward and rebellious the older she got, it came as a shock to her when her elder brothers, and father, were enlisted in the armed forces to fight in the great war. Leaving only her and her mother to take care of the farm for the years they were away. And by circumstances of a tragic heartbreak, Calliope left her homeland and became a stowaway on a cargo ship heading for the distant lands of the Americas. In the hopes of finding an opportunity to build a new life for herself.

Though as they always say, old habits die hard. With the young Australian lass getting recruited for little pay in the esteemed Marigold gang. Now both a well-known patron, and a long-time bootlegger. Nothing, and she means nothing, is getting in the way of her current life. Or... That's what she thinks at least.

Living a congenial life on the wooden panels and planks of the Marigold room's backstage area, and being mostly forgotten about by a certain Marigold night manager. Calliope enjoys a plethora of... Interesting activities. Those including: Precarious automobile operating, wrangling with almost any cattle you put in front of her, mending household appliances, and dutifully using a shotgun. Her weapon of choice.

Woo! Thank you for reading all that (if you did), Maeve and Angel are going to be here (hopefully) soon. Feel free to ask any questions!

As always, have a magnificent day/night! 😘

[cogumellow]

entrudo nas montanhas // lousa, portugal // winter 2024 // ©

[minnesotadruids]

Peppernuts: Connecting With the Ancestors... 

On the Mennonite side of my family, the surnames that pop up are largely Belgian, Dutch, and Low German. Peppernuts, or Pfeffernüsse are tiny cookies that are about as old as the spice trade, and would have likely been an ancestral tradition in my family going back as much as 500 years.

My grandmother was always the one to make these for the winter holiday season. If my cousins or I would ask if we can help with the cookies and the zwieback buns, grandma would inevitably tell us to go play and she’d take care of it all. I never realized until she passed away in 2009 that this meant that she wasn’t passing the traditions down at all. When she was in hospice I had asked for her zwieback recipe, and she was happy that I wanted to take on that tradition, but it meant that I can never ask her questions about the confusing details. 

Not only was she the first in our lineage to write the recipe down, but there were notes on the side written in Low German, which is markedly different than modern High German. Low German (AKA Plautdietsch) doesn’t really have much for translation resources, and I only know a Low German a nursery rhyme that doesn’t really even exist anymore. But this isn’t about the zwieback, this is about the peppernuts! My mom rediscovered grandma’s peppernuts recipe about two years ago, so both her, my sister, and I started making them. Although technology has advanced, it still helps me connect with the ancestors.

These little aromatic and spiced cookies are really easy to make if you have one extra helper after the dough is ready. One batch easily makes like 400 cookies, I kid you not – but they’re supposed to be small, coming out like the size of a 4 or 6 notched Lego block. They’re supposed to be hard cookies, at least that’s how grandma liked them. Kept you from eating more than 5 in one sitting because they would make your jaw hurt. Tonight’s batch was too big to fit into a one gallon ice cream bucket, so assuming I’m the only one that made them this year, I’ll be sharing them with the family at their Christmas dinner. Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Ancestral Peppernut (Pfeffernüsse) Recipe

There are so many variants, so substitute* as needed.

PREP: ½ cup coffee 1 tsp baking soda stirred into coffee

MIX: 1 cup butter 1 cup sugar 2 cups brown sugar 2 eggs, beaten 1 tsp anise extract

ADD: 5 & ¼ cups flour

SMALL BOWL: 1 tsp salt 1 tsp fine black or white pepper ½ tsp allspice 1 tsp cinnamon

Add dry spices to batter. Add the soda-coffee after mixing in most of the flour (gives the coffee time to cool so it doesn't cook the eggs). Burn out the motor in your hand mixer and finish mixing the dough by hand. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or wax paper and chill until the temperature is consistent throughout (at least 30 min). Take small handfuls of dough at a time (no larger than a ping-pong ball) and roll into half-inch thick logs (between the thickness if your little finger but no larger than the thickness of a washable marker). Cut the dough rope into square (or then roll them into round) pieces. If rounded, no wider than a dime. They will expand to about the size of a quarter in diameter. Place pieces on cookie sheet (bakers paper helps) one inch apart.

Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes or until golden-brown. Once cool, the cookies are supposed to be almost hard like biscotti, which is why it's important to keep them bite-sized in order to break fewer teeth at once. Recipe makes several hundred. Store at room temp for 1 week, then freeze for up to a month. Dip in coffee or tea to soften, or enjoy them as they fossilize with each passing day.

*Other recipes add any combination of the following in ½ or 1 tsp of: nutmeg, ground cloves, ground ginger, and/or vanilla extract.

[roboraindrop]

The story being so vast and having such established lore means that I can Google things like "Was there a winter celebration in Rohan" and get an actual answer so that I can think about Grima celebrating winter holiday,,,, 👉👈

[florencebrennan]

Happy Candlemas/Imbolc!

Temperature is higher than normal so there's already flowers like these yellow fellas and mallows. It's sunny and nice.

I've decided to try an incense from an inquisitorial text (from my province!) for various purposes. Sweeping the floors, smoke cleansing the whole house (not just my bedroom like usual) and lighting candles behind doors to light and purify the home.

I bought beeswax candles but they haven't arrived yet, so I'll prepare them later.

I've also made pancakes 🤤

This month for me is quite pack with stuff, but mainly purification rituals.

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[riveroracle]

Krampus: The Dark Shadow of Winter

By: Christina McCarthy

While many figures in pagan & witch folklore are shrouded in layers of mystery, some stand out as a little stranger than the others. The more I dig to uncover the true nature of Krampus, the more an ethereal snowy mist seems to gather, further obscuring him into the realm of whimsical Yuletide mythology. Perhaps this is how he’s come to inhabit such a unique place in the psyche of modern people around the world.

There is debate about how & when the Krampus legend came into being. Some say he’s a sort of pre-Christian deity, the son of Hel, Norse goddess of the Underworld, but evidence for this theory is nonexistent and appears to be a very modern addition to Krampus lore. Other sources say his festival in Germany and throughout Alpine Europe started only a few hundred years ago, a now faded older tradition from pre-Christian Germanic paganism adopted into its modern form by the Catholic church to subdue pagan influences around midwinter. Some classic depictions include chains, to show the power of the Christian god over the “devil”.

This famous depiction shows his one cloven hoof and one clawed bear foot.

Images like these, often featuring poems and season's greetings, come from Krampuskarten, or Krampus cards, often whimsical and humorous greeting & post cards which were exchanged around the holidays, starting in the 19th century. He is often depicted mischievously pursuing beautiful women in a Cupid-like fashion, punishing and chasing weeping children, and accompanying St. Nicholas.

His name appears to come from a combination of a Middle German word, “kralle”, meaning “claw”, and a Bavarian word “krampn” meaning dead, shriveled, or lifeless, connecting him with death mysteries. He is depicted as an often hairy, black or brown, therianthropic beast, part man, part goat, with cloven hooves, reminiscent of the satyrs of Greek mythology. He's also commonly shown with sharp fangs, a red lolling tongue, large bulging eyes, and a single clawed bear foot. There are other regional variations of this spirit, with similar features & mythic function - Knecht Rubrecht and Belsnickel in Germany, Schmutzli in Switzerland, Bartel in Austria, Zwarte Piet or "Black Pete" farther west, and many other midwinter demons. There's even a feminine version - the goddess Perchta lives on today through a similar tradition, Perchtenlauf, where the "ugly" and "beautiful" Perchte or Percht, her hoard of Krampus-like spirits, stage a mock battle in the streets as perhaps a symbolic battle between death and life occurring at midwinter. Some consider this to be a precursor to modern Krampuslauf celebrations, yet the Perchta tradition continues to exist alongside Krampus today.

The widespread prevalence of such similar traditions gives rise to the theory of a class of spirits like Krampus whose names and specific lore vary by local region.

This map shows Alpine Europe - the highlighted area shows the location of the Alps, but of course the Krampus tradition stretches beyond the exact borders shown.

Map source: https://alpshiking.swisshikingvacations.com/where-are-the-alps/

Regardless of his origin, today Krampus strikes a cheerful holiday fright into the hearts of children and adults alike. It’s said that he punishes the children on St. Nick’s naughty list, whipping them with a bundle of birch switches called a "ruten bundle" or sometimes a whip, or kidnapping them in a sack or basket on the eve of St. Nick’s feast day. The punishment is said to fit the crime - the lightest sentence being handed a single birch stick, as if a reminder of which path to choose, and the naughtiest children being dragged to hell or even drowned or eaten by Krampus! Instead of the Christmas Devil's lumps of coal and harsh sentences, good children would find little gifts filling their shoes from the jovial Saint Nicholas, who is often depicted dressed as a bishop with a golden ceremonial staff as pictured above. Sources below have more information about St. Nick if you want to learn more about the minor saint we now call Santa Claus!

In Germanic Europe, holiday festivities in December are first heralded by Krampusnacht, meaning “Krampus Night”, and Krampuslauf, the “Krampus Run”, where revelers dress up in extensive costumes with furs, masks, and horns to run the streets and terrify the townsfolk, inspiring Yuletide nightmares of the Christmas Devil.

This practice may have connection to the pervasive European myth of the Wild Hunt, where dark forces - often depicted as a hunter on horseback and his hounds, among other dark pagan imagery - parade through the skies around midwinter, carrying the souls of mortals over wintery skies to the afterlife. Both Krampuslauf and the Wild Hunt may partly be reminiscent of an ancient cleansing ritual where disguised townsfolk would run the streets, ringing bells and perhaps rattling Krampus's chains, acting as a hellish hoard to scare away unwelcome spirits. To extend the conjecture even farther, some draw a link from Krampus to the witches' horned god, due to his similarity to "wild man" therianthropic figures such as Pan, Cernunnos, and Herne.

Once the children have been sufficiently frightened into another year of their best behavior, the Krampuses traditionally drink alcohol in celebration. The drink of choice, for this after party and for offerings to Krampus, is schnapps. The Krampuslauf tradition is believed to be around 500 years old, and while many attempts to quell these celebrations have been enacted by oppressive forces, from the Catholic church throughout several centuries, to the Christian Social Party of Austria with their famous propaganda pamphlet titled "Krampus Is an Evil Man", to the Nazi Party, the Krampus run is alive and growing today.

From a Krampus celebration in Austria.

One of the most famous festivals takes place in Munich, Germany. Among their famous Christmas marketplace, filled with glittering lights and symbols of Catholic advent, caroling, traditional treats, and the glow of a modern city, Krampuses can be found running around giving folks a chilling holiday scare, reminding them of a time gone by when the fear of winter’s darkness kept everyone warm and safe inside their homes on the eve of December 5th.

Krampus in a getaway car! We often think of a tradition like this as distant history, so seeing a depiction made during a period of industrialization is a little mind bending!

I personally believe the modern resurgence of Krampus is related to a collective yearning, whether conscious or unconscious, to honor the darkness of the season. What’s become a heavily Christianized (and commercialized) “holiday season” of constant flashing lights and warm familial celebrations, was once more widely regarded as a time of death, darkness, and difficulty. In the depth of winter, when resources and warmth were scarce & daily life was focused on enduring the season, celebrations of the sun were an ode to survival and hope that life would return to the earth again. Krampus represents this inescapable reality of the darkness and hopelessness we experience when the sun is at its weakest, when all the earth holds its breath, silently praying for deliverance from night’s bitter shadows.

Sources:

Note: I'm loosely using Chicago style format, unless there isn't enough information to bother, in which case I will usually just post the link.

🕯️Bustamonte, S. (2018) Krampus Spaß, The Wild Hunt: Pagan News and Perspectives. Available at: https://wildhunt.org/2018/12/the-murky-origin-of-the-krampus.html.

This was an especially rich resource! It contained a lot of detailed information that I’ve never heard before, but most of the new content presented, I was able to verify by looking at other sources. It also lists a book source that seems interesting - books aren’t foolproof, their information should still be verified, but a website listing a printed source is a good sign the information is likely to be correct!

🕯️Krampus. https://brickthology.com/category/banishing/

This was an interesting resource with a wealth of information, which was not sourced and the author seemed to be a random unidentified person, so I still cross referenced the information. This person seemed to have a good working knowledge of the cultural traditions which may be from personal experience, and that kind of information is important in research about regional folklore.

🕯️ https://www.britannica.com/topic/Krampus

🕯️https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Nicholas

For most projects, I use simple pages like these as a starting point for a quick summary of basic information. Brittanica has been around a long time, and I know the information on their site is usually accurate. I still cross-verify the information to make sure there aren’t any inconsistencies.

🕯️Christmas Market at Marienplatz: The Magic of the Christmas Season. Simply Munich. Available at: https://www.munich.travel/en/pois/markets-festivals/christmas-market-marienplatz.

I had some prior knowledge that one of the most popular Krampus Runs takes place in Munich, so I sought out an official Munich website to get their version of the information. What I found was context surrounding Krampus, seating him firmly in modern German customs, and that helps bring mythology to life.

🕯️Krampus, the Christmas Devil of Alpine Europe. The German Way & More. Available at: https://www.german-way.com/krampus-the-christmas-devil-of-alpine-europe/.

I didn’t strictly use this source in this blog post, but I found it to be a credible source that goes further into detail about regional Krampus traditions, containing photos, videos, and further links on related topics. I like to provide sources like this in my bibliographies for people to learn more than what I wanted to cover in the post.

🕯️Perchtenlaufen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchtenlaufen

That's right, this is a wikipedia link! Sure, wikipedia can be unreliable. As long as you're checking the information with other sources, there's nothing wrong with using it as a starting point to break into information you're not familiar with.

All photos with sources not listed are under public domain.

[dendro80]

Julafton hos oss. 😊

Christmas at our home. 😊

December 2023

Avesta, Dalarna, Sweden

[violetmoondaughter]

These old Italian tales have the primary function to explain the changing of weather during midwinter and the coming of spring.

Other tales explain the different dark colors of the male and female blackbird through the story of a female blackbird that hid in a chimney to protect herself and her children from the coldest days of winter. The bird, that according to the legend was originally white, became black because of the ashes.

In other version of the story the blackbird had an argument with the January God, who used to bring rain, snow, and cold weather on earth. The bird to save herself from the cold weather decided to hide in her nest until the end of the month. But the God to punish her made those last days the coldest, so when the bird finally came out her plumage had darkened because of the storm.

This version of the story is also connected with the “Days of the Old Lady” in which an old woman, happy for the coming of spring mocked the Winter God who decided to bring back the cold weather to punish the woman.

In Italy we don’t celebrate these days, but we certainly do believe that the Days of the Blackbird are the coldest of the year.

[sheliesshattered]

current mood: haven't finished the last of the Halloween candy yet, but can't wait to start making Yule cookies

[spiky-berry21]

Second Lacka-oc finished!

(Transcription for any who find the image too blurry):

Born: November 27th, 1903

Salem, Massachusetts

Maeve Midwinter, the proprietor (and solitary worker) of a cosy little bookstore in downtown St. Louis. The epitome of a pristine and upstanding citizen, she carries herself with utmost pride. Serving her community like the very legal citizen she is.

Well... Aside from her random bursts of uncontrollable rage. But she will assure you it was just the amount of caffeine she had in her coffee that morning, "It's nothing, I assure you!". But besides that, Maeve has devoted her life to her books, the few things in life she finds worth her time. That, and the fact that she chooses to associate with what her mother would call the scum of the earth, supplying speakeasies with a portion of illegally made wine. Though perhaps being a supplier certainly has its... Perks. For example, getting to know the charming Australian bootlegger working for the infamous Marigold gang. Who she seems to have taken quite the liking to.

Among the pleasantness of her small bookshop on the corner, this gentlewoman enjoys listening to the ambience of her many records on her gramaphone. Coupled with the oh so calming turn of a book page when nobody is around. Loving all fashion with ruffles and jewels to them, she collects anything even remotely shiny she can get her little mitts on. As well as being an avid lover of dark humour, and strawberry flavoured macarons.

Very happy to have Maeve's character card done, I find her to be the more ostentatious of the three given her... wealthier upbringing.

As always, have a dazzling rest of your day/night! 😘

[wyvunn]

Merry winter holidays, y'all!

[tohmon]

Got more promarkers for christmas and this is the result: Old granny in the snow, at the heart of winter.