December 24, 2007

Of course, it's Christmas Eve, a night touched by magic for centuries. I hope you feel it tonight.

Winter Solstice traditions from Mother Night, or Modresnach, in Germanic-Scandinavian tradition, live on in present-day Christmas. Examples: The Yule log was lit in honor of the returning sun. The elves are remnants of the supernatural Nature folk, while reindeer are shamanic symbols. The decorated evergreen may extend back to pre-Christian days as a symbol of the Tree of Life or World Tree.

Tips for the day

It seems there are unique customs and ways of celebrating this night in just about every Christian country. Here are a few old ones:

From France, there's the reveillon, a feast traditionally served after midnight mass and ending with 13 desserts. In a folk tradition from Croatia and the Ukraine, a braided, wreath-shaped cake or bread called Kolach is made. It holds three candles. The first is lit on Christmas Eve, two are lit at noon on Christmas Day, and all three are lit on New Year's Day. The cake is eaten on Epiphany. Often, the center of the cake is decorated with sprouted wheat, begun on St. Lucia Day (December 13).

Eat an apple at midnight! Old folklore says you'll enjoy great health during the year.

Old Scandinavian folklore: make sure the birds in your area have food before partaking of your own feast. Also, Scandinavian families placed their shoes together on Christmas Eve to assure that they would live in harmony for the coming year.

If a loaf of bread is allowed to remain on the table after the Christmas Eve celebration, there will be no lack of bread in the house for the next 12 months.

And in one of many folk customs involving divination on Christmas Eve, this one from Slovakia, young women would set tiny candles into nutshells, then float them in water. She whose candle floated the longest and burned to the end was foretold to have the best husband and garden in the year ahead.

If your public radio station carries BBC World Service, check local listings for "A Festival Of Nine Lessons and Carols" to be broadcast today. This choral program has been broadcast for more than 70 years on Christmas Eve. The annual broacasts from King's College Chapel at Cambridge University in England have never been interrupted, not even during WWII. It's one of the longest running and most popular radio programs ever, with 60 million listeners worldwide.

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