One advantage of being early January-born, as I am, is that one can look backwards and forwards into time, as Janus did, one face looking back, the other looking forward.  So in this first winter season of the new millennium, I look back to Christmas of 1900, and to the cluster of years following that date.  The writers, artists, composers, and thinkers of that era were so significant -- and yet strangely quaint -- as if for all their brilliance they had no idea of the changes that would soon be common knowledge to those born only a few years after the turn of the century, to say nothing of those of us born in the 1940's, and the '50's, '60's, '70's '80's, and '90's.

Those living in 1900 seem so old-fashioned to us now, so protected and encapsulated, so privileged and arrogant.  They lived in dangerous times, but they were too unaware and unawake to know it.  And so we look back at them in their funny top hats, stiff gait, gold buttons, their stuffy arch-dukes, their women who couldn't vote, their repressed children, and we think how much smarter, more enlightened, we are than they.

But one day, people will look back and think similar things about us.  It's odd to feel so modern, even post-modern, while at the same time recognizing that from the perspective of the future, we're already quaint, out-of-date, cocooned, and clueless about what lies decades, or even a few years, ahead.  To those being born in the 2040's, '50's, and beyond, we're already ancient and preserved, if at all, in nostalgic snow-globes of memory.

Yet we too live in dangerous times.

May we spend this time wisely so that at least we won't be seen as foolish or reckless.  Those born later in this century may not agree with us, but may they think of us as genial, full of humor, humble, and wise.  We're in a "thin space," as the Celts call it, a portal between the worlds.  Those who stood at that portal in the winter of 1900 brewed, all unknowing, two world wars.  May we brew, if not peace, at least a growing sense of humanity and compassion.  May we have the skill to defuse explosions.  May we be remembered as tolerant and awake.

Warmly,

Kathleen

... "When one combines a process of inquiry with content of beauty and antiquity, when, even as a lark, one opens the flow of archetypal images contained in the history and legends of people long negated by this culture, many who confront these images are going to take to them and begin a journey unimagined by those who started the process."

     --Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon

The world's three desert-born monotheisms also celebrate important feasts during this winter season:  the Moslem month of Ramadan [also see below under 11/27] is celebrated from 27 November to the New Moon of 25 December 2000 (depending upon the new moon's sightings); the Jewish feast of Chanukah [also see below under 12/21] is honored from sunset 21 December to 29 December 2000; western Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25th; and eastern orthodox Christians celebrate Christ's birth on January 7th.

Although Chanukah and Christmas always fall during December, it should be noted that the Moslem feast of Ramadan migrates each lunar year and doesn't always fall during the Chanukah / Christmas season --- it did in 1999 and again this year in 2000, but in 2001 it'll straddle November-December and thus lie outside much of the Jewish/Christian celebratory winter-nexus.

It should be significant that in this first year of the new millennium a season of holiness will be shared by all three of the West's monotheistic "Peoples of the Book," brothers and sisters all, and parents of children who have a right to live free of those parents' ancient hatreds.  All share the same overlapping period of ritual holiness, light, and peace.

It should be significant, but it probably won't change anything.  Ancient calendar-events mean little when heart-events sway so dangerously out of control.  Nevertheless, one cannot help but pray that the bitterness and sense of betrayal between Sarah and Hagar will stop overshadowing their raging descendants and, instead, transform and engender a new tolerance, to say nothing of simple common sense, from this unusual convergence.

NOTE: Despite this season of goodwill, the reality is that many people will go hungry this winter.  Here's one way to help: every time you go to The Hunger Site and click on the "Donate Free Food" button, one of their sponsors will make a donation of rice, wheat, maize or another food staple to a hungry person. You can do this once a day, and it's free.  This is a form of public relations for the sponsoring corporations because it associates the company and its products with a good cause.  The food donations are distributed through the United Nations World Food Program, the world's largest food aid organization, with projects in 80 countries.

[Added 12/21/00]: This lovely site from Caltech professor of physics, Kenneth G. Libbrecht, examines why no two snowflakes are ever alike.  The page offers images of and links to gorgeous photos of individual snowflakes.  I found it utterly fascinating.

http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/j/jack_frost.html

This is a very brief entry from "Encyclopedia Mythica" on personifications of frost and snow -- Jack Frost, Father Frost, and Germany's crone who makes snow by shaking out her feather bed.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc_1999/alm99nov.htm [Link updated 10/31/00]

From the "Weather Doctor," meteorologist Dr. Keith C. Heidorn, comes this marvelous essay on frost.  Heidorn combines the science of frost formation with the folklore of Jack Frost, Father Frost, the "frosty sisters" of the Pleiades (from an Australian Aboriginal myth), and other such beings.  There are lovely photos of different types of frost as well.

http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/seasons/sos.html [Link updated 10/29/00]

This wonderful site is the home page for Waverly Fitzgerald's School of the Seasons, one of my favorite sites (and one which appears elsewhere among my own pages).  Waverly is thorough, wide-ranging, and has a superb eye for lore.  She updates each month a day or so before it begins -- but check her "Archives" section if you, like me, love sneak previews -- a few dates will change each year (e.g., Chanukah), but most remain the same.  Don't miss this one.  On the home page, you'll also find great special feature articles on the holiday season.

http://home.att.net/~alpine.shaman/mainpage.html: [Link updated 10/29/00 but this site has unfortunately not been updated since 2/26/00 -- hopefully, he'll update in time for the winter 2000 season.  You might wish to write an encouraging e-mail to him!]

From the Alpine Shaman comes another lore-calendar, not nearly as complete as Waverly's but nevertheless a pleasure in its own right.  His is done by weeks, not months.  He gives succinct data on holidays, ancient lore, gardening & householding do's and dont's, moon phases, astrological signs where the moon is, etc.  He also includes his own links to the Runes and Celtic trees associated with each week.

http://www.slovak.com/xmas_traditions/index.html

This is "Slovaks and Christmas Traditions" by Ondro Mihal.  He looks briefly at significant dates leading up to Christmas, beginning with St. Martin's day on 11 November, St. Katherine's on 25 November, St. Andrew's on 30 November, St. Nicholas' on 6 December, St. Lucia's on 13 December, and, finally, whether it's on 24 December or 6 January, Christmas eve (celebrated with bountiful ritual foods).

http://www.candlegrove.com/

Another "must see" is this award-winning site, created by San Franciscan, Teresa Ruano, and offering appealing essays on Winter Solstice, Yule, Saturnalia, and much else. (Note: click anywhere on the large candle to enter the site).  The focus is pagan, but the fabulous collection of links includes Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa as well.

If you click on "About the site," you'll find a hypertext link to Ruano's beautifully written reasons for choosing a candle for her site; she also gives the Margot Adler text which swirls around that opening candle (-- and which I have also used above).  Above all, don't forget to explore her "and Today" page -- here, starting with December first, she gives new entries for each day throughout the holiday season.  This is a great site for browsing -- just click on all hypertext!  (Note: the site is updated each year.)

http://paganwiccan.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa120698.htm

This site from fellow-Capricorn, Frances Donovan comes from about.com (formerly the Mining Company, "mining" the web for gems so you don't have to).  Donovan's opening essay on Yule is brief but lovely; she also offers terrific links to other related Yule sites [link updated 10/29/00], making this another good place to browse for lore and rituals.  (You can also access previous weekly issues of this site and learn about entry-level data on wicca as well as Donovan's path from Catholicsm to Wicca.  She has an honest, amusing, engaging style.)

http://www.witchvox.com/holidays/yule.html

From the always excellent Witches' Voice site come various essays on many aspects of winter solstice and Christmas, especially from pagan perspectives.

http://www.maui.net/~mcculc/xmas.htm

This is Carol McCullough's colorful "Winter Festivals from the Past & Present."  Her opening commentary mentions the calendar changes of 1752, which is why the Orthodox Church retains the older date of 7 January (if you're interested in the history behind these calendar changes, you might wish to explore some of the links on my page about Time).  Then she offers a survey of worldwide festivals with brief comments on each:  Sweden's Midvimterblot; Druid/Wiccan solstice; Tibet's Dosmoche (a 5-day celebration for the dying year) and Butter Sculpture festivals; medieval Europe's Feast of the Ass; Italy's La Befana; Pakistan's Chaomas; Ethiopia's Ganna games; England's wassailing of the apple trees (also a Snapdragon game); Mexico's "Night of the Radishes"; and Japan's Hari-Kuyo, or festival of Broken Needles.  At the end, under "Happy Holidays," she has good links to other sites, including those for Chanukah and Kwanzaa.  I wish she had more data for each festival but the page is bright, pleasant and gives a good sense of the variety of winter festivals available throughout the world.  It's a great starting point for you to explore further into those that intrigue you most.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa122397.htm?COB=home&terms

From N. S. Gill, the reliable and erudite Ancient/Classical History guide at about.com, comes this excellent page of information and links to four ancient winter solstice celebrations held in Rome (Saturnalia and feasts honoring Mithras), Mesopotamia (the Zagmuk festival), and Israel (Chanukah).

http://astrology.about.com/science/astrology/library/weekly/aa121799a.htm [Link updated 10/29/00]

From Anthony Pena, the Astrology guide at about.com, comes this provocative essay, "Jesus Was A Capricorn?"  Pena looks convincingly at facts surrounding the Christmas Star, magi, and ancient astronomy; he speculates (along with other astrologers) that Jesus was probably a Pisces and may have been born 1 March in the year 7 BCE.  Pena also provides a great collection of links to myths of Saturn and Janus, the Saturnalia, Star of Bethlehem, life in Roman antiquity, and much more.

[Added 12/21/00]: For many reasons, the winter holidays are often a time of depression:

...The Yale Depression Research Clinic claims that the holiday blues are a "universal and normal" experience. Although many may feel unhappy during the holidays, even more may experience post-holiday doldrums. Several studies show a rise in emotional distress after holidays, especially Christmas. Other studies show that mental health emergencies increase during the three weeks following the holidays....

This site, "Avoiding the Holiday (and Post Holiday) Blues" by Dr. Steve Duncan from Montana State University, looks at causes and offers refreshing suggestions for relief.

http://www.mythinglinks.org/Mythworks~DianneSkafte3.html

[Added 12/21/00]: While not focused specifically on holiday depression, this exquisite page from my friend and colleague, Dr. Dianne Skafte, offers simple, wise meditative exercises for getting in touch with the deeper, oracacular, "invisible" dimensions of life.  These are valid year-round but especially relevant at this time of the year.  Don't miss this one!

http://www.headlinemuse.com/aphroadvice/decaphro.htm

[Added 12/21/00]: This essay from Laura Shamas (who teaches communication and theatre at Pepperdine University and is working on her doctorate in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute) looks at winter depression from another perspective -- that of bringing more beauty into our lives by honoring Aphrodite.  A lovely Aphroditic ritual designed for New Year's is included.

LINKS TO A SELECTION OF CROSS-CULTURAL
CALENDAR DATES
Note: for links arranged by region instead of calendar, please go to my Yuletide Around the World page (many of the links there were on my 1999 Winter page, but they took too long to load & I've divided them this year).


Winter Moon
© 1999 by Joanna Powell Colbert: used with her permission.
[Note: this link will take you to a series of Joanna's beautiful Yule paintings,
each with its own fine lore -- many can be bought as cards or prints.]

http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/seasons/nov.html

[Added 10/31/00]: This is Waverly Fitzgerald's evocative, beautifully written paean to the month of November, which is when winter begins in many lands.  A calendar at the end shows many of the ancient celebrations connected with this time in Europe, Asia, and the New World -- many of them have clickable links for further data.

http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/seasons/allsouls.html

2 November [Added 10/31/00]:  This is "All Souls Day and the Wild Horde," again from Waverly Fitzgerald -- it's a terrific essay (illustrated) on the "Wild Hordes" of Odin and Herne.
 

St. Catherine of Alexandria
[From the site directly below]

http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/seasons/novdays2.html#cath

25 November [Added 10/31/00]: Again from Waverly, this is the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, patroness of scholars, jurists, unmarried women, and people who work with wheels, like spinners (it's also my name-day <smile>):

...She is possibly modeled after Kali who has a fiery wheel as an emblem. Certainly these images (found in the word Yule, the Advent candle wreath and St. Lucy's crown of candles) are ubiquitous at this time of year; so are folk customs forbidding women to spin (use a wheel). Durdin-Robertson says St. Catherine is a Christian version of Nemesis, the Goddess of the Wheel of Fortune (and thus perhaps with Mary in her aspect as Mother of Divine Providence....

FYI: during my Catholic days, I celebrated this feast for years in my small slum apartment on the Lower East Side of New York in the 1960-70's.  When the Vatican deleted many saints like Catherine (also St. Nicholas and St. Christopher) from the yearly calendar, I wondered who would replace her.  I kept checking church calendars for updates.  Then one night I dreamed that I was given a beautifully illuminated (medieval-style), updated Daily Missal.  Eagerly, I turned to 25 November to see whose feastday it now was.  There on the exquisitely painted page I saw written: The Feast of the Acceptance by God of St. Francis of Assisi's Music.  The grammar was awkward, but it only served to impress it upon my memory so that I could recall it intact when I awoke.  I now celebrate the music and sacred art within each of us on 25 November <smile>.

Ramadan
(From Blue Mountain Arts)

http://www.arabview.net/Ramadan/: [10/31/00: broken link -- temporarily offline]

27 November-25 December 2000 is the estimated month of Ramadan for 2000 -- the actual dates depend upon the first sight of the new moon's rising, as the Moslem calendar is both lunar and experiential -- in other words, the new moon actually has to be seen: if the night is cloudy, Ramadan might start the following night, or the next, or whenever the sky clears.  This handsomely designed website comes from the ArabView Network.  It includes information on Ramadan, many tasty recipes, and links to related sites.  About Ramadan itself:

The holy month of Ramadan is the 9th month of the Muslim calendar where all Muslims "Fast" or refrain from eating from dusk till dawn. It is also believed that during this holy month, the Quran was revealed (believed to be on the 27th day of Ramadan - "Laylat al Qadr" or "Night of Power") to the Prophet Mohammad....

http://www.holidays.net/ramadan/

This is another handsomely designed site with links to basic information on Ramadan and Islam.

http://www.ummah.net/ramadhan/ram_what.htm

"Ramadan -- What Is It?" comes from a December 1996 essay by Abdulhamid Mukhtar.  Based on tradition as well as etymologies, it's a very interesting piece of writing.  For example:

Ramadan is derived from the Arabic root word ramida or arramad -- intense scorching heat and dryness, especially the ground.... Some said  it is so called because the hearts and souls are more readily receptive to the admonition and remembrance of Allah during Ramadan, as the sand and stones are receptive to the sun's heat....

http://www.ramadhan.org/

This site is trapped in frames so there's no way to extricate a specific page from among its links.  What I found most fascinating, however, was clicking on a section called "Articles," where there's a lengthy essay on the question of whose sighting of the new moon begins and ends Ramadan.  The author takes issue with political boundaries and "government scholars" in determining Ramadan:

...The sighting of the moon of Ramadhan or the moon of Shawaal by a Muslim obliges all the Muslims to fast or break fast, with no difference between a country or another or between a Muslim or another because any Muslim who saw the moon is proof for any who did not see it.
    The witnessing by a Muslim in any country is not more deserving than the witnessing by a Muslim in any other country. There is no value of the divisions and borders which the kuffar established in the Muslims' lands, which made it so that the Muslims of Dar'a in Syria start fasting while the people of Ramtha in Jordan do not, although there is nothing between the two cities except imaginary borders....

http://later.com/newsletter/1998-12-4.html [Broken link 10/31/00]

From the "Worldwide Online Newsletter" comes a simple one page site with a useful overview of Ramadan.  It includes hypertext for more in-depth data -- especially interesting is one on the "Moslem Lunar Calendar" with colorful visibility curves showing worldwide sighting-potentials. Looking at these charts gives one a good sense of the complexity of these sightings in their interlinked time zones.

http://islam.about.com/library/weekly/aa120799.htm [Link updated 10/31/00]

From Christine Huda Dodge, the Islam guide at about.com, comes "The Ramadan Spirit," an eloquent page contrasting the Moslem month of fasting with the materialism of some of the other seasonal celebrations.

http://islam.about.com/religion/islam/library/weekly/aa121698.htm [Link updated 10/31/00]

Also from Christine Huda Dodge is this page of well chosen links to many aspects of Ramadan.  This is a good place to browse.

4 December is the feast of St. Barbara:

....This saint protects children from different diseases and, first of all, small-pox. This festival has to do not only with children, but with animals too....

This site from Bulgaria looks at traditions involving this saint; it also provides festive Bulgarian recipes for foods associated with this day: "bathed bread," stuffed dried peppers, lentils, and macaroons. (Also see my Balkans: Bulgarian pages.)

5-6 December are the eve and feastday of St. Nicholas.  Waverly Fitzgerald offers this well researched page on St. Nicholas as well as his companion, "Black Pete."  I found especially interesting the echoes of Poseidon (whose feastday is December 1st) found in this Turkish saint.

http://www.omda.bg/engl/cook/Nikulden.htm

I love the additional nautical lore offered on this Bulgarian site about St. Nicholas.  Although the connection to Poseidon (see directly above) isn't specified, it's obvious from the context:

The folk-Christian myth relates of the partitioning of the world when to Saint Nicholas’ lot fell the seas, rivers and lakes. He is the master of the entire submarine realm - fish and water demons, as well as of the sea winds. According to the myths, St. Nicholas makes winds rage and cease, he can walk on the seas, and whenever there is a ship in trouble, he would save it.

The site offers several Bulgarian recipes for ribnik, dough-wrapped carp (a fish offered to St. Nicholas) as well as for rice with dried fruits.

ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/religion/neopagan/Rituals/Holidays/Yule/about_kachinkas

This is a nice little 1993 essay by Shava Nerad Averett that links the spirit of a kindly Santa Claus to the spirits of the kachinas of the American southwest.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/library/weekly/aa121097.htm [Link updated 10/30/00]

Finally, this link will take you to facts and fictions about Clement Moore's famous depiction of St. Nick.

Our Lady of Guadalupe
[From "The Feast Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe":
see directly below]

http://asuam.fa.asu.edu/fiestas/guadalupe.htm

12 December is the Feast Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe and this illustrated essay explains the background of this major winter celebration in Mexico:

December 12 is perhaps the most important day on Mexico's fiesta calendar, for it is the day which honors the "Mother of the Mexicans," the Virgin of Guadalupe. According to legend, an apparition of the Virgin appeared to the recently converted Indian Juan Diego in 1531 on the hill of Tepeyac, just north of Mexico City; this site had served in pre-Conquest times as an ancient pilgrimage site dedicated to the Aztec earth goddess, Tonantzin. A brown-skinned Virgin, speaking in Juan Diego's native tongue of Nahuatl, declared herself to be Mary, the Mother of Christ, and requested that a church be built in her honor on the hill....

Lucina/St. Lucia
(Detail)
Courtesy of Sandra Stanton (also see below for direct link)

http://www.goddessmyths.com/Lucina-Ptesan-Wi.html

13 December is the feastday of Sweden's St. Lucia, a light-bearing saint who originated in Italy as the goddess Juno-Lucina.  This lovely, strong page from Sandra Stanton begins with Lucina and offers a brief historical perspective.

http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/PrintsPg/ArtPrints/WinterCopy/junoluc.html

This is another fine page of image and data on St. Lucia, this time from Joanna Powell Colbert.  [Added 11/1/00]: Here is yet another version of St. Lucia, with nicely expanded lore: http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/PrintsPg/ArtPrints/WinterCopy/lucia.html

http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/seasons/lucy.html

And from Waverly Fitzgerald, woven from several excellent sources, comes a more detailed look at St. Lucia, patroness of eye diseases and the blind.  Waverly reminds us that before the calendar change, St. Lucia's feast would have fallen on winter solstice (just like the Baltic goddess Saule -- see below).

20 December is the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch as it is celebrated in Bulgaria.  According to tradition, the Virgin's labor pains began on this day and continued until Christmas:

....This festival venerates the bishop of Antioch - Saint Ignatius  Theophorus, sentenced to death because of his Christian faith and thrown to the lions. It was from the day of St. Ignatius to Christmas Eve that Virgin Mary's labours continued.  Christmas and New Year festivities begin from Ignazhden. The popular belief holds this day as the beginning of the new year, that is why in some places in Bulgaria its name is Nov den /New Day/.  And since it is the start of a new year, it is very important what man or woman first steps in the house - good or bad. On this personality depends the whole year ahead....

(FYI: St Ignatius lived in the first-second centuries A.D. and was thrown to the lions in Rome, where he died as a martyr.  He is reported to have said: I am God's wheat, ground fine by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ...If the lions are lazy, poke them.)

Although this Bulgarian feast honors a Christian saint, the feast's traditional connection with the beginnings of the Virgin's labor as well as its association with new life and new beginnings clearly mark it as a Christian holiday substituted for a much older winter solstice celebration.  The site provides recipes connected with this feast, including ring-cakes and potato dishes.

21-22 December (Winter Solstice) is celebrated as the feast of the Baltic goddess Saule in Latvia and Lithuania.  Joanna Powell Colbert gives us this page on Saule's connection with light -- in this case, the golden apples of the sun:  "....At Winter Solstice, Kaleda, Saule is reborn as her daughter the morning-star...." The page offers good data in addition to a lovely image of Saule (see directly above for detail).

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/1119/saule.html

Based on data from "O Mother Sun" by Patricia Monaghan (Crossing Press), this page gives more information on Saule.  My favorite part is this beautiful passage on the goddess, her sun-stone (amber), and spinning (note: this site is double-listed on my Common Themes: Weaving page):

....Among the Balts, the connection between the sun and spinning is very old, and the sun-stone, amber, forms the link....Sometimes amber discs were also placed in the grave, perhaps as prayers to the Sun Goddess to spin forth the lost life in another body.... [A]mber was considered a magical substance for a spinner; as the light never tangles in the sky, so an amber spindle protected the new thread from snarls caused by unhappy or malicious spirits....

                 "Saule, my amber weeping Goddess
                       creating light like thread.
          As "Saules Mat" my mother sun, daily blessing
                    your thankful world with light."

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2810/Saule.html

From Sacred Serpent (whose other pages are found elsewhere on my website) comes another site dedicated to Saule ("Sow-lay") by Vilija, a woman who knows the language and lore firsthand.  It's beautifully done, authoritative, impressively detailed.  For example, in addition to being the Sun, Saule is also the mother of the planets, all of whom are her daughters! --

...As the female head of the heavenly family, Saule is the mother of the planets.  Among Her daughters are: Vaivora (Mercury), Ausrine, (Morning Star or Venus), Zemyna (Earth), Ziezdre (Mars), Selija (Saturn) and Indraja (Jupiter). Thus, according to some scholars, Lithuanians named the planets during a matriarchal age. i.e. earlier than the Romans.

On December 13th, (Feast of St. Lucia), Saule pauses on Her return to dance with Her daughters. She also dances at Velykos (Easter) and Rasa (summer solstice)....

The site conjures up many such evocative images.

http://pagan.drak.net/wwcrew/saule.html

From Kristaps ("Chris") Johnson comes yet one more page on Saule and, to a lesser extent, her brother, the Moon.  Chris approaches Saule in her own right but also in an interesting cross-cultural context.  The illustrated page includes her ancient symbols as found in intricate embroideries -- Chris includes some lovely examples.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2810/kucios.html

21-22 December (Winter Solstice): This rich essay, again from Sacred Serpent, is "The Winter Solstice: Kucios and Kaledos," by Audrius Dundzila, Ph.D. looks at traditions surrounding the Balts' winter solstice eve (Kucios) and winter solstice itself (Kaledos), which is the rebirth of Saule, Mother Sun.

ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/religion/neopagan/Rituals/Holidays/Yule/nichols_about

21-22 December (Winter Solstice): From Sweden comes this well written and quite intriguing essay on Yule, or Winter Solstice, from a pagan perspective.  The author is Mike Nichols.  Here is how he begins:

     Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at how enthusiastically we Pagans celebrate the 'Christmas' season.  Even though we prefer to use the word 'Yule', and our celebrations may peak a few days BEFORE the 25th, we nonetheless follow many of the traditional customs of the season: decorated trees, carolling, presents, Yule logs, and mistletoe.  We might even go so far as putting up a 'Nativity set', though for us the three central characters are likely to be interpreted as Mother Nature, Father Time, and the Baby Sun-God.  None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who knows the true history of the holiday, of course.

    In fact, if truth be known, the holiday of Christmas has always been more Pagan than Christian, with its associations of Nordic divination, Celtic  fertility rites, and Roman Mithraism.  That is why both Martin Luther and John Calvin abhorred it, why the Puritans refused to acknowledge it, much less celebrate it (to them, no day of the year could be more holy than the Sabbath), and why it was even made ILLEGAL in Boston!  The holiday was already too closely associated with the birth of older Pagan gods and heroes.  And many of them (like Oedipus, Theseus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus, Apollo, Mithra, Horus and even Arthur) possessed a narrative of birth, death, and resurrection that was uncomfortably close to that of Jesus.  And to make matters worse, many of them pre-dated the Christian Savior.

    Ultimately, of course, the holiday is rooted deeply in the cycle of the year.  It is the Winter Solstice that is being celebrated, seed-time of the year, the longest night and shortest day.  It is the birthday of the new Sun King, the Son of God -- by whatever name you choose to call him.  On this darkest of nights, the Goddess becomes the Great Mother and once again gives birth....

There is rich lore here, including wassail cups, bees, crickets, windy weather, shepherds tending flocks by night, lambing, ivy, holly, and mistletoe.  If you're interested in the ancient roots of this season, don't miss this essay.

The Three Candles
[Detail]
Marc Chagall

http://www.nas.com/jpcolbertart/seasons/hanukkah.html

21 [sunset] - 29 December 2000 is the Jewish celebration of Chanukah.  Waverly Fitzgerald's thoughtful page gives both an historical and a cross-cultural perspective.  For example:

The Jewish festival of light, Hanukkah, begins on the 25th of Kislev, three days before the new moon closest to the Winter Solstice. This means it spans the darkest time of the year both in the lunar cycle and the solar cycle....

[Note: as of 10/30/00, Waverly's page still has 1999's date but everything else is accurate; she'll update it late next month.]

http://cue.dsu.edu/images/Holidays/Christmas/chanukah.htm

From Dakota State University come five well-chosen Chanukah links.  They express a great range of variety and overall excellence.  This is a good browsing site.

http://www.holidays.net/chanukah/

This is a family oriented site, lively, well written, and many pages are as interesting for adults as for children:

...We've got stories, tasty holiday recipes, holiday pictures for the kids to print and color, easy crafts to make, holiday games to play, and spinning dreidels!

24 December is Christmas eve in Bulgaria and this page details many folk customs, rooted in an agricultural past, associated with this celebration:

It is also called Sukha koleda /Dry Christmas/, Malka koleda /Little Christmas/, Kadena vecher /Incensed Night/, Bozhich. The forty-day Advent, starting on 15 November, finishes on this day.
Folk beliefs hold it that the Mother of God began her labours on St. Ignatius’ Day and gave birth to God’s son on Christmas Eve....

Recipes included on the page are for meatless chomlek, stuffed cabbage leaves, boiled wheat, walnut kernels in the Thracian style, "Swift Pumpkin" dessert, stewed dried fruit, and a round breadloaf:

...the water used to make the bread was brought in a white caldron by a girl or by a young woman married in the autumn preceding Christmas Eve and having borne no children yet....

http://www.polishworld.com/christmas/

This is a page with a wide variety of Christmas Eve customs from Poland:

Customs to ensure a betrothal or good harvest were a major part of rural Polish Christmas time traditions.
        For Poles, Christmas Eve is a time of family gathering and reconciliation. It's also a night of magic: Animals are said to talk in a human voice and people have the power to tell the future....

There are also good links to other Polish Yuletide features, including links to food, carols, and creches.

[Note for another great page on Christmas Eve customs in Poland, see Okana's Web under "Yule in Russia & Eastern Europe" on my new Cross-Cultural Yuletide Links page.]

25 December (Christmas) [Added 10/31/00]: for more links and artwork, this year I shifted links that used to be on this page and created a separate Mythinglinks page for them at the above link.  This page covers regional Yuletide customs and lore in Scandinavia; Russia & Eastern Europe; Western Europe (including Celtic traditions; also Greece, France, and Europe in general); the New World; and "Down Under."  The page concludes with Yuletide Mummers, Yuletide Foods, and Yuletide Trees.

26 December is celebrated as the birthday of the eastern European winter goddess, Rozhanitza.  On this day, people used to give each other gifts of embroidered cloth in the goddess' honor.  Here (above, her clothing reflecting Mary B. Kelly's research on these embroideries) Joanna shows her with her daughter, a deer-goddess.  The link gives further tantalizingly brief data on this virtually unknown goddess.

Hopi Turtle Icons
[See directly below]

http://www.puebloharvest.com/seasons.html

26 December is also celebrated in the American southwest -- in this case, with a sacred dance honoring the Turtle.

....They named it the Turtle Dance because the turtle is a animal which has a long life. The elders were saying that the life span of the Native Americans of the Pueblo of San Juan relies on that certain reptile, the life-span that it has.
      The elders had a big ceremonial in naming the elements in the songs, the elements which are provided for human survival like the evergreens, the gourd rattle, and the turtle itself. And then also the songs relate to creations of the Kachinas....

Links on this illustrated pueblo site will take you to more information on the dance, a recording of a Turtle Song, and also to a beautiful essay by a Hopi elder on her memories of winter solstice.  (Note: on this site you can also order tasty homegrown dried soup packets with native recipes.)

http://gosouthwest.about.com/travel/gosouthwest/library/weekly/aa122298.htm

From about.com's guide to the southwest, Boise Matthews, comes an excellent page on solstice and other winter dances in the pueblos -- turtle, corn, buffalo, and deer dances.  Don't miss the "Tis the Season Introduction" link -- it'll take you to an exploration of the unique southwestern Solstice and Christmas blend of Native American and Hispanic cultures.

Kwanzaa

(From the Berber Corporation -- link is defunct as of 11/1/00 yet the firm still exists and if you delete everything in their URL back to their ".com," you'll be at their home page.  If you e-mail them from there, you might be able to get more info on this and other Kwanzaa images.)

http://www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org/

26 December - 1 January is Kwanzaa, a new ritual, dating only from 1966, but the human heart, not antiquity, is the true measure of a ritual's power and depth.  This site comes from the scholar who created the celebration, Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach:

...the central interest of this website is to provide information which reveals and reaffirms the integrity, beauty and expansive meaning of the holiday and thus aids in our approaching it with the depth of thought, dignity, and sense of specialness it deserves.

http://www.tike.com/celeb-kw.htm

This is "Everything About Kwanzaa," a great site that was awarded the Times Pick by the Los Angeles Times on 12/23/96.  Whereas the preceding site has many fine linked pages (with accompanying load-times), this site is a long, convenient page with everything in one place.  I like both styles but if I were in a hurry, I'd use this one.  The other one is better for leisurely browsing.

http://www.wivb.com/4Holidays/Kwanzaa.htm [10/29/00: dead link -- but see below]

This is a simpler site from WIVB, a TV station in Buffalo, New York.  It's well organized and has colorful graphics.  Its best feature is an essay on Kwanzaa's meaning and history from Dr. Conrad W. Worrill. [Note 10/29/00: link is now dead and has been replaced by this inferior page -- I hope many of you will e-mail them and complain]:

http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?s=19847

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/K-12/Kwanzaa_What_16661.html

This useful little essay designed for educators from K-12 is "Kwanzaa- What Is It?" from the Akwansosem African Studies Program-Outreach at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

http://www.flint.lib.mi.us/fpl/resources/holidays/kwanzaa/kwanzaa.html [Link updated 11/1/00]

From the Flint Public Library in Michigan comes "Kwanzaa: an African-American Cultural Celebration."  The site offers a good collection of links to other sites but it also offers a unique Kwanzaa bibliography of non-fiction (divided into adult and youth), fiction (youth only), and audio & video resources.

6 January is the feast of the Epiphany, the day on which the three Magi (Wise Men and astrologers) found the Christ child.  This is Waverly Fitzgerald's special page for "Twelfth Night," January 6th (Epiphany).

http://www.omda.bg/engl/cook/Jordanday.htm

Every country has rich traditions surrounding this feast of Epiphany.  This website tells us how it's celebrated in Bulgaria:

On 6 January the Bulgarian people celebrate Epiphany or St. Jordan’s Day. This festival has different names in the different parts of the country, some of them are Krastovden /Day of the Cross/, Voditzi /Waters/ or Vodokrashti /Waterchristen/. The night before St. Jordan’s Day is the last one of the ”incensed" nights....According to the popular belief, in the dead of night on Epiphany the skies open and everyone who sees them, will be given by God all that he wishes. In the past, many people used to sit up all night watchfully awaiting the heaven to open....

Bulgarian recipes for this feastday are for cluster loaf, cabbage leaves stuffed with grouts, and a wheat dessert prepared in the Stara Zagora style.

John's Baptism of Christ
Detail
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
[11/1/00: link is now defunct but I saved the full version at:  da Vinci2]

http://www.omda.bg/engl/cook/Ivanday.htm

7 January is Christmas in the Orthodox Church, but it's St. John the Baptist's Day in Bulgaria and elsewhere, for it was on this day that John's baptism of Christ at the Jordan River was celebrated (FYI: historically, Christ's Baptism is a far more ancient Christian feast than the Nativity):

In the church calendar, this is the day celebrated in honour of Saint John the Baptist who baptized Jesus. It is also the holiday of all who bear the Saint's name. By old Bulgarian custom at early dawn - before sunrise - young women brought water from a river or a well. In a large caldron, referred to as "chebar", they bathed the children for health. The young couples, who had married in the winter before St. John's Day, were also given a bath in this "chebar"....

Bulgarian recipes for the day include stuffed leg of pork, banitza (a cheese pastry) and apple pie.

[31 October 2000]: Since this page is already very long, I've added new material & transferred many Yule links from last year to a new page.  It covers regional Yuletide customs and lore in Scandinavia; Russia & Eastern Europe; Western Europe (e.g., Celtic); the New World; and "Down Under."  The page concludes with Yuletide Mummers; Yuletide Foods; and Yuletide Trees -- don't miss it!

Yuletide Around the World

The Imbolc page:

The traditional end of the Yule season in the Catholic Church is Candlemas on 2 February.  This coincides with the pagan feast of Imbolc.  I have created a separate page for this ancient feast which marks the embryonic quickening of the seed of light, first planted on the darkest night of the year during Winter Solstice.

This page includes a handful of terrific sites where I buy my own holiday treasures.  (Don't forget that in the West, the Christmas/Yule season lasts til Epiphany/Three Kings' Day on 6 January! -- thus, no holiday gift is ever really "late.")  It also includes a link to "Monsters in the Toybox," a great essay from Pat Grauer about what not to buy (her essay is Christian-oriented but I found it wise and valuable for all).
 
Several Other Related
Mything Links Pages:

The "square" on the mini-console below will stop the sound; the "triangle" will start it again; the two lines will pause it; the slider controls the volume.