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Pagan roots run deep beneath our Christmas rituals

It is not clear exactly when the celebration of Advent was first introduced into the Church, but some theories suggest it is related to the feast of the winter solstice that was dear to our pagan ancestors....a remnant from our sun-worshipping past.

In fact, all the religious feasts around the winter solstice seem to combine elements of the sacred and “profane” – even Christmas itself...

Linguists agree that Karácsony comes from the Slavic word korcun, which means “passage” and refers to the passing of the winter solstice, and the beginning of a new cycle.

Ancient midwinter festivals may well have guided the choice of the December date: in the late Roman Empire, people marked Natalis Invicti or Sol Invuctus (“the Unconquered Sun”) at the winter solstice, to celebrate the fact that the darkest days were over and the hours of sunlight were again increasing.

For Romans, Dec 17 also marked the start of the great Saturnalia festival, commemorating the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn....the Yule feast celebrated at this time by Norse and German pagans.

The most important evidence of these relics from the old sun-worshipping religions is to be found nowadays in Luca’s Day. Celebrated in many cultures all over the world, Luca’s Day in Hungary is known as the most important feast of the witches, after St George’s Day.

It cannot be accidental the Church set the Day of St Lucia, or St Lucy, on Dec 13. Before the introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, it fell on Dec 21, the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year... St Lucia was a virgin martyr who, according to one legend, withstood such extremes of torture that she was suspected of being a witch, and so was ultimately burnt to death – but perished only after completing a final prayer.

HUNGARIAN FOLK CUSTOM

There is also a tradition of starting to build a so-called Luca’s Chair on Dec 13, and to add a little bit each day so that it is ready in exactly 12 days, on Dec 25. At Christmas midnight mass, the person who sits on the chair can supposedly see through disguises and reveal the witches that are hiding in the community.

Besides revealing witches – who tradition warns might “steal” the cow’s milk, the chicken’s eggs, or put a spell on people – it is very common on Luca’s Day to start trying to guess the identity of one’s future husband.

Girls make 12 cakes, with a man’s name in each, and they eat one every day – their future husband’s name will be the one contained in the last remaining cake.

Luca’s Day symbolizes the rebirth of nature: the partial end of the old world, and the beginning of the new. Very similar to the old pagan solar rituals, it is a feast that holds the promise of new life. The 12 days from Luca’s Day to Christmas can even be seen as a micro-year: from the events of these days, Hungarians forecast how the following year’s months will be.