The team at Crimson Cloak Publishing led by Carly McCracken and all our authors would like to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas! We want to thank you for all your interest and support throughout the year, and to hope you will maintain this for the coming year. We love to hear from you, so please let us know if there is anything you would specifically like to see in our future blogs! Thank you one and all, and Merry Christmas!
Every Christmas Eve, Icelandic people practice something called ‘jolabokaflod,’ which translates to ‘Christmas book flood. ‘ Jolabokaflod’ is pronounced Jola-boka-flod (with the ‘J’ sounding like the ‘Y’ in ‘yoghurt!) The tradition involves giving books as presents on Christmas Eve, so that friends and family can spend a cozy night in curled up with a good story. Let’s set the scene. It’s Christmas Eve and after receiving a brand-new book from your family, you sit comfortably in your favourite chair close to a warm fire with chocolates to eat and a mug of hot cocoa to spend the rest of the…
The Holly and the Ivy are as much a part of a traditional Christmas as are Christmas trees and presents. Both are very hardy plants, and an old belief was that if they could survive harsh winters, so could the households that displayed them. The holly was sacred to the Roman god, Saturn, and the Romans gave each other holly wreaths to deck their homes. Ivy was the plant most associated with the Roman God, Bacchus, who wore a crown of it to symbolize his immortality. Bacchus, the God of wine and frivolity, and his followers believed their crowns of…
The Ancient Druids began the tradition of the Yule log, though they probably didn’t expect it to become a chocolate one after the passage of time…The name ‘Druid’ has been said to stem from the word ‘Duir’, or ‘oak’, which gave rise to the assumption that the Druids were priests of the sacred oak groves believed to have once spread across Britain and Ireland.They worshipped trees as symbols of the Gods, chanting to them and making offerings. The custom of ‘wassailing’ (meaning to wish good health to) is descended from the Druidic worship of these powerful trees. The Yule log…
Creatures of all kinds deserve to enjoy Christmas just as much as we do. Enjoy a wonderful time together!
The use of greenery and lights at Christmas goes back to the celebration of the Kalends of January in ancient Rome. Kalends was a celebration of the Roman New Year when people gave each other gifts of green boughs, honey treats, lamps for light and warmth, and silver and gold objects (The latter probably being the most popular.) They also trimmed trees with trinkets and toys during Saturnalia, and put candles on them to indicate the sun’s return to earth. The Druids honoured Odin by tying golden apples and other offerings to tree branches, and set lighted candles on…
10 Things you may like to know about the Celebration of Yule By P.J. Roscoe Yule is swiftly coming around, so I thought it would be interesting to learn a little about the upcoming event. “The cold & dark of winter are as necessary to life as the heat and light of the summer.” Kate West “I call upon the old gods, the reborn sun and the Oak King who has vanquished his brother the Holly King, to bring forth the light once more. May the spark of light this day, grow ever stronger, warming the earth and our hearts….
So, it is almost Christmas again, and time for the mad panic that it always causes as we rush around for cards and presents. That means it’s also time for my first Christmas blog, all about the origins of the special day. The word ‘Christmas’ comes from the Old English term ‘Cristes Mæsse’, meaning the ‘Mass of Christ’. The story of Christmas, as we all know, begins with the birth of a baby in Bethlehem. Many believe that Christ was born on the 25th, although the exact month is unknown. December could well have been chosen so the Catholic Church…
Paula provides today’s Christmas blog for the Winter Solstice. Yule, also known as the ‘Winter Solstice’ lands on December 21st every year. It is one of the main Sabbat’s of the Witches calendar, hence one of the reason’s ‘Christmas’ was given December, as early Christians attempted to utilise and integrate the Pagan celebrations of the year. Yule is the shortest day and the longest night. Yule represents the festival of the rebirth of the sun, as it has been in decline since the Summer Solstice, so even in the depth of a dark winter; we are reminded that life always…
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