LL-L "Traditions" 2008.12.21 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 21 December 2008 - Volume 04
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page
and switch your browser's character encoding to Unicode.
===========================================


From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Traditions

Hi, everyone!

Jacqueline, you wrote:

Hello Lowlanders, I was just thinking when I got Ron's Holliday message that
I know very little about what is iconic for this part of the year in other
cultures. Wotan had his mighty oak and maybe mistletoe already. For the
people in the Northern hemisphere the oaks were felled and replaced with "Oh
Tannenbaum" and lately I have run into many a "Hanukka bush". But what other
cultural icons are there? Solstices were easily observed even by people
without modern technology. So there must be other signs around.


Here are tidbits of what I have learned about this over the years:

Among pre-Christian Germanic tribes, Winter Solstice celebrations often
involved various fire rituals designed to provoke the return of the sun for
another cycle.

In wooded areas, trees on hilltops would be set alight. Apparently, this led
to the development of the Christmas tree.

On the coast, large bonfires used to be lit, and rituals used to be
performed around them, also to entice the sun back. A relic of this is the *
biikebrennen* ("beacon burning") in Northern Friesland.

In wooded areas, alternatively, or in addition, large wheels clad in
vegetation would be set alight and rolled down hillsides. This may have led
to the development of the Advent wreath and the name "Yule" which means
'wheel':

   - Old Frisian *hwēl, fiāl*
   - Old English *hweogl*
      -    > English, Scots *wheel*
   - Old Norse *hvēl, hvel, hjōl*
      -    > wheel: Icelandic, Faroese *hjól*, Danish, Norwegian *jul*,
      Swedish *hjul*
      -    > Christmas: Icelandic, Faroese *jól*, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish
      *jul*
      -    > English "Yule", Scots: *Yuil*, Finnish *joulu*, Estonian* jõulu
      *
   - Germanic: **hwela > *hwegwula, *hwehula*


I consider it quite possible that the lighting of the doused Christmas
pudding and the rituals surrounding it in Britain are derivatives of the
ancient fire rituals.

Also, certain cleansing rituals used to lead up to Yule, designed to remove
evil spirits before the sun's return. Apparently, relics of this is noisy
stomping and singing throughout the home at Christmas in Scandinavia,
various mummers festivals in Allemannic-speaking areas, and New Year's
cleaning rituals in various parts of Europe.

Of course, fire also plays a cleansing role in many other Eurasian
traditions, and this may well be connected with the mentioned European
rituals as well.

Thanks for the Yuletide descriptions that just rolled in and are posted
below!

And, of course, there is the Jewish Hanukkah (חנוכה) tradition which roughly
"coincides" with other festivals of light in the Northern Hemisphere's
darkest time of the year. The official religious explanation is that it
commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of
the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. It is observed for eight
nights, every night an additional light being lit on a *hanukiah* (חנכיה), a
candelabra (*menorah* מנורה) specifically set aside for Hanukkah. Roughly,
the story told about it is that at the rededication there was only enough
olive oil to light a lamp for one night, by the flame actually lasted eight
days.

I truly wish you all wonderful days in the company of people you love.
Whatever you do, enjoy it!

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

----------

From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2008.12.21 (01) [E]

from Heather Rendall  heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk

Jacqueline asked about iconic traditions

Here for our family a Christmas tree with decorations given each year to
each child so that a whole life time of memories hang on the tree: somewhat
depleted now since our 3 children have left home and taken their own
personal decorations with them. But still great joy to see them again when
visiting their homes ( as I did this afternoon and saw 30 years of
decorations on my daughter's tree. We had a happy few minutes recalling
where or why each one had been bought.)

Carrot and parsnip mash with the turkey

A christmas pudding well-lit with warm brandy being carried clockwise round
the table and GREAT disappointment if the flames die before the carrier (
usually me) completes the circle and sits down.

For decorations we bring in evergreens - holly and ivy and fir in the main
with the odd glass bauble as well.

A Christmas carol concert sometime during the weeks before Christmas

The Christmas Carols from Kings College at 3p.m. on Christmas Eve to
accompany the cooking in the kitchen and home made brandy butter with the
pudding and lots of cream!

Mmmmm I can't wait!

very best wishes to all

Heather

----------

From: Thomas Mc Rae <t.mcrae at uq.net.au>
Subject: LL-L "Holidays" 2008.12.21 (01) [E]

On 22/12/2008, at 5:23 AM,  R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>  wrote:


From:
Subject: Holdiays

Dear Lowlanders,

Happy holidays to all of you that celebrate them!

Happy Fourth Advent to all Western Tradition Christians among you! (I *
believe* my count is correct.)

Last evening our church held a very moving Celtic style service based on
Advent themes.


Regards

Tom Mc Rae

Brisbane

AUSTRALIA

"Oh wad some power the Giftie gie us,

Tae see oorsels as ithers see us

Robert Burns


----------

From: Heiko Evermann <heiko.evermann at gmx.de>
Subject: LL-L "Holidays" 2008.12.21 (01) [E]

Leve Ron,

Dear Lowlanders,

Happy holidays to all of you that celebrate them!

Happy Fourth Advent to all Western Tradition Christians among you! (I *
believe* my count is correct.) Also, beginning this week, merry Christmas! I
hope all of you were mostly nice and only a little bit naughty.

Happy first day of Hanukka to all our Jewish Lowlanders! May those lamps and
candles shine forever!

Happy Yule and Litha to you Pagans, and, correspondingly, happy Alban
Arthuan and Alban Heruin (Alban Hefin) respectively to you Celticists! (We
are talking about Winter Solstice in the Northern and Summer Solstice in the
Southern Hemisphere.)

Traditions can lead to unexpected quirks. Both my family and my wife's
family are Lutherans. I turned Seventh-Day-Adventist some 10 years ago. My
wife joined me soon after marriage. Basically our church is a Baptist
church. The most characteristic difference to Baptists (and to most other
Christian denominations) is that we take the Sabbath command in the Ten
Commandments the way it is written in the Bible: our weekly holiday is on
Saturday and not on Sunday.

We do have an "Adventskranz" (whats that in English?) on our kitchen table.
The story goes that it was invented here in Hamburg by Johann Hinrich
Wichern in a children's home as a countdown to Christmas.

Actually I do not know whether other Adventists make Advent wreaths (OK, I
looked up the word in the meantime) but my wife likes making them and for
our little children (aged 1 to 6) it definitely is a good countdown to
Christmas.

But what do you do when you celebrate Sabbath instead of Sunday... We then
decided to light the next candle one day earlier than our fellow Lutherans,
on the Saturday before each Advent Sunday. It is the third year we have an
Advent wreath and it is the third year we do this in this way, so this has
become our own family tradition.  (We are still using our fist set of
candles, nice, big orange ones!) Which reminds me that I recently heard an
American Buddhist state that only those who embody a tradition have the
right to change it.

Hartlich Gröten,

Heiko
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20081221/1454cd32/attachment.htm>