Christmas/Winter Solstice in SW Germany

Many aspects of this festival are Alemannic in origin, yet go back to earlier agrarian traditions of heralding the return of the sun. We know from the Nebra Disk and the Golden Hats that our neolithic ancestors had a meticulous calendar system in that regard, based on both solar and lunar cycles. During the dark days of Winter Solstice in central Europe it is as if all has withdrawn into deep hibernation, huddled under a pristine blanket of solace.

Indeed, this is what our ancestors understood as the passing of the old into the new; the heavy white frosts an integral process of purifying and regenerating the earth in this period. Thus it is time to tidy up the old homestead and sweep out the foul air with smoldering bundles of antiseptic herbs, particularly aromatic conifers from which the sap was collected to make frankincense. Boughs of conifer were hung over the doorways and hearth, sometimes their logs burnt in the hearth for that same purpose. Their garlands also included holly and mistletoe; the red and white berries representing the life giving elements of blood and semen in the royal marriage between the sun and the earth.

This time was known to us as “Weihnachten” which literally means “Consecrating Nights”; namely cleansing, blessing and taking stock. It was, after all, on these dark nights that the old wilderness spirits and frost giants descended on the community to steal away the sick, old and feeble in what was understood as the “Wild Hunt”. So, it was only wise that one kept a healthy warm and well stocked household to remain safely indoors on such nights. Even when the Romans invaded with their Saturnalia and the Mithras cult, they too had to adapt to the climatic conditions from which these traditions had been born, nor could the Holy Roman Empire do more than adopt them under more Latin labels with the masquerades of Saturnalia (Fasching) pushed to the end of the season. Otherwise the traditions remained the same in principle over the course because they were agrarian, where neither laurel nor palm leaf could grow.

Hence the first “Christmas tree” appeared in Freiburg in the year 1419, in front of the local bakery, where children were allowed to plunder its sweets. Then over the course of the 16th century they became increasing popular throughout the communities of the Upper Rhine Valley as a decorated festive tree erected in town squares much like the birch tree is to this day. Of course the nobility, far and wide, soon adopted this unusual trend with their own decorated trees in the courtyards of their burgs and palaces. Small candles, figurines of wood, sweets, dried fruit and nuts suspended on ribbons made the decorum. Adept wood carvers from the Black Forest readily advanced their skills; evolving the wooden figures into nutcrackers and incense burners- and inevitably, the elaborate candle driven mobiles known as the “Christmas Pyramid”. However, the finer Norwegian spruce was a rare commodity in those days, and didn't become a household item until the 19th century when the demand was enough to prosper planting whole forests of them. Nonetheless, alot of the decorum that makes traditional Christmas in the western world these days, actually came from this region.