Winter’s History
October-November-December: The Winter Season of the Ancient Celtic Calendar
Early Celtic peoples from the Irish and Angles to the Saxons and other Germanic tribes divided the year into two seasons that were either called summer and winter or spring and autumn and calculated their months according to the cycles of the moon. It wasn’t until the supremacy of the Roman Empire that the calendar year was ordered into four seasons themselves divided into 12 fixed solar months. The names of the months varied in each area, and were usually named after social and economic endeavors.
Ancient Celtic peoples and neo-Celts view the year in terms of the eternal negotiation between good and evil. For them, this age old struggle is enacted in the elemental and mystical connection between Earth and sky and the cyclic nature their relationship as witnessed in the extended “dark” times of winter compared to the long bright days of summer. In the northern hemisphere of Europe and Scandinavia the world was weighed down by freezing cold, dark and dangerous and long winters. The Anglo-Saxon lunar month corresponding to October was Winterfilled a term that combined the words “winter” and “full moon” since the winter season officially began on the first full moon of that month. November was called Blotmonad, or the month of blood sacrifices. At this time cattle and other stock animals that would be unlikely to survive
the harsh winter months when fodder was scarce, would be slaughtered sacrificially and ritually offered to the appropriate deities and spirit communities and then feasted upon by the whole community. The month corresponding to December was known as Giuli, or Yule which was the name for the winter solstice, Yuletide, the shortest day of the year after which the Sun turns back to increase itself toward summer. It is also likely that Geola was the name for the whole midwinter season.
According to the earliest Celtic calendars, both the first day of winter and New Year’s Day were celebrated on the eve of October 31, on All Hallows (Halloween). This was a critically important time, as it involved a metamorphosis of mystical dimensions—a time when the Earth Goddess turns over her rule to the great Horned God of the Hunt, to the transition from life to death, from farming to 
hunting, from warmth to coldness, and from light to darkness. During this powerful time of elemental and spiritual transition, ancestral animal spirits connected to All Hallows rites and celebrations were released from the underworld for a strictly prescribed period of time-the few hours between the old and the New Year. During the last week of December, these animal spirits including ancestors and the spirits of famed deceased shamans became part of the Yule festival that celebrated the arrival of the New Year. At the Yuletide rites and celebrations, animal pageants where ritually prepared and participated in by men who took on the spirit natures of the stag, the calf, and the horse who formed part of the complex ritual cycle of Yule. Ancient Celtic peoples were animistic believing the Creator and the thing created represented the same reality. Thus all created things, including the natural elements—earth, fire, and water; the sun, moon, and stars; thunder, wind, and rain—are imbued with the divine presence.
The early Celts worshiped the Creator in his form as the Sun, and Sun symbols are found carved throughout the Celtic world on tombs, in burial chambers and at sacred sites. A magnificent bronze horse carrying a gold-plated Sun across the sky into the underworld, and dated at 1500 BCE was found in a marsh at Trudholm in Denmark. In the first century CE when the Romans came to Britain, they found Druid priests holding Sun celebrations at Stonehenge where Fire played a central role to Sun worship. In the ancient Celtic world the summer and winter seasons were respectively presided over by a primary male and female deity. Summer’s fecundity, warmth and growth is embodied by the Earth Mother Goddess while winter is the time for the supremacy of a male deity who appears in cave paintings 20,000 year old as a figure identified as the Lord of the Animals, Cernunnos the horned god, or Herne the Hunter.
Cave paintings discovered in the caves of Teyjat in Dordogne, and Les Trois Freres, Ariege, in the French Pyrenees show arresting figures of a man with the horns and face of an antelope; one wrapped in animal hides and playing a simple flute-like instrument; another figure has the head, horns, and hoofs of an ox and the legs and lower torso of a human; finally a figure now affectionately known as the Dancing Sorcerer is clearly a man cloaked in an animal skin, and who has stag antlers and a bushy tail. Clearly these ancient caves were sacred sites where powerful and possibly secret rites were held. These wondrous images had ritual significance depicting shamans who had taken animal form and, in a trance-like state, are conducting rituals to bring good luck to the hunters and to the gathering activities undertaken by the women and children. The actual hunters in tribal communities used the pragmatic technique of draping themselves in animal skins with antlers, as they stalked their prey. During winter rites related to the migration and hunting of animals hunters may also have donned their animal disguises for processions or dances for general entertainment.
From the beginning of the winter season and through the Solstice and Yuletide celebrations seasonal plants filled homes as a way of inviting and welcoming the spirits of the woods and dales into homes where the warmth of the hearth fires during the coldest and darkest phase of winter could be enjoyed. Holly was regarded as the resting place for elves and fairies who took up residence within the leaves and kept the house goblins from doing mischief. Planting holly outside the home assured protection for the inhabitants. Ivy in turn was especially used for the protection of flocks and domestic animals. Wreaths or magic hoops of ivy with rowan and woodbine were woven and placed near milk containers to protect the contents from invading spirits. Rosemary was spread on floors and as people walked over the herb it released the fragrant scent filling the home with blessings and protection. During the Yule celebrations woodland wreaths were hung on doors and mistletoe was placed everywhere. An ancient magical herb known for its life-giving powers, the parasitic mistletoe grows from the sky downwards on the limbs of sacred oaks. In the Druidic tradition its green leaves stood for the fertility of the Mother Goddess and its white berries symbolize the seed of the Forest God.
On December 25th, Yuletide, the rebirth of the Sun was celebrated with great joy. Wreaths of holly and ivy were originally used during Yuletide. This celebration included lighting giant bonfires to lure the Sun back to Earth keeping the fires burning through the long cold nights and through the dark winter season. Music making and dancing were important aspects of the festival and caroles were sung around a beautifully decorated evergreen Yule tree that was considered sacred. Evergreens were known for their supernatural powers because they remained green and alive during the dead of winter thus pine was used in abundance during the solstice season, and still is. Additionally, the pinecone represents the continuation of life in its spiraling form, the basis for the divine mean, the essential matrix for all Life and the assurance of rebirth and regeneration. The Yule Log that was and is still burned in fireplaces today was considered a sacred rite in honoring the spirit of rebirth and regeneration.