The Solstice Lady

Season's Greetings from the Solstice Lady

Every December I turn my obsession for research towards the solstice.

Since the beginning, back at the turn of the century, I have found the differences and remarkable similarities of cultural practices so very interesting that I wanted to share it with people .

So, I made this stack of colour coded cards, held together by a ring, which I carry in my pocket whenever I am out Solstice storytelling. 

I added to it every year And then I made a second stack....

Here's a selection from those stacks, most are necessarily brief due to the size of the card.

If it has a website listed with it, I have not been able to research and confirm it yet so I have left the original source listed.

Over the years I have been adding other misc bits of seasonal trivia as well…

excerpts from the cards

A Jewish Tale: Return of the Light Myth

"When Adam saw the day gradually diminishing, he said, “Woe is me! Perhaps because I sinned, the world around me is growing darker and darker, and is about to return to chaos and confusion, and this is the death heaven has decreed for me. He then sat eight days in fast and prayer. But when the winter solstice arrived, and he saw the days getting gradually longer, he said, "Such is the way of the world,” and proceeded to observe eight days of festivity. The following years he observed both the eight days preceding and the eight days following the solstice as days of festivity."
(Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 8a)

Another Jewish Tale: Return of the Light Myth

Adam and Eve, after being sent from the garden of Eden, are afraid of the dark. The Holy One deals with this fear by creating seasons. The solstice begins to arrive and the days grow shorter. Adam and Eve notice the world getting darker and for eight days they fast and pray, afraid the world is coming to an end. Then they celebrate for eight days when they see the light of the sun has returned. After this story, we celebrated Havdalah, the end of Shabbat, and blessed the lights of fire.

http://telshemesh.org/tevet/winter_solstice_take_2.html

(Dec 25) Peru- Tananukay- the Annual Fistfight

The custom arose as a way to resolve resentments that may be simmering over any disputes of the previous year with neighbours and/or family. The ceremony proceeds much like a martial arts tourney, styles including kicking and punching. The challenger, be it a man, woman or child steps forward and calls their chosen opponent by name. The fighters move to the centre of the circle and fight proceeds with a tacit agreement of good sportsmanship. (You can't hit your opponent if they are on ground, no biting etc_

Before and after the fight, the combatants are required to either hug or shake hands. Officials call the fight.  If a fighter disagrees they can make an appeal to fight again

There are ceremonial combats involving characters particular to the Andean people including a slave master who must dance in a circle to embody his spirit animal, the cock.

Dec 25th-

Christ's Birthday adopted by the Church....

The date of birth of Yeshua Ben Nazareth (Jesus Christ) has been lost. There is sufficient evidence in the Gospels to indicate that Yeshua was born in the fall, but this seems to have been unknown to early Christians. By the beginning of the 4th century CE, there was intense interest in choosing a day to celebrate Yeshua's birthday. The western church leaders selected DEC-25 because this was already the date recognized throughout the Roman Empire as the birthday of various Pagan gods.  Since there was no central Christian authority at the time, it took centuries before the tradition was universally accepted:

Eastern churches began to celebrate Christmas after 375 CE.

The church in Jerusalem started in the 7th century.

Ireland started in the 5th century

Austria, England and Switzerland in the 8th

Slavic lands in the 9th and 10th centuries.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice0.htm

Tree-German Pagan

It was customary in Germany in the 16th century to carry a fir tree, decorated with paper flowers, through the streets to the town square. Once the tree arrived there would be a feast and a boisterous dancing round the tree. Then it would be ceremonially burned. The ceremonial fir tree was described by a visitor to Strasbourg in 1601 to be strewn with "wafers and golden sugar-twists (Barleysugar) and paper flowers of all colours".

Earthworks: Brazil

Brazilian archaeologists have found an assembly of 127 granite blocks arranged equidistant from each other. They apparently form an ancient astronomical observatory. One of the stones marked the position of the sun at the time of the winter solstice. This formation was probably used in religious rituals.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice0.htm

Image: Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Poinsettia

A Mexican legend tells of a poor peasant girl wanted very much bring a gift to honour of the Virgin Mary at the Christmas Eve service. She was poor, though, and had nothing to offer so she walked to the Christmas Eve service with a heavy heart and empty hands. On her way to the church, she encountered an angel who encouraged her to pick some nearby weeds as an offering. The girl did as the angel had spoken but her burden of having nothing of value had not been lifted. It was with shame that she laid the weeds onto the altar. Before her eyes and there for all to see, the weeds transformed into brilliant scarlet flowers

The flower is named after Joel R. Poinsett, who was the first US ambassador to Mexico from 1825 to 1829, who brought the flower home to the USA because he liked it so much.

Earthworks: Scotland

In Maeshowe, (Orkneys, Scotland) there is a chambered cairn built on a leveled area with a surrounding bank and ditch. It has been carbon dated at 2750 BCE. Inside the cairn is a stone structure with a long entry tunnel. The structure is aligned so that sunlight can shine along the entry passage into the interior of the megalith, and illuminate the back of the structure. This happens at sunrise at the winter solstice. Starting in the late 1990's, live video and still images have been broadcast to the world via the Internet.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice0.htm

Ornaments: Roman

The use of trinkets on the tree dates from early Roman days when it was common to hang little masks of Bacchus upon trees and vines to impart fertility to every part of the tree to which the wind turned the face

Tree – decorations- Tree-topper Witch

In some regions of Germany, people placed witches instead of angels at the tops of their Christmas trees, perhaps in recognition of the Crone, the old-woman face of the Goddess who presides over this part of the year.

The custom of placing a light at the top of the Christmas tree is another symbol of the rebirth of the sun. Catholics later changed this image to that of the angel heralding the Christ Child's birth.

Mass of the Rooster: Bolivia

Bolivians celebrate Misa del Gallo (“Mass of the Rooster”) on Christmas Eve, with people bringing roosters to midnight mass to symbolize the belief that a rooster was the first animal to announce the birth of Jesus Christ.

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

Gift -Bringers: Brazil

Children in Brazil often receive gifts from the Magi on Three Kings Day, or Epiphany, as well as from Papai Noel on Christmas Eve. With no use for chimneys in the tropical climate, they believe Papai Noel enters via the front door, and travels via helicopter rather than a reindeer-drawn sleigh.

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

MAGIC/ Superstitions

In Russia, there's a Christmas divination that involves candles. A girl would sit in a darkened room, with two lighted candles and two mirrors, pointed so that one reflects the candlelight into the other. The viewer would seek the seventh reflection, then look until her future would be seen.

In Scandinavia, some families place all their shoes together, as this will cause them to live in harmony throughout the year.

In Spain, there's an old custom that is a holdover from Roman days. The urn of fate is a large bowl containing slips of paper on which are written all the names of those at a family get-together. The slips of paper are drawn out two at a time. Those whose names are so joined are to be devoted friends for the year. Apparently, there's often a little finagling to help matchmaking along,

The early Germans built a stone altar to Hertha, or Bertha, goddess of domesticity and the home, during winter solstice. With a fire of fir boughs stoked on the altar, Hertha was able to descend through the smoke and guide those who were wise in Saga lore to foretell the fortunes of those at the feast.

http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice/

Devonshire, England, a girl raps at the hen house door on Christmas eve. If a rooster crows, she will marry within the year

Earthworks: Peru

In 2015, researchers discovered two stone lines that, when approached straight on, appear to frame Peru's Cerro Del Gentil Pyramid in the distance. The lines are located roughly 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) southeast of the pyramid, and extend about 1,640 feet (500 m). Using 3D-modeling software, the researchers discovered that the winter solstice sun sets exactly where the lines converge on the pyramid in the horizon

Read more: http://www.messagetoeagle.com/6-ancient-tributes-to-the-winter-solstice/#ixzz4SpqGL3x0

Fruitcake

Fruitcake originated in ancient Egypt, where it was considered essential for the afterlife

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

(Dec 21)St Thomas Day: England

In rural England, long ago, it was customary on this day for the elderly, the poor and for children to go door to door requesting handouts from those more fortunate. This was known as "Thomasing" as well as "mumping," "doleing," "corning," or "gooding.” Typically thomasing was done by elderly poor women, collecting money and food to help their Christmas be merry.

“Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat,

Please spare a penny for the old man's hat,

If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,

If you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you [Muir, 1977, 35].

In past times, some households gave small gifts as well as food. In return the Thomasers would give their benefactors sprigs of holly or mistletoe for luck.

Also ...students were allowed, if they arrived at school before their teacher, to lock him out of the class. If they succeeded in winning this race, they avoided having to work on this day.

In some places, the students were given the run of the schools on St Thomas Day. They would declare themselves with imaginary titles and claim high achievement in their school work.

(Dec 21) St Thomas Day: Belgium

In Belgium children were allowed to lock out not only their teachers but also their parents. Trapping their folks on the doorstep they would exact promises of treats before allowing their parents back into the home. At the schools, teachers could be tied to their chairs until the students' demands were met.

Malkh: Pre-Islamic

A festival celebrated on Dec 25 by the Vainakh people, including modern Chechens and Ingush. They turn themselves to the east, looking for the return of their sun goddess, Deela-Malkh, who has been off visiting her mother Aza since summer solstice.

Sacaea: Babylonia (Mock King)

A Babylonian winter observance deriving from Zagmuk.

The sacrifice in Sacaea was explicit: the king was to be ritually killed to secure continuity and renewal. As the loss of a king was a serious matter (not least to the king) a substitute king was invested with all the trappings and regalia of power and was celebrated for a month prior to being sacrificed after which there was great celebration and jollity.

http://davka.org/what/text/liturgies/chanukkah/festivals_of_light.html

Midvinterblot: Sweden

Before Christianity the Swedish people celebrated "midvinterblot" at winter solstice. It simply means "mid-winter-blood", and featured both animal and human sacrifice. This tradition took place at certain cult places, and basically every old Swedish church is built on such a place. The pagan tradition was finally abandoned around 1200 CE, due to the missionaries persistence. (Of course they were sacrificed too, by the Vikings, in the beginning.) Midvinterblot paid tribute to the local gods, appealing to them to let go of the winter's grip. The winters in Scandinavia are dark and grim, and these were the days before central heating. And the Gods were powerful. Until this day Thursday is named after the war god Thor. Friday after Freja (fertility) It is interesting to note that to this day the Swedish name for Christmas is Jul (Yule), and the Jul gnome has a more important role than Christmas father or the Christchild. You don't kill those pagan tradition easily. The old Viking religion with Thor and his friends is still practiced by some people, somewhat less bloodily.

http://davka.org/what/text/liturgies/chanukkah/festivals_of_light.html

Intercalary Days: Roman

The official calendars attempted to reconcile the 354 day lunar year with the 366 day solar year.

The Roman calendar at first settled the problem by introducing 12 “intercalary days” at year’s end which served to bridge the lunar light cycle with the solar. The Romans celebrated the first of the intercalary days on Dec 25. This was Brumalia, the festival of Winter Solstice, and the 11 wild days of Saturnalia and Oplaia followed, named after and celebrated for the god Saturn and the goddess Ops. Cold, clever, passive, Saturn represented the sun at mid-winter its lowest point. The last day of each week, Saturn’s Saturday, represented the ending of the whole year, lying restful and quiet before the new Sun - day. The goddess Ops, giver of law and order - today little remembered except in the words opal and opulent - majestically insisted on a once a year overturning of her orderliness. Slaves became masters, prisoners went free, the rich gave to the poor and every sacred right-side up heaved upside down. People laid their bodies down on the earth for Opalia, and coupled with sweetheart and stranger---that the year might be opulent in its blessings.

The Gambia celebrates Christmas with a massive parade with large lanterns called fanal in the shape of boats Https://africawanderlust.com/destinations/african-christmas/

Image Credit: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wassail Recipe

7 pints of brown ale, 1 bottle of dry sherry, cinnamon stick, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, lemon slices

Artificial Christmas Tree; Germany

Germans made the very first artificial Christmas trees, using dyed goose feathers to look like needles of a pine or fir tree

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

Earthworks: Vermont USA

There are countless stone structures created by indigenous peoples to detect the solstices and equinoxes. One was called Calendar One by its modern-day finder. It is in a natural amphitheatre of about 20 acres in size in Vermont. From a stone enclosure in the center of the bowl, one can see a number of vertical rocks and natural features in the horizon which formed the edge of the bowl. At the solstices and equinoxes, the sun rises and sets at notches or peaks in the ridge which surrounded calendar. Itp://www.religioustolerance.org/winter solsticed.htm

Image: Rijksmuseum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Christmas tree-German/ Christian 2

It is said that the first Christmas Tree was that of Martin Luther, the man who reformed the catholic church in Germany, father of the Lutheran religion.

Legend tells that one midwinter night, Luther came upon a snow dappled fir tree back-fit by stars. It looked to him as if the stars were somehow magically dancing in the branches of the evergreen. The sight so captured him that he wanted to reproduce it for is family. He brought a fir tree indoors and set candles on its branches reproduce the magic of that tree.

“X” mas

In the Greek language, the letter 'x'(shi) was the initial letter of Xristos, meaning Christ. In ancient times parchment and ink were costly and few were literate so the scribes had a lot of work to do. They developed shorthand, including simply using the letter X to represent Christ. So, it is not blasphemous to write Xmas, it is an old tradition.

Seasonal Sport: Ethiopia

In spite of Ethiopia’s Christian heritage, Christmas is not an important holiday there. Most people actually call the holiday Ganna or Genna after a hockey-like ball game played only once a year, on Christmas afternoon.

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

Evergreen Tree: Babylonia

After the death of Nimrod, (great grandson of Noah) his wife, Semiramis, swore she had seen a full evergreen tree spring from the roots of a dead stump. She claimed this proved Nimrod a god. Nimrod would visit the tree every year to leave gifts on the anniversary of his birth, which was winter solstice. He would be reborn as Tammuz, the god of all growing things who engages yearly with the dragon Tiamat in the battle to return fertility to the world. 

Evergreen: Japan (Shinto)

The Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) tells the tale of eight hundred various deities arriving to form a plan to regain the sun. Amaterasu (Great August Kami/ Deity Shining in Heaven) had gone into self imposed exile in a sacred cave so the other deities combined their aptitudes and magics so they might lure her out to see, and hopefully be transfixed, by her reflection in the freshly forged first mirror.

The gods went to the Heavenly Mount Kagu where they uprooted a mighty 500 branch Sakaki tree. They brought this tree back to the Cave of Heaven where Amaterasu languished. A strand of 500 precious jewels was used to secure the middle branches of the tree so that the mirror was prominently displayed. The lower branches were hung with placating streamers.

(see the Solstice myths and Legends section for the whole tale)

The Sakaki is considered a sacred tree, still used in Shinto rites today.

(Dec 31) Perchtenlauf: Pennsylvania Dutch

The Pennsylvania Dutch practice an old custom called Perchtenlauf. People don fearsome masks called Perchten, often handed down from one generation to the next. The women represent the goddess Perchta or Bertha in beauty as bringer of light, giver of health and prosperity. Young men take to the streets showing Perchta's destructive aspect by wearing the frightening horned and fanged Perchten masks. They rove from home to home to drive out the demons with by ringing bells, singing loudly or shouting, banging on drums or pots and pans and cracking whips.

Latvia- Yule Log (Burning of Jolė's Blade)

In old Lativia, one would choose a tree on their own land to be ceremonially prepared for the traditional “Burning of Jolė's Blade” by sprinkling it with flour and cider, or a beverage of Jolan tradition. Thus the Yule Log was decreed. Once it was cut, the tree (preferably Ash, in honour of Yggdrasil, the northern World Tree) was burned throughout the longest night to the end of the 12 days of the season.

Christmas Cards

The world's first commercially produced Christmas card, (as seen above) was designed by John Callcott Horsley for Henry Cole in 1843. Horsely is attributed with popularizing the tradition of sending Christmas Cards

Christmas Cancelled: England

The English Parliament abolished Christmas in 1647.

Polydor Virgil, an early British Christian, said:

"Dancing, masques, mummeries, stageplays, and other such Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalian and Bacchanalian festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them."

 http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice0.htm

and

"The Christmas most people believe is traditional - the Victorian Christmas of Charles Dickens' time - bares little resemblance to Christmas past.

During the Middle Ages and into the early period of modern Europe, Christmas was a peasant celebration filled with hedonism, drinking, carnality and social inversion. It was even banned in an effort to curb decadence.

The British Parliament abolished religious festivals, including Christmas, in 1647

The Puritans of New England outlawed Christmas between 1659 and 1681. People caught celebrating were fined five shillings."

”History of Christmas” Helen Buttery

note from Solsticelady... a history teacher told me that one of the main reasons the Brits overthrew the Puritans to put the monarchy back in place was that the nobles wanted Christmas back.

Otherworldly Visitors

"These times are intercalendary periods in Celtic and Teutonic year-reckoning, the paradoxical 'time between the times' when the crack appears and the paths between the worlds are laid open. They are periods of 'ritual reversal' when the dead enter the world of the living and the living enter the world of the dead."

from Nigel Jackson, "Trance Ecstasy and the Furious Host", The Ley Hunter 117, 1992

http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/hunt.htm

Inventor Albert Sadacca was fifteen in 1917 when he first got the idea to make safe Christmas tree lights.

#1 Christmas Tree Exporter- Nova Scotia, Canada

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia leads the world in exporting three things: lobster, wild blueberries, and Christmas trees.

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

Ivy

Ivy was associated with the Roman god Bacchus and was not allowed by the Church as decoration until later in the middle ages, when a superstition that it could help recognize witches and protect against plague arose.

Bells- The Devil's Knell

According to old English folk tales, the Devil died when Jesus was born. So some towns developed a tradition of ringing the church bells near midnight on Christmas Eve to announce the Devil’s demise. In England this custom was called tolling or ringing “the Devil’s knell.”

Angels on top of the tree: German

It was the practice in ancient times, of Pagan Germanic tribes-folk, to place a representation of a witch at the top of the seasonal tree. It is believed that this may have been a reference to the Crone aspect of the goddess.

Some chose instead to place a light at the top of the tree as acknowledgement of the rebirth of the sun.

The Christmas Tree of the USA

Gingerbread Men: Pagan Germanic

The followers of Wodan, early Germanic tribes, celebrated this season by sacrificing any prisoners they had to their god. They would hang their prisoners from trees for nine days, reenacting their god's sacrifice of himself on the World Tree in order to gain the knowledge of the runes. By repeating this act, they were asking their god to help them through the cold and dark of winter.

Eventually this ritual gave way to using representations of prisoners. So little men were formed out of gingerbread and hung on the trees to represent the sacrifice.

Wreaths

For centuries, wreaths have represented the unending cycle of life and have been symbols of victory and honour. Ancient Druids, Celts, and Romans used evergreen branches made into wreaths in their winter solstice celebrations.  As early as 1444, wreaths were used as Christmas decorations in London. In 16th-century Germany, evergreen branches were intertwined in a circular shape to symbolize God's love, which has no beginning and no end.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/ancient-roots-christmas-customs-001162

Otherworld Visitations: Finland

In Finland, the family is very likely to take a trip to a cemetery. The purpose is to light candles in remembrance of deceased relatives, but some folks without locally-buried kin visit cemeteries anyway to enjoy the candles. Many graveyards have a special place where candles can be placed in honour of people buried elsewhere. In Helsinki, around 75% of families visit a cemetery at Christmastime, usually on Christmas Eve, so authorities arrange for police to provide traffic control.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29557/7-strange-christmas-traditions

Christmas Cancelled: The New World

Public notice from 1659 in Boston regarding the banning the celebrations of Christmas.

The celebration of Christmas was made a crime in Massachusetts in 1659. That edict was repealed in 1681, but in 1686 the governor needed two soldiers to escort him to Christmas services. In 1706 a Boston mob smashed the windows in a church holding Christmas services. Due to the early predominance of the Dutch in New York (founded by them and first named New Amsterdam), New Yorkers celebrated Christmas from the 17th century on, but as late as 1874 Henry Ward Beecher, America's most prominent preacher, said, "To me, Christmas is a foreign day."

http://www.mrshea.com/germusa/customs/xmasintr.htm

First Decorated Tree

The city of Riga, Latvia holds the claim as home to history’s first decorated Christmas tree, back in 1510.

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

Hanging of Stockings

The tradition of hanging Christmas stockings allegedly began with three poor sisters who couldn’t afford a marriage dowry. The wealthy Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna (modern-day Turkey) saved them from a life of prostitution by sneaking down their chimney and filling their stockings with gold coins.

http://greenglobaltravel.com/2013/11/29/christmas-traditions-around-the-world/

Earthworks: Mexico

Located on the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Tulum is an ancient stone-walled Mayan city whose population collapsed around the 15th century when Spanish settlers had begun to occupy Mexico, bringing new disease that wiped out large portions of the Mexican population. Much of the stone buildings that made up the city still stand today. One of these buildings contains a small hole at its top that produces a star-burst effect when the sun rises on the winter (and summer) solstice.

Read more: http://www.messagetoeagle.com/6-ancient-tributes-to-the-winter-solstice/#ixzz4Spq8vHNb

Reveillon: Yule Meal : France

In France, a Yule tradition has survived as the Reveillon.

Literally meaning "renewal" and "awakening," this midnight
meal is now enjoyed after midnight mass, but originally would have
been part of late night feasting that welcomed the birth of the sun. 

Families serve a traditional thirteen different desserts, one each to celebrate the renewed Wheel of the Year, with its thirteen lunar cycles.
http://www.ladyoftheearth.com/sabbats/yule-festival.txt

Man wearing the pilos (conical hat). Tondo of an Apulian red-figure plate, third quarter of the 4th century BC. Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Sully, 1st floor, room 35, case 6 Image by Marie-Lan Nguyen (2009) from wikimedia

Mummers: Latvia

The tradition of mummers is associated with the winter solstice more than Christmas. It dates back to pagan times when people would try to employ magic to encourage the sun to return before daylight completely disappeared. In Britain, mummers perform small dramas about the struggle between the sun and the forces of winter -a tradition that survives to this day in some areas. In Latvia, Christmastime is still a solstice holiday, and is often celebrated from December 22nd through the 25th. Customs of a Latvian Christmas are usually traced to activities that encourage the return of the Sun Maiden. Latvian mummers are more like Halloween trick-or-treaters, going from house to house wearing masks, usually disguised as some kind of animal or the spirit of death. They play music and bestow blessings on the homes they visited, and are given food to eat.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29557/7-strange-christmas-traditions

Christmas song and dance: Marshall Islands

In the Marshall Islands, people prepare for Christmas months in advance, stockpiling gifts and dividing into jeptas, or teams, that hold song-and-dance competitions on Christmas Day. They also build a piñata-like wojke containing little presents (matches, money, soap) for God.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29557/7-strange-christmas-traditions

Tinsel- origin (secular)

Tinsel was first produced in Germany around 1610. Machines were crafted to beat the silver to a thin sheet and extrude the silver in thin strips. These strands of silver tinsel were used to decorate not just the tree but to festoon mantles and drape all over the home. Each year it would be drawn back up and placed in a safe place until the next season. But silver tarnishes. Some thought it was the vicinity of the candles that tarnished the silver but unless silver is worn in contact with skin, it will tarnish eventually.

They went back to the drawing board, attempting new mixtures of alloys to keep it shiny but the addition of lead and tin to the mix made the tinsel heavy and brittle. Until the mid ~20"h C tinsel was made from silver. In the 1920’s, aluminum was added to the mix and there was inexpensive tinsel available for everyone to use. In the 50’s aluminized paper was used, but it turned out to be quite flammable so not the best mix with all the Christmas lights on a dry tree. Today's tinsel is made of PVC-Polyvinyl Chloride (and is not recyclable FYI)

Tinsel- origin (Christian)

from Dorothy Morrison's “Yule”

Spiders were not allowed near the Christmas Tree-not even close enough to take a peek. They complained to the child Christ. The baby allowed them to be admitted. They climbed onto the tree and covered it in webs. Christ was so transfixed by the beauty of their creativity-he turned the webs into strands of silver

Tinsel- origin (Germanic)

The Christmas Spider

It was Christmas Eve and the house was a whirlwind of activity. The whole house was getting a good clean, from rafters to floorboards, for Father Christmas would come tonight. So vigorous was this endeavour that the spiders who lived in the house all scurried up to the attic to be out of the way. They stayed up there all day, listening to the sounds of the people laughing and busy at their chores. When the night fell and everyone went of their beds and the house was quiet and dark, the spiders emerged from the attic to re-establish their webs.

There in the middle of the living room, to their astonishment, the humans had set up a tree. A tree, indoors! The tree was covered in decorations and was so beautiful that the spiders forgot to be cautious. They rushed onto the tree, scurrying up the trunk, dropping down into its branches on their threads. The awestruck spiders explored every inch of the miraculous tree not realizing that everywhere they had tread, they had left a thin line of web. The magnificent tree as now covered in a veil of grey webbing.

When Father Christmas arrived to deliver presents, he saw the tree and felt the joy of the scampering spiders and wanted to make sure the family was not disappointed by the addition the spiders had made. He touched a finger to the webbing and applied his Christmas Magic to transform each web into a strand of silver. The family awoke to the most magical tree seen to that day-and ever since then tinsel has n part of the seasonal decoration.

Those in the know will place some sort of spider ornament on their tree, to honour the little weavers.

Image credit: Erika Smith, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons