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Full Description
An around-the-world tour of ancient Christmas celebrations, Pagan Solstice customs, and magical seasonal plants.
Whether viewed as a mid-winter observance of the Winter Solstice or a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, for millennia cultures have taken time out to honour the darkest days of the year with lights, foods, and festivities.
In ancient Egypt, people decorated their homes with greenery at the festival of the re-birth of the God Horus. The ancient Romans decorated their homes with vines and ivy and shared gifts, especially candles, at the midwinter festival of Saturnalia. In Scandinavian and Germanic cultures, the Yule Log was burned in the hearth, fruit orchards were wassailed, and sheaves of wheat were displayed to carry luck into the New Year. In Celtic cultures, mummers and guisers went door to door and European mistletoe (Viscum album) was gathered by Druids as a medicinal and magical aid.
Presenting an around-the-world tour of ancient Christmas celebrations, Pagan Solstice customs, and magical seasonal plants, Ellen Evert Hopman shares lore, recipes, rituals, and crafts you can make as a family activity to enliven your Yuletide observance. She explores the origins of the Christmas tree and Santa Claus, as well as female gift bringers, holiday Spirits, and Yuletide animals. She shows how to make a Yule Log and decorate your house with greenery and grain weavings. She explains how to perform Winter Solstice divinations and cook traditional foods and drinks such as Wassail and Elizabethan gingerbread cookies. And she looks in depth at the medicinal and magical properties of the many herbs, barks, and berries associated with the Christmas and Yuletide season such as Frankincense and Myrrh, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Hibiscus, Bayberry, and many more.
Woven throughout with mystical seasonal lore, this guide offers practical and magical ways to celebrate and honour the darkest days of the year.
Contents
Foreword by Lucya Starza
An Introduction to Yule and Herbal Magic
A Primer on Herbal Preparation
A Primer on Herb Magic
PART ONE
TRADITIONS, RITES, FOODS, AND DRINKS OF THE SEASON
The Gift Bringers, Spirits, and Mystical Figures of Winter
The Animals at Yule
Rituals and Rites of Solstice, Yule, and Christmas
A Rite for the Goddess at the Winter Solstice
Christmas Traditions and Recipes from around the World
Wassailing and Other Yuletide Libations
PART TWO
MAGICAL AND MEDICINAL HERBS OF WINTER
Allspice
Almond
Apple
Bayberry
Birch
Boxwood
Cacao
Cinnamon
Clove
Cranberry
Frankincense and Myrrh
Ginger
Hawthorn
Hibiscus
Holly
Hyssop
Ivy
Juniper
Laurel
Lemon
Licorice
Mint
Mistletoe
Nutmeg
Oak
Orange
Pine and Other Conifers
Poinsettia
Rosemary
Star of Bethlehem
Vanilla
Notes
Index of Recipes and Projects
Index of Plants by Common Name
Index of Plantsby Scientific Name
General Index
