6th Century Celtic hermit, who is said to have lived in a chapel, now a ruin, on the island named after him, off the Lleyn Peninsula, Wales.
Festival of Poseidon (Roman)
Greek god of the sea and of earthquakes, who together with his brother
Zeus, deposed their father Kronos who was lord of the world, and split
his realm between them. In Roman mythology, Poseidon is known as Neptune.
• The Battle of
Oltenia
In Lesser Wallachia, around 1377, the ruling Voivode or prince, led the
final, gruesome and desperately bloody onslaught against the massed ranks
of the Strigoii. The Strigoii were the largest and most powerful vampire
clan in Romania, and after decades of terrorism against the local population,
made an uneasy alliance with the Turks to help ‘cleanse’ the
region of mortals, thus creating a sanctuary and a Central European stronghold
for the undead.
The carnage was unspeakable, and in less than two hours, the slaughter
on both sides, (over 3,500 men) was almost complete. However, the following
day, there were no bodies on the field, and no one ever knew who were
the victors of the battle.
Aftermath
(d. 650), Birinus, or Birin was one of the first missionaries sent to pagan Britain, converting the West Saxons and becoming first bishop of Dorchester. His relics were translated to Winchester.
• The Moriah Conclave
In Jerusalem in 1099, the covert meeting took place between the Knights
Templar and the Knights of St Levantius, which determined the secret
plans for the preservation and the future of the Holy Grail and the
Deus Consanguineus, (the Holy Bloodline). While the Templars, as their
name suggests, were originally established in the Temple of Solomon,
the Levantians were to occupy the vast, labyrinthine catacombs beneath
the holy site.
c. 657-749; monk, writer and a philosopher and contemporary of Bead. He lived his entire life under Muslim rule in Damascus in Syria, the oldest inhabited city in the world.
St Osmund’s
Day
d. 1099; a Norman, coming to England with William the Conqueror in 1066,
and becoming Bishop of Salisbury. Osmund participated in the preparation
of the Domesday Book.
Eve of St Nicholas
The principal festive day of Christmas in Holland
and much of Europe. Children, hoping for a gift, would place a clog
by the fireplace, along with food and drink for the saint and his horse.
Black Pete, ‘Sinter Claes’’ assistant, would then
leave sweets for all the good children, but naughty ones would instead
receive a smack with a besom of birch twigs. Very bad children however
would be bundled into his sack and shipped to Spain for slavery.
St
Nicholas
A 4th century bishop from Turkey, who became patron saint of sailors and children’ as well as of Greece and Russia. The Dutch Protestant settlers of New Amsterdam (now New York), America, took their old tradition of ‘Sinter Claes’ with them, where it grew in popularity and importance. The myth spread back to Europe, and Santa Clause became the principle character of ‘tradition’. In northern Europe it is customary to exchange gifts on this day, after St Nicholas’ act of benevolence towards a poor family, when he dropped three pennies down their chimney which landed in their stockings, hung up by the fire to dry.
A British 7th-century bishop.
St Ambrose Day
Popular and pious Bishop of Milan from AD 374. Baptised St Augustine in
386.
The day that St Anne, mother of The Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived of her only child at around the age of 40, after her husband Joachim fasted alone in the wilderness for forty days.
St Romaric’s Day
An early 7th-century Frankish, Merovingian warrior prince. On his conversion
to Christianity in AD 620, he freed his large retinue of serfs and gave
his massed fortune over to the foundation of a monastery. Many of his
serfs followed him into the monastery, at Habendum on the River Moselle,
and after three years Romaric was made abbot.
St Budoc’s Day
6th-century saint, from the South West of England.
Hanukkah or Festival
of Lights (Hebrew)
Eight-day Festival of Light, or Festival of Dedication, celebrating
the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem by Judas Macabeus in 165 BC,
after it was taken over by idolaters and the Jews denied access to their
place of worship. The occasion is marked by the lighting of a menorah,
a seven-branched candleholder, (one candle for each day of the creation),
with one being lit on each of the first seven days of the celebration.
A candle is also lit in the window of every household during each of
the eight days of the festival
Day of Astraea
Greek goddess of justice and innocence. She left earth for the heavens
when sin began to prevail, and became the constellation Virgo.
Martyred in the year 304, Leocadia was the daughter of a Spanish noble from Toledo, who was tortured to death in prison for her faith.
Day of Peter Fourier
A late 16th-century St Augustine monk, who became parish priest of
Mattaincourt village, in the Vosges mountain region of France, and
opened a free school for poor children.
• Anzu
The Sumerian dragon and storm god whose story was being told from
about 5000BC in Mesopotamia. Anzu, or Zu, stole the tablets of the
laws of the Universe, which were rescued by he sun god Ninurta who
killed Zu in the fight.
Spain’s 12-year-old Christian martyr, who was cruelly put to death for her faith in AD 304, by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. She was first bound by her executioners, who then ripped apart her flesh with metal hooks, then finally lighting her still living body with flaming torches, to burn to death.
Daniel idolised St Simeon the Stylite, or pillar saint, (one that lives a life of solitude and contemplation atop a pillar), and in AD 495, on Simeon’s death, took his place, where he stayed for the remaining thirty-three years of his life.
Death of Llywelin ap Gruffydd
At the battle of Cilmery, near Builth in 1282, the last native Prince
of Wales was killed, defending Welsh independence against Edward I of
England.
(Old) St Andrew’s Day
There is always a period of fine weather on this day.
Northamptonshire lace-makers take a one day holiday, dressing in men’s
clothing and drink hot elderberry wine to celebrate.
Advent Fast
(Orthodox)
The Orthodox Christian pre-Christmas fast begins.
St Finnian of Clonard’s
Day
Teacher of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland and founder of at least
two monasteries. Born at the end of the fifth century and settling
in Clonard, county Meath, he died of the yellow plague in 549, attempting
to spare others from the pestilence.
St Jane Chantal’s Day
1572-1641, a noble Burgundian who being widowed, took her vow of chastity
and went on to found the nun’s Order of the Visitation.
Festival of St Corentin
Hermitage dwelling, fifth-century Bishop of Quimper, France.
St Lucy’s Eve
In Scandinavia and Viking settled areas of Britain, St Lucy’s
Eve, (St Lucia’s Eve), was believed to be thick with witches
and bad fairies, and feared in the way of Hallowe’en.
A pre-Christmas, pagan-connected festival in Sweden where Lucia, Queen of Light, is dressed in white and wears a crown of foliage and candles. St Lucia carols are sung and mulled wine and gingerbread served.
Feast
of St Levantius
Circa 10 – 55 B.C.; also known as the 13th or the Ghost Apostle,
Levantius worked alone and was virtually unknown to the other disciples.
He was the apocryphal guardian of sacred portals, defender of the faith
and fearless demon slayer, most notably that of the insidious Avaridel,
and one-time keeper of the Grail. He suffered martyrdom by mutilation
by a host of demons invoked by Sextus Afranius Burrus in the shrine of
James, his bones being scattered across five kingdoms.
16th century Spanish prior of the Carmelite monastery at Segovia.
Feast of Fingar and Piala
In the middle of the 5th century, the two Celtic converts, brother and
sister, were put to death at Hayle in Cornwall, by the pagan king of Dumnonia,
(Cornwall).
1813-1855, Mary spent her life helping the poor and oppressed working women of Brescia and founded the Handmaidens of Charity.
St.
Ella’s Day
Child icon of innocence, joy and happiness.
Hanukkah VII (Hebrew)
The last day of the Feast of Lights, celebrating the victory of the Maccabees
and rededication of the temple.
• The Serpent of Handale
In Yorkshire, England, a man known only as Scaw rescued an earl's daughter
and killed a maiden-devouring, reptilian beast with fiery breath and a
poisonous sting. DR
St Adelaide’s Day
10th century nun from Alsace. Mince pies begin
to be made and eaten from today.
Holy Day of Thoth (Egyptian)
One of many feasts in honour of the ancient, ibis-headed Egyptian god
of the moon and of chronology. Possessing powerful magic skills, he
was protector of Osiris and therefore guide and helper of the dead.
Festival of Sapientia
(Roman)
Sapientia, goddess of wisdom and philosophy, is the Roman counterpart
of the Greek-Hebraic goddess Sophia. Illuminated in a medieval manuscript
is the image of an alchemist/sorcerer paying homage to a statue of Sapientia.
Saturnalia (Roman)
The seven-day festival of Saturn (also known as Death, The Reaper, and
originally the Greek god known as Chronos), god of Time and the Golden
Age, began and continued for a twelve day period of mayhem. Gifts were
given, including freedom for prisoners, to celebrate the god and the
birth of a new year. It was a time of role-reversal and chaos when civic
and moral laws were suspended, slaves and masters changed places, and
orgies, carnivals and transvestite revels were enjoyed by everyone.
The greatest ‘privilege’ went to the Lord of Misrule, or
King Saturn, a young and handsome man, often a gaoled criminal, chosen
30 days before the festival, who was dressed in royal robes and was
able to indulge in any fancy he chose, everybody having to obey his
every wish. His price however, was at the end of the seven-day period,
he had to cut his own throat in self-sacrifice at Saturn’s alter.
Sow Day (Celtic/Norse)
Sows are slaughtered in preparation for the Yule festivities. The traditional
Boar’s Head feasts were an essential part of the Celtic and Viking
celebrations, in veneration of the power and ferocity of the boar and
in the belief that it’s strengths would be transferred to the
consumer.
St Begga’s Day
Mother to the late 7th century Carolingian dynasty of Franks, with Pepin
of Heristal, after a pilgrimage to Rome, Begga founded seven churches
on the river Meuse, in France. d. 693.
• ‘The Greater or ‘O’ Antiphons’
Begin
Each evening at Vespers during the seven days before Christmas Eve,
an antiphon (responsive chant) beginning with ‘O’ is sung.
English Saxon monk of the mid 8th-century, who pioneered the spread of the Gospel throughout Germany. d. 761 AD.
Feast of Epona (Roman)
The Celtic horse goddess, (Edain), that accompanied the soul on its
final journey after death. She was first worshipped by the Gauls and
the Roman armies everywhere adopted her cult. The only Celtic Goddess
to have a temple in Rome.
Feast of St Samthan
Irish nun and founder of Clonbroney Convent, whose fame reached as far
as Salzburg. d.739.
St Mawnan’s Day or Magnenn
of Kilmainham
Cornish saint about which little is known. His memory is preserved there
in the old town of his name, and in the hospital in Dublin.
St Flannan’s Day
Celtic Irish 7th century Bishop of Kilkaloe, the cathedral of which
housed his relics. He is believed to have visited the Isle of Mann,
and cults to Flannan also exist in Scotland.
St Gatien’s Day
First bishop of Tours, and missionary in pagan Gaul. d. c.337.
Annunciation Day (Early
Spanish)
The Virgin Mary’s day of visitation from Gabriel up to the AD
1032, when it was changed to 25th March.
Feast within the forum at the shrine to Ops, goddess of plenty.
St Urban’s Day
d.1370. Pope Urban V of France was a scholar, much of who’s life
was spent in attempting to reconcile the deep, hostile rift between the
Western and Eastern Churches.
Memory of the Holy Martyr Boniface
(Orthodox)
A Roman slave around 290, Boniface was sent by his mistress to procure
some martyr's relics. In jest he suggested he might himself return as
a relic. In Cilicia where the holy martyrs were then suffering under Diocletian,
he was seized, confessed his faith and submitted to martyrdom. His companions
brought back his holy body.
Ostanes Day
Observance of the 3rd century and the greatest Persian magus Ostanes;
of the Medes tribe, who were scholars of Chaldean astrology, and who heavily
influenced the Greek and then the Egyptian Hellenistic alchemists. When
he died, his disciples used necromancy to revive his spirit, when he gave
them one further teaching.
Jul (Norse/Teutonic)
Beginning the twelve-night celebration of New Year. The most important Norse festival, signifying the beginning and the end of everything, when the dead roam the Earth. On this night, the god Freyr rides his shining boar over the earth to bring light and love.
Feast of Ignatius
Ignatius of Antioch, a late 10th-century monk who re-established and
developed the ancient monastery of San Sebastian de Silos in Castile,
turning it into one of the greatest religious and cultural centres in
Europe. He saved many Christians from captivity at the hands of the
barbarous Moors. d.1073.
Traditional begging day for the poor to make ready for Christmas, and alms are collected for the elderly and the deprived.
Solstice
Eve; Winter Solstice (Norse/Teutonic)
Midwinter’s day, the longest night and the shortest day. The Norse
god Odin (or Saxon Wotan/ Woden) leads the Wild Ride across the sky on
his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir. Children leave their boots by the hearth,
filled with hay and sugar for Sleipnir's journey, in return for which
he leaves a gift.
Mithras Day (Persian)
Birthday of the ancient Persian solar god of light and wisdom associated
with the bull cult. Mithras hunted the sacred bull he eventually slew
in a cave. Roman and Celtic ruling and warrior classes adopted Mithras
at high cult status. To emulate the myth, Mithraic temples were always
underground, absent of all sunlight and often in caves. Rituals, which
were for men only, were held in secrecy and included seven levels of initiation
and a ‘blood-baptism’ (see also 25th December).
Yule-Tide (Norse)
The Winter Solstice opens the Yule season which continues until the beginning
of January. A lengthy Boar’s Head feast commences and the Yule Log
is burned. ‘Yul’ is from the Norse and Old English word for
‘wheel’, or ‘the turning of the seasons’.
• Bell Ringer’s Eve
Church bells warn of ‘longest night’. Stay with friends and
feast until dawn.
• Hodening
Midwinter was one of the traditional nights for the Hodening-Horse visit
houses for luck bringing.
Also known to the Norse as Sol, this ancient Celtic sun goddess was adopted by the Romans and worshipped especially on hilltops overlooking springs. The springs at Bath were originally known as Aquae Sulis (Waters of the Sun).
The First Angelic Actio
In 1581, using Uriel’s new crystal ball and their spiritually directed
‘Seal of God’, since known as Dee’s Seal, John Dee and
Edward Kelly summon the angels for the first time in the forms of Anael
and then Hebradael, the Enochein Black Angel.
Celtic Tree Month of Elder ends.
The seventh, and last, day of the Saturnalia.
• Fafnir
A German dwarf who killed his own father for his hoard and, guarding
this cursed treasure, he slowly changed into a dragon. Fafnir's brother,
Regin encouraged a knight, Sigurd Volsung, to kill Fafnir. This they
did by digging a hole for Sigurd to hide in and stabbing his belly as
it passed over. Regin cut out Fafnir’s heart and cooked it, and
tasting it Sigurd prophesied Regin’s treachery so killed him and
took away the gold.
In the Celtic Tree calendar, December 23rd is not ruled by any tree
because it is the ‘day’ of the proverbial ‘year and
day’ in the earliest courts of law.
Early, pagan, Winter Festival customs were adopted by the Christians and included in the rituals of Christmas, to help with the conversion of faiths.
• The Christmas Crib
Models of the Holy Family in the stable at Bethlehem are set up, with candles that are lit to burn throughout the Twelve Days.
• Yule Candle
A very large, decorated, red or green candle is lit on Christmas Eve, and relit on each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. The stub must be kept until the following year as a charm against evil and for good luck in the year.
• Christmas Tree
A fir tree is set up in the house and decorated with candles, (or lights), and baubles, fruits and sweets. The custom originated from Germany and is said to have been conceived by Martin Luther, though he will have adapted an ancient pagan ritual from much earlier.
• Christmas Greenery Decorations
Originating from old Roman Saturnalia customs, garlands of evergreen decorations, especially holly, ivy and mistletoe are put up as symbols of life through winter. It is ill omened to bring Christmas greenery into the house before December 24th.
• Holly
Protects against witches, faeries, fire and other malign forces.
• Mistletoe
Amongst the Celt’s most sacred and magical plants, curing all ailments, causing fertility and as an amulet against evil forces. It was cut down with a golden sickle on the sixth day of the moon and not allowed to fall to the ground. Churches forbid the pagan associated mistletoe to be taken inside. Kissing under the mistletoe, and the Kissing Bough, is an English tradition. A berry must be plucked from the branch first, before asking for a kiss, which if refused, condemns them to an unmarried life.
• Yule Log
By Viking tradition, a large log of oak, ash or fruit-tree is dragged onto the hearth and kindled with a remnant of the previous year’s Yule Log, and must be kept alight for twelve hours, (or days, depending on custom), to ensure good omens. Sometimes, the log is substituted by an Ash Faggot, (see 16th Jan).
• Carols
Christmas carols, the songs of praise and joy, begin to be sung in church, at home, in the streets and door-to-door.
• Christmas Feast
When the Yule Log has been lit, the feasting can begin, with mulled ale and cider, spiced mince pies and cakes, and fruit and roast chestnuts. Festivities, including many indoor games, go on through the night.
• Santa Claus; Father Christmas
In Britain and America, stockings are hung by the fireplace for Santa Claus, who travels through the night on his sleigh pulled by reindeer through the sky, visiting every house and, entering by the chimney, leaves gifts for the children before Christmas morning.
His origins are an amalgamation of myths and beliefs from many cultures, principally the ancient’s Mithras (see 21st, 25th December), Norse/Teutonic Odin/Woden (see 21st December), and St Nicholas, of Orthodox Christian extraction (see 6th December).
• Evening Mass
Mass is held, usually up to and at midnight.
•
Ghosts and Fearies
The Eve of Christmas is a very active anniversary night for ghosts, with
many sightings being recorded everywhere, and faeries can be seen at many
sites across Europe, especially in Celtic lands.
• Laidley Worm
The King of Northumberland’s stepmother turned his daughter into
a huge dragon, which then moved to and terrorized Bamburgh. The King’s
son, as the Childe of Wynd, fought the dragon and, under the sword, gave
it three kisses out of compassion. This broke the spell and the dragon
transformed back into the princess, and the witch became a giant toad.
Celtic Tree Month of Beth (Birch) begins.
The twelve days are from
midnight on Christmas Day up untill the first hour of Epiphany, (6 January).
Christian 'Christ Mass', (old English; Christes
Maesse). The Church of Rome adapted the festival from the ancient,
pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice, to help facilitate the religious
conversion of heathens. After facing stubborn resistance in the fourth
century the Church officially moved Christmas to 25th December.
• Mumming Plays
Local variations of the Mumming Plays, allegorical plays about good versus
evil, take place over the Christmas period, especially Boxing Day and
on Twelfth night. The ‘Guisers’ (disguised performers) dress
in decorated rags, outrageous costumes and headdress, playing parts such
as St George and the Dragon, the Fool, the Lady, the Doctor and other
bizarre characters.
• Wassailing
From the Anglo-Saxon wes hál, to ‘be of good health’,
during the Twelve Days of Christmas, it was customary to wassail your
fellows with great ceremony. With toasting, singing and feasting, a large
wassail-bowl was passed around to drink from, traditionally, filled with
‘Lambs Wool’, made of hot spiced-ale or cider, sugar, roasted
apples, and often with eggs and cream added. Variations, especially in
Scotland, were made to included whisky.
Another custom was house-to-house wassailing, where the Captain of Wassailers
led the band of carol and wassail singing revellers to offer drinks from
the bowl in return for donations.
• Hodening
Over the Twelve Days of Christmas, bands of young men walked the streets
and lanes at night with The Hodening, (or Hooden), Horse, a man disguised
as a horse with a real horses skull over his head, and visited houses
as luck-bringers.
• Christmas Mass
At midnight of Christmas Eve, the start of Christmas, the mass is held
in churches and cathedrals, with choirs singing Christmas carols, a procession
to the crib and lighting the Christmas candle.
United States: Christmas Day Holiday
Christmas Day;
Feast Day of the Nativity (Orthodox)
Celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Originally introduced around
AD 336, the festival was held on 6 January, the date of the Christian
celebration of Epiphany. His actual
birth date was probably in April, in the year BC 7, which astronomers
calculate was when the coincidental conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and
the constellation of Pisces appeared in the sky, creating the 'Star
of the Magi' described in Matthew.2; 2.
The Eastern Orthodox, or Byzantine Church, still recognizes 6th January
as the celebration date of Christmas.
• Crying Christmas
The town Waits would sing Christmas carols and perform narrative poems
to the public, in a secular form of sermonising and merriment, in return
for voluntary financial contributions.
• Carolling; Vesselling
Carol singers carrying a Milly Box, or ‘My Lady’s Box’,
also called a Vessel or a Wesley-Bob, a decorated box containing a wax
effigy of the Virgin Mary, would perform door-to-door carols while collecting
alms for the needy.
• Visiting Wassail
The pagan-evolved equivalent of carolling, starting today, charitable
Wassailers went collecting from house-to-house, often led by a mock
‘Mithras’ bull, offering drinks from the Wassail Bowl while
singing songs of festive cheer.
• Church Bells
Bell-ringing is heard everywhere from churches and cathedrals as Christmas
services are performed and carols are sung.
• Christmas Dinner
The biggest feast of the year, traditionally including, depending on
wealth: Swan, peacock, bustard, turkey, goose, Christmas Pies, haggis,
boar and pork, followed by fruit and nuts, Christmas pudding and mince
pies, all consumed with copious amounts of alcohol, especially strong
Christmas Ale.
• Boar’s Head Ceremony
The greatest Christmas fare for the wealthy throughout the Middle Ages
and up to the 17th c. would be a decorated and garlanded boar’s
head, ceremonially presented to the hall table on the finest available
dish, followed by Plum Porridge.
• Exchanging Gifts
Following ancient pagan customs at around this time as offerings, talismans
and tokens of good things to come, gifts are given to friends and family.
• Glastonbury Thorn
The tree that grew from Joseph of Arimathea’s staff on Wearyall
Hill, where he thrust it in the ground and it took root, miraculously
flowers on Christmas Day.
• Christmas Baby
Anyone born on Christmas Day will have the ability to see ghosts and
spirits, talk with animals and is protected against drowning and hanging.
• The Grim Reaper
If anyone should die between today and Twelfth Night, their family will
be prey to the Grim Reaper for the coming year.
‘Early’ (pre-conquest) New Year
Mother Isis (Egyptian)
Festival to the goddess Isis, the Magna Mater, Mother of God and Mother
of All, giving birth to the god Horus.
Dies Natalis Invicti Solis (Roman)
Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.
Birthday of Mithras (Greco-Romano-Celtic)
Celebrating the birth of the great, ancient Persian Sun-god, worshiped
by many cultures over the centuries including the Romans and the Celts.
Effigies of the infant-god, born of the virgin mother earth, were carried
in great street processions, and the popular worship of Mithras was
the principle competition to the introduction of the Christian doctrines
of Christmas (see also 21st December).
• Yule Day Trolls
Trolls, (or ‘trows’ in Orkney and Shetland), the repulsive,
ungainly giants of Norse influenced cultures are abundant during the
long winter nights of Christmas. Although relatively harmless but for
their stealing, they are rarely seen by humans as they dislike noise
and live under bridges or under hills, and turn to stone if exposed
to strong sunlight.
• Birthday of Isaac Newton
b.1642, Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, England. Mathematician, Alchemist,
and Grand master of the Order of Freemasons.
The first Christian martyr, stoned to death shortly after the Crucifixion.
Boxing Day
The money boxes in which alms have been collected over Christmas by
the Mummers, the Carollers, and the Wassailers, etc are opened and the
proceeds distributed to the poor.
Feast of Neith (Egyptian)
• Hunting the Wren In Ireland
once caught, he dead bird was tied to the top of a pole or holly bush,
decorated with ribbons and carried from house to house. Elsewhere the
sport was known as the sacrifice of the king, Cock Robin.
• Mumming Plays
The principle day over Christmas for the performance of St George and
the Dragon and other ‘triumph of good over evil’ plays,
which are enacted by outrageously costumed ‘mummers’ or
‘guisers’, either door-to-door or in local public places.
• Racing and Hunting
As St Stephen was associated with horses, today became a traditional
day for horse-racing and hunting.
• Blood-Letting
St Stephen’s Day was traditionally the day for the blooding of
horses and oxen in European farming practice, to strengthen the animals
for the coming year.
• Whitby Wyrm
Just before midnight on December’s full moon, the Whitby Wyrm,
vanquished agent of darkness and enemy of Hilda, returns from the seas
to tear away at the shoreline of Whitby in its vengeful attempt at bringing
down the sacred site of God.
United States: Christmas
Day Holiday
UK & Canada: Boxing Day
St John the Evangelist’s Day
The ‘Holy Saints John’ are John the
Baptist and John the Evangelist, who, for several centuries have been
Patron Saints to the Freemasons. As complementary opposites, the Baptist
was an extrovert and man of action, while the Evangelist was an introvert
and a man of thought, meditation, and vision.
UK & Canada: Bank Holiday
In remembrance of the victims in Bethlehem, where by orders of King Herod all children were massacred in an attempt to kill the baby Jesus. The unluckiest day of the year; in Ireland this is Cross Day and they believe that anything begun on this day will be ill fated.
Holy Day of Hekate, Selene and Apollo (Greek)
Feast to the three principle deities presiding over the moon and the sun.
Death of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, canonized in 1173; Four knights from King Henry II’s court, drew their swords and cut off the top of Becket’s head while praying at the alter in Canterbury Cathedral, 1170.
• Drachenstein
A German treasure-dragon that guarded a hoard of gold, the firedrake
was killed by a Hurnen Sifrit for its riches. Hurnen hid, lying in a
covered pit, and when Drachenstien passed over him he fatally plunged
his sword up into the dragon's unprotected belly and took the treasure
that it had.
Astrologer, alchemist and occult philosopher, died in destitution at his working house in Mortlake, Surrey, 30th Dec. 1608, aged 81.
• Death of Robert Boyle
London, 1691.
• Seeing Out, or Burning Out the Old Year
Gatherings take place everywhere, especially in Scotland and the north of England, with plentiful supplies of drink, particularly Scotch whisky, to make merry with. With bonfires, torches and hearth-fires lit, sword dancing and other highland dances are performed as the evening draws to a close. Toasts are raised, and then as the church bells ring-out at midnight, a cheer goes up and everybody links arms to join with singing Auld Lang Syne. The men and boys then go out First Footing to bring good fortune to the New Year (see 1st January).
• Allendale Fire Festival
Many different fire customs with their own variations such as this one took place on New Year’s Eve, in which a band of costumed Guisers lead a night-time parade wearing flaming tar-barrels upon their heads, which are thrown onto the bonfire to singing and dancing, until midnight strikes and first footing begins (see 1st January).
• Ghosts
many ghosts are to be seen on this night, such as William Pell, murdered in 1407, and the phantom huntsman of Meon Hill, who was eaten by his own dogs for habitually hunting on the Sabbath.
Watchnight
Church hymn singing up to minutes before twelve o’clock, followed
by silence, then at the stroke of midnight the bells peel out for New
Year. Church bell ringers often make this night a celebratory festival.
St. Sylvester's Day
Bishop of early Christian Rome and later Pope, who tolerated all religions,
d. 335. Legend says that Sylvester baptised Constantine and cured him
of leprosy. His emblem is a chained dragon and tiara.
End of Jul (Norse/Teutonic)
The last night of the New Year celebrations, beginning 20th December.
Feast of Sekhmet (Egyptian)
Goddess of war, battle and physicians and known also as The Terrible One,
The Beloved of Ptah and Dark Sister of Bast.
Sekhmet
Hecate's Day (Roman)
An ancient and highly venerated Greek goddess, she holds the key to birth,
death, and rebirth and is the goddess of magic and prophesy.
