Advent 2024 and the Meaning of the Evergreens

 I went all over the place to find the evergreen bits to bring in for the Winter Solstice. I wanted as many different things that it's possible to have in a Mid Suffolk winter.

Bay from my own small Bay tree in a big pot in the back garden.

 Bay was used to aid healing and protected from lightening, snakebite, disease and witchcraft. Sacred to the Romans and worn by their emperors, heroes and poets. It was planted by the house door to keep away plague.

Holly with just a few berries from a back lane near where I used to live and I also snipped a couple of bits of variegated holly from the car park of a village hall on my way home from town on Thursday.

In Roman times Holly was given as a gift during Saturnalia. A Holly tree planted near the door protects from storm, fire and the Evil Eye. A holly collar protected a horse from witchcraft and coach men preferred whips with holly wood handles. Chilblains were cured by being whipped with a holly branch.

I stopped at the churchyard in the same village in the hope that some mistletoe would have been blown down from the huge churchyard trees and got lucky as there was a branch down, including mistletoe, although it must have been down a while as  most had lost it's leaves. There was one berry! 

Mistletoe - the most mysterious and magical plant, a parasitic plant suspended between earth and sky famous since the Druids. It symbolised peace and hospitality and the berries were used in love potions and kissing under it was once a fertility rite, rather than just fun!

A piece of Yew from one of the many Yew trees over the road in the Churchyard in my village.

 Yews have been planted in churchyards for many 100 years, although exactly the reason for the connection is not known, but it is thought they were sacred to pagans who had used the site before Christianity and they were often used as the spot for village meetings. They were thought to symbolise eternal life and cutting them down would bring death.

And Ivy growing on a post also in the churchyard, although it's everywhere of course.

Sacred to the Gods of wine it would hang outside a vintners premises to show that good wine could be had there (ale houses had a bush hanging outside)There is a traditional rivalry between the holly and the ivy. The holly is masculine and the ivy is feminine. Ivy leaves soaked in vinegar are said to be a cure for corns and whooping cough in children could be cured if they drank from a ivy-wood bowl.

And finally a piece of Rosemary also from the churchyard, didn't need secateurs for this as it was half broken and hanging down so not really 'stealing', just tidying!

Rosemary was both sacred and magical. Tradition says it had white flowers until the Virgin Mary spread Christ's  clothes on it to dry during the flight into Egypt. Tudor brides always carried rosemary in their bridal wreaths. Rosemary was once put into the hands of the deceased and mourners would carry rosemary to throw into the grave.

And altogether in the living room

There were some small bits left for another jar full which is on the kitchen windowsill. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Advent 2024 and The Winter Solstice

Today, with the fewest hours of daylight, is the day to go out and fetch greenery to bring into the house, to encourage the return of the sun.

The tradition of bringing greenery into the home goes back a Very long way. This would have been the only decoration available to the poorest homes.

And even earlier each plant had a meaning.........Holly was a symbol of everlasting life and fertility, Ivy was an anti-witching plant with medicinal values, Rosemary was holy and magical and Bay was sacred to Apollo and Aescutapious, the God of medicine. Mistletoe was also associated with fertility and used by Druids in their ceremonies.

Christmas wreaths made of greenery are also ancient, thought to date back to Roman times when they decorated homes during Saturnalia. The wreath is thought to be a symbol of the wheel of the year. (The word Yule is usually thought to come from the Nordic word jol but may come from their word for wheel.......houl).

I've included this a few times on the day of the Winter Solstice but not for a year or two, so here it is again.

Susan Cooper is an author best known for a series of fantasy novels for children

And I've had this book for at least 3 years and still not got around to reading it, must make an effort this year despite having all the good library books to get through.

It has 12 stories from various countries that have been passed down through the generations.

(Anyone in the BBC Look East area would have seen that they featured the Christmas Tree Festival at Stowmarket, that I visited a couple of weeks ago, on the programme last night, it really was the best ever in all the years I've been visiting)

Back Tomorrow

Sue

December 23rd - The Best Laid Plans

Thomas Hardy managed to make this short poem rhyme and shows feeding the birds isn't a new thing.

Birds at Winter Nightfall

Around the house the flakes fly faster,

And all the berries now are gone

From holly and cotone-aster

Around the house. The flakes fly! - faster

Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster

We used to see upon the lawn

Around the house. The flakes fly faster'

And all the berries now are gone.

Thomas Hardy 

The week has Not gone as planned. Due to the hours and hours of pouring rain from late Monday onwards I took Eldest Granddaughter home much earlier than planned on Tuesday - Luckily her Mummy was working from home. It took me over 4 hours to do the round trip that would normally take less than two to do . I had to go by main roads which is miles further (84 total instead of 54) rather than cross country but it was the only way to avoid serious flooding and even on the main A roads there were many places where the water was across the road. The extra traffic and roadworks didn't help. I got back just in time, as the flood water down the road from the bungalow had gone from a large puddle to nearly 6 inches deep in the time I'd been gone. 

(And yes you have read those times/miles correctly - it regularly takes 55 minutes to do 27 miles on our "wonderful", damaged, pot-holed, 30 mph limit, twisting, cross country roads between me and Leiston!)

I thought it was just lack of sleep - (don't usually mention health issues but the RLS prickly-ness has been much worse than usual) and having an energetic 7 year old here that had made me extra tired but after the 4 hour drive I was shattered and feeling very achy and worried about eldest daughter and the two grandsons coming up Wednesday evening as planned - wasn't sure how much flooding would be left and how I would be feeling. 

However H was determined to visit for a present swap so on Wednesday I dosed myself with my cold cure tomato and chili soup and Strepsils for the sore throat and lots of paracetamol, got the house back together and beds sorted and rested in between times to give me time to feel better.

They then came up early Thursday in daylight. Lovely to see my Surrey boys again, last time they were here was the summer holidays when everyone ended up sick. Since then the 7 year old has had hospital visits for some keyhole surgery and 2 year old  is now more of a little boy than a baby. Eldest daughter was full of cold - don't think she should have come up at all really and I wasn't 100% but luckily we all had a good nights sleep.

She headed away early Friday afternoon to meet up with her sister, sister in law and the other three children  before the horrible journey home to Surrey in the dark (worries me every time!)................ and I collapsed in a heap! .................before doing the tidying all over again while drinking hot lemon and honey and taking more paracetamol.

Between all the grandchildren stuff, house tidying, present sorting, cooking and list making for later, I managed to collect some greenery for the Solstice. From various places I 'stole' variegated Holly, ordinary Holly and Rosemary and from home Bay, Yew and Olive. I discovered the little spray of red toadstools in the Christmas decoration box but don't remember getting it. It was still labelled so I know it came from Smiths Packaging shop and cost me £1.59 presumably last year or the year before? They add a touch of colour as almost  all berries on the Hollies everywhere have gone this year.

 

I guess I'm not the only person still with things to do before more visitors, and other deliveries to make. I'm definitely hibernating in January.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

December 22nd - The Solstice and The Ogham Tree Alphabet

The winter solstice 

It's been over a year  since I wrote a post mentioning the Ogham Tree Alphabet. The only native British writing system devised 2,000 years ago using various notches on sticks. Each letter also corresponds to a tree and a month or a day of the year. My first post about the alphabet is HERE  after I found the book by artist Karen Cater.

The tree for the Winter Solstice is the Scot's Pine and I've been collecting photos of them.

Firstly in the village. I can see this one from my back windows. There are two planted on a green area in the middle of the housing estate behind . They would have been planted when the homes were built in about 1983/4 and are getting rather large.

At Needham Lake. This is a smaller and much younger tree, photo taken on a foggy day back in the spring.

And at Sutton Hoo when we were there in the early Autumn. Growing tall on the sandy soil there

These are the pages from the book that explain it all.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

December 21st

 A Green Man for the Solstice. The ancient symbol of fertility and nature probably dating back to the very first farmers. Often seen in surprising places - church fonts for instance.

  I bought my new one from a Christmas Fayre last month. I had one at the smallholding and at Clay Cottage and left them both to guard the land for the new owners.

He is still in the shed at the moment, waiting for someone to hold the ladder while I use hammer and nail and put him up on the Flowering Cherry tree.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

December 20th

 The Winter Solstice can be on the 20th or 21st December. This year the moment that the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn is at 21.48 on the 21st, after that daylight increases by 6 minutes to the end of the month. The word Solstice comes from Latin sol stetit , meaning sun stood still. And  for 6 days in the Northern Hemisphere the sun appears to rise and set in the same place, which must have been frightening for ancient peoples, wondering if the sun would move again? would the daylight grow again?

I've been saving this little book to read at this years Solstice, the 12 stories come from all parts of the world, passed down through the generations. 

We often get our coldest weather as the hours of daylight increase but this year we've already had many days that have been colder than an average December. The long range forecast for January is a bit vague or as they say "confidence is low" which I take to mean "we don't really know"! So we'll have to wait and see.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Advent Photos 2021. Dec 21st and the Winter Solstice

Thank you to everyone for comments on yesterday's Boar's Head post. It was interesting to find it was called Head Cheese in Canada. When I was a girl we often had it for tea at a weekend with salt and pepper and bread and butter and it was always tasty which is why I wanted to make it myself when we kept pigs. I'm now going to investigate the few proper butchers shops that are left around about to see if they sell it.

So.........onto today's post...............................

 

 Last year I did lots of posts about the Ogham Tree Alphabet.

The Ogham Alphabet is the only native British writing system devised over 2,000 years ago and carved using notches onto wood or stone. Although I knew of it, this book found at a boot sale 3 years ago really describes everything well.

 

 Each tree represents a letter and a month and there are also trees for the other special days in the circle of the year.

The tree for the Winter Solstice is the Yew

I've written about Yew trees before HERE so won't repeat myself but this illustration for the Yew tree representing the letter I comes from the book.

 

So with the shortest hours of daylight  today it's all is on the upwards and onwards from now. Between the 21st and the 31st daylight  over here in the East will increase by..............................6 minutes!

And once again I have to include this poem, which I love

Susan Cooper was born in the UK and emigrated to the US in 1963, she mainly wrote children's books

This poem was written for the Christmas Revels, which I looked for information about and found.........

On Christmas Eve in 1920, John Meredith Langstaff was born into a music-filled home where a rousing, wassailing carol party was the peak of his family's year. Half a century later, his inspired Christmas Revels was born, a theatrical weaving of traditional song, folkdance, and drama that has become a beloved institution across the country.

 and this

Revels is a contemporary series of American seasonal stage performances, incorporating singing, dancing, recitals, and theatrics loosely organized around a central theme or narrative. The folk-tradition-based performances started in 1957, were restarted in 1971, and now occur in multiple cities around the US. 

 Wonder why we don't have similar here or maybe we do?

Back Tomorrow

Sue

22nd December -Advent Photos 2020 + Holly and Stars

 Yesterday was the Winter Solstice and now  daylight hours will (very) slowly increase and the days will get colder - in theory,  

As the days lengthen, so the cold strengthens

 but with global climate change who knows.

 I had to move the car out of the garage and out of the way as Youngest Daughter's ex partner was hopefully coming with a friends van to get the fridge and bed frame (he didn't appear for the third day in a row) so while I was in the car I decided to go and get the Holly from a mile away. No chance of biking as it was pouring with rain. Then there was Ivy, Rosemary and Bay from home and now winter is on the table.

 Today's Advent  book is a children's book, one that has been around a while, but not long enough to have been found secondhand for my children. It was published in 1991.

 

It's full of short  stories and well known excerpts from longer books plus carols and poems.

Once again it's the  illustrations that I love

I'm a sucker for traditional winter scenes

 I discovered that Sally Holmes, the illustrator of this book had also illustrated a book called "The English Cottage Year", available for 99p from Abebooks. It sounded interesting and will be on it's way to me in the new year.

Was it fine enough where you were to see Jupiter and Saturn in alignment yesterday evening? It was too cloudy and wet here although I'd seen them getting closer together on the last few clear nights from my bedroom at bedtime. This is the first time they've appeared so close as to look like just one star in 800 years (or 300 years depending on which news I read/heard). Some folk think this may have been the bright star seen in Bethlehem all those years ago. 

Maybe it was. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

December 22nd and the Winter Solstice

According to my Folklore diary Winter starts today, although meteorologically  it started at the beginning of December.
The winter solstice marks the date that the Earth is at its maximum tilt from the sun and that was at 04:19 this morning, it is the first time in four years that it hasn't fallen on 21 December, the solstice's most common date, although on rare occasion it can also occur on the 20th or 23rd. London will have just 7 hours, 49 minutes and 44 seconds of daylight, but from now onward the length of daylight hours increases........... imperceptibly at first but by this time next month there will be 1¼ hours more daylight................Reasons to be cheerful Part1!

 The Winter segment of the turning wheel from Celebrations of the Seasons by Jennifer Cole.

Special places have always been used to celebrate the Solstice

I found this poem a couple of years ago

 The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive.

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, revelling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us - listen!

All the long echoes, sing the same delight,

This Shortest Day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And now so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

*************************************************

So much for circling things to watch in the Radio Times, the first things I wanted to see were only on if a Liverpool football match wasn't on TV in the evening - and it was because they qualified for something?  Then I found Swallows and Amazons - the more recent film - was on and as I'd re-watched the older version and loved it all over again last week I decided to re-watch the this newer and in my opinion not very good film,  and that meant I missed the next thing circled. But that was OK as it was on the 5 catch-up channel, which I can now watch on my new TV.
Reasons to be cheerful part 2!

1 day down 13 days circling programmes and watching/not watching left!

Thank you to everyone for comments - I love it when someone who's never commented before says they enjoy reading the blog.

Today I will be singing carols and having lunch with Colin's sister and brother .........Reasons to be cheerful Part 3!

 Back Tomorrow

Sue

December 21st and the Winter Solstice

According to my Country Wisdom and Folklore Diary at 22 minute past 10 tonight we should celebrate the Winter Solstice and the Official start of Winter.

Today is also St Thomas' Day.........

St Thomas grey, St Thomas grey

Longest night and shortest day 

The tradition of bringing greenery into the home goes back a Very long way. This would have been the only decoration available to the poorest homes.
And even earlier each plant had a meaning.........Holly was a symbol of everlasting life and fertility, Ivy was an anti-witching plant with medicinal values, Rosemary was holy and magical and Bay was sacred to Apollo and Aescutapious, the God of medicine. Mistletoe was also associated with fertility and used by Druids in their ceremonies.

Christmas wreaths made of greenery are also ancient, thought to date back to Roman times when they decorated homes during Saturnalia. The wreath is thought to be a symbol of the wheel of the year. (The word Yule is usually thought to come from the Nordic word jol but may come from their word for wheel.......houl).


There should be pictures of holly, ivy and other green things here but I was so busy yesterday that I didn't get round to bringing anything in. I'm working my way through a list of food preparation so I can spend more time with Grandson Jacob when he arrives with his Mum and Dad on Sunday afternoon and before then I have coffee at a friends, a carol service and a dinner out, a shopping trip, bread sauce to make, spiced nuts to do for the hampers, deliver the hampers, more red cabbage casserole to make and cook. Some small presents for neighbours children to wrap, wood and kindling to bring in and maybe I'd better do some cleaning!

So instead of a photo of green things brought in for the Winter Solstice here's a page from the book "Cattern Cakes and Lace"

Back Tomorrow
Sue

December 22nd and Decking the Halls with boughs.............

Yesterday being the Solstice it was the day for bringing in some greenery.

From the garden I collected some bits of Rosemary, Elaeagnus, Ivy, a few pieces from the Leylandii and just one little piece of Bay from the plant that moved in a pot from the smallholding to here via Ipswich. It's been planted out now but needs a few more years to get going so I didn't want to take too much from it.
The holly - with berries - came from a lovely big tree about a mile away, I spotted it a few weeks ago and because we live on little used back roads it was still there when I went to bring a little home.
We've planted some holly in the mini-wood so one day there will be some to bring in from right here, although holly is so slow growing it might be the next person to live here who benefits.

A vase of greenery at each end of the living room and ivy on the mantel-piece. I'm Decked!

Now, on the subject of Holly and Ivy........... here's a thing.......a pretty thing and a happy surprise find. I had to go shopping at Aldi, so of course popped into the Hospice charity shop just over the road, where they always have a table of Christmas things and what did I spot, YES it's another bit of Holly and Ivy Portmeirion, a small footed bowl, priced up at £4.50 but Great Joy, they had a "Everything Half Price" notice on the table. Happy Dance........

................. But I really didn't mean to start a collection!

And Finally ........here is some news I wasn't expecting to say..........Colin is home! Much to our surprise they decided his blood counts were good enough to let him out a week earlier than we thought and I went and collected him yesterday afternoon. We have to go to Addenbrookes twice a week for blood tests where they check and re-adjust tablets and recovery will probably be up and down but at least he'll get a good nights sleep here. In a few weeks time he will have a bone marrow sample taken and that's when they'll be able to judge how well the donor stem cells have worked.
Having him home but still needing to rest and keep away from people with colds has quite thrown Christmas plans up in the air......... but in a good way.😊

Back Tomorrow
Sue

December 21st and Yule or The Winter Solstice

Susan Cooper is an author best known for a series of fantasy novels for children

  

BUT is it the shortest day?

According to my diary................and this is very depressing!

Today ............Sunrise  08:04                                   Sunset 15:54

Tomorrow.......Sunrise  08:04                                   Sunset  15:54

23rd   Sunrise 08:05 (a minute later)                       Sunset 15:55 ( but also a minute later)

24th   Sunrise 08:05                                                 Sunset 15:55

Am I reading this right?...... that's 4 days all the same....................4 Shortest days?

Then at last on Christmas Day we gain a minute   Sunrise 08:05  but Sunset 15:56

Then for the next 6 days sunrise is a minute later - at 08:06 but we gain a minute each evening. - Oh Hooray!

Is my diary right?

Anyway I've been out and brought in some greenery as people have done on this day down the centuries, more about this tomorrow.

BTW the jigsaw puzzle is coming along slowly.

Sue