Pagan Christmas (27 page)

Sylvester Punch

This northern German recipe consists of five ingredients. (Vossen 1985, 141) (The word punch has roots in the Hindi panc, meaning “five.”)

Arrak (rice brandy or corn schnapps)

Sugar

Lemon juice

Water or tea

Spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, saffron)

“Punch made from hot water, sugar, lemon juice, and arrak, or made from wine, water, sugar, lemon juice, and good Jamaica rum, served hot, and drunk in two or four glass rations, is a great way to warm up, and feel alive again, and even to produce sweat” (Most 1843, 513f).

Adonis, a beautiful young god of oriental and Phoenician descent, was a lover of Aphrodite. During ancient feasts of Adonis, the people grew anemones and Adonis roses in the famous Adonis gardens to commemorate Aphrodite’s famous lover. These gardens were, in fact, clay pots filled with earth. Without being conscious of it today, we are worshipping the sacred plants of Adonis every time we carry home a Sylvester pot and water it thoroughly. The fast-growing, fast-flowering, and fast-withering plants show us how life renews itself, but also demonstrate the vanity of life—just as our Sylvester pots and beds do today.

Anemones (Anemone spp.) and the Adonis rose (Adonis vernalis) were often confused with one another in the past and have been used in the same fashion. Both are members of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) and are associated with Aphrodite and the youthful Adonis, “the one who nourishes flowers.” The Adonis rose is also generally associated with fast-withering youth.1 The genus name Anemone comes from the Greek anemos, meaning “wind.” In antiquity, it was believed that the wind had a love affair with this plant; in truth, the blowing wind fertilizes the plant. Thus the plant goes by the folk name windflower.

The wild anemone (Anemone coronaria) has blood red petal leaves and reminds us in appearance of a red-blooming opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) or field poppy (Papaver rhoeas). It was believed to have grown from the blood of Adonis, the youthful lover of Aphrodite. While the love goddess was flying through the air in her swan wagon, Adonis was hurt by a boar in a dangerous chase. When the goddess came back to Cyprus, she could talk only to her dying lover:

“The memory of my mourning will go on forever, Adonis, and a festive commemoration of your death will be an annual part of my mourning of you. Your blood will become a flower… .” After these words, she put scented nectar on the blood; touched by it, it rose, and from the brown mud air was coming up. It did not take longer than an hour before the blood was a flower, red like a pomegranate that hides its seeds under the hard peel. But you can only enjoy the flower for a short instance, because it is very tender and it falls down when the wind touches it, and the winds that gave her the name (animus) carry it away (Ovid, Metamorphoses X, 724ff).2

In ancient mythology, the hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) grew from the dead body of a king’s son who was beloved by the sun god Apollo. The god gave life to his ashes, but in the form of the beautiful hyacinth, with its alluring, aphrodisiac scent.

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) is a typical Christmas decoration in North America, even though it contains very poisonous chemicals known as cardiac glycosides. From December to March, it puts forth yellow blossoms, like little suns, that sit between bright green leaves. With its miraculous flowers, this floral New Year’s gift brings new light and new life to the house.

Luck times three: A Sylvester pot in the form of a fly agaric mushroom, containing four-leaf clover and guarded by a chimney sweep. (Germany, 1999)

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Every year returns to the origins of time in its beginning; it is a repetition of cosmogony.

ELIADE 1966, 49

At twelve o’clock midnight on December 31, the witching hour arrives and the new year begins. There is something magical about the moment in which one year passes and the next begins. Traditionally, we make a toast to the New Year with sparkling wine or champagne; we toast and wish one another good luck and good health.1 We embrace and kiss our beloved, and we toast and hope for future luck in love. Then follow the resolutions—made mostly in vain—for the new year.

Thunder and Witch Flour

With the explosions and the beating of the whip, bad spirits that could disturb the New Year were driven away. And the air was heated up over the cornfields and the fruit trees in order to awaken their fertility …

HILLER 1989, 205F

There seems to be something of the homeopathic concept “like cures like” in the way magic works: One can defeat or protect against illness or evil by using something similar in defense. Thus, the best way to be safe from lightning is to create artificial lightning, and fireworks make this possible in multiple colors. In the old days, people called upon plants for this purpose. To be more precise, they used plants to make a powder variously called witch, thunder, or lightning powder or flour. This produced dramatic natural fireworks that could be used for a number of purposes.

Called “thunder and witch lightning” in earlier times, the Sylvester (New Year’s Eve) fireworks explode with bright lights on the winter sky, driving out the demons of the old year and clearing the way for the new. In early times, the lights and noise of the fireworks was considered protection and a way to drive bad weather away from house and court. Today, we feel safe against thunder and lightning because we have lightning rods on the roof; only animals hide when they hear the unexpected noise.

The use of fireworks to welcome the new year goes back to Stone Age shamanism. As they tended the fire, Paleolithic shamans must have noticed that certain nonflowering plants exploded on the flames with bright lights and a sudden noise, producing a dramatic, theatrical effect and a natural magic.2 To this day, lightning powder or witch flour is the folk name for the thick, yellow, fluid spore powder produced by the running clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum):

… A part of the powder is blown into the open flame, and there it burns quickly in the form of a very bright sparkling without any trace of smoke. This intense explosion of the burning lightning, like rapid combustion, is so astonishing that you find you can’t keep from burning little doses of the powder. In such peacefulness and such a heat, it feels so easy to just slip away into the fire—into such a bright light! (Schenk 1960, 67).

Stag horn clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum), a shamanic “bear plant,” is also an old magic substance of the Celtic druids. It is known in the vernacular as black henbane, devil’s claw, Erdschwefel, selago, witches’ herb, and wolf’s claw. Names used for the clubmoss spores in folk medicine include Alpenmoss, devil’s snuff, druid’s moss, Neunheilpulver, Waldstaub, and witches’ moss. The druids used this “flour” to create lightning on their altars, to the astonishment of their awestruck fellow humans. “The druids of the Gauls have said that this plant [the magic plant selago] should be carried around to ward off every evil, and that its smoke helps with eye injuries”3 (Pliny the Elder XXVI, 103).

We now know that Lycopodium causes fireworks because it contains aluminum, which the plant absorbs from the soil. But until modern times, this aluminum-containing “witch flour” was considered a magical substance: “It brings luck, drives witches away, makes you attractive to the ladies, makes you invisible and, all in all, gives the carrier superhuman attributes” (Schenk 1960, 68). What more could you want?

Teacher Laempel is the victim of Max and Moritz’s joke. They put not baccy or tobacco in his pipe, but a mixture of exploding powder made from coal, sulfur, and saltpeter. (Wilhelm Busch, Max und Moritz, 1865)

From Incense to Fireworks

The Sylvester explosions woke up the seeds of the plants. Bad spirits were driven out by shooting over the wells.

FRUEH 2000, 49

It is possible that the use of noise-making substances on Sylvester’s Eve originated with ingredients used to burn incense. Even in the past, people knew that incense-smoking coals burned better and glittered more when enriched with saltpeter. To ward off devils and witches, one was supposed to light the coal (using wood from the buckthorn, alder, linden, beech, or poplar) and then add sulfur. In the combination of saltpeter and sulfur, we have the basic ingredients for what was known as black powder.

Black powder was invented in 1200 CE in China. The Chinese used the substance to drive off demons, vultures, and devils. Black powder was rediscovered in fourteenth century Europe by the legendary monk and alchemist Berthold Schwarz.4 Today, black powder is part of the ethnobotany of our Sylvester and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

When fireworks go off, flames rise and sparks fly. This can easily result in a fire. Today, as in the past, special precautions are needed to prevent disaster. In earlier times, the father of the house made four piles of dirt (one for each direction the wind might blow) for use in putting out potential fires.

Lucky Mushrooms and Chimney Sweeps

Whoever is acquainted with the effects of fly agaric mushroom will understand how one might see ghosts during the winter solstice, or hear animals talk. Even today, the fly agaric mushroom, which can be smoked when dried, is considered a good luck charm for the coming year.

MADJESKY AND RIPPE 1997, 166

What makes the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) the archetypical lucky mushroom? It is one of the most secret symbols of our modern world, omnipresent but still not understood. In German, a lottery winner is called “a lucky mushroom.” Yet at the same time, the fly agaric mushroom is feared because of a belief that it contains a lethal poison. How did these contradictory connotations develop?

The German word Glück (“luck”) leads us to the first clue. In the old Germanic language, Glück means “hail” and “to be blessed.”

Lucky mushroom New Year’s cards from Belgium and the Netherlands. (Early twentieth century, from Lemaire 1995)

Luck can particularly be described as a very special condition of human consciousness. Luck belongs to the form of being. It is nothing of substance itself; it is not something you can physically own. A quest for luck is a search for the thing you hope will make you lucky, not luck itself. The search for luck is indeed always a search for the origin of luck (Hofmann 1997, 108).

Contrary to popular belief, the fly agaric mushroom is not a lethal poison. Strangely enough, it is the third most popular edible mushroom in the whole world. Eaten with knowledge and in small enough doses, it alters the sense of orientation, perception, and dreams. The fly agaric mushroom opens the door to other worlds—shamanic worlds—because it is an age-old shamanic substance. Since ancient times, it has given human beings hidden knowledge and happy insights into the mysteries of life.

And so, in Central Europe, the beautiful, white-spotted fly agaric mushroom is not only a lucky symbol, but also a doorway to the world of fairies, nymphs, dwarfs, and goblins.

Chimney Sweeps

After the fly agaric mushroom, the chimney sweep is the most important lucky charm for the new year. Popular since human beings invented chimneys, chimney sweep figures intended to ensure a happy new year are still frequently found in modern Sylvester pots. Other lucky symbols that may appear along with the chimney sweep include horseshoes, fly agaric mushrooms, and ladders (a representation of the shamanic ladder to heaven). Often, the chimney sweeps carry brooms, an attribute of St. Nicholas as well as witches.

Chimneys and open fires in the house are doors to the other world. These “pipes of the house” are an alchemical distilling flask, a huge smoking pot. Thus the chimney sweep, a member of the “ritual cleaning staff,” clears the way to the other world. He climbs into chimneys and, by cleaning them, takes away the darkness and makes a clear passage for the smoke. “Chimney sweeps are considered messengers of good luck, especially when you meet them first thing in the morning” (Hiller 1989, 148).

Mushroom miracle in the winter forest. A chimney sweep harvests the lucky mushroom for Sylvester and the New Year. (Postcard, 1900)

Chimney-Sweep Plants

In German folk botany, the following plants are all called by the name Schornsteinfeger (chimney sweep). These chimney-sweep plants became symbols for the cleansing chimney broom because of their appearance.

Carex spp., Cyperaceae (sedge)

Equisetum arvense, Equisetaceae (horsetail)

Hemerocallis spp., Liliaceae (daylily hybrids)

Ilex aquifolium, Aquifoliaceae (holly)

Luzula campestris, Junacaceae (woodrush)

Plantago lanceolata, Plantaginaceae (plantain)

Polygonum bistorta, Polygonaceae (bistort)

Sanguisorba officinalis, Rosaceae (salad burnet)

Tragopogon pratensis, Asteraceae (salsify)

Typha latifolia, Typhaceae (cattail)

Plants with chimney-sweep-related names also include:

Iris germanica, Iridaceae, iris or orris (chimney-sweep flower)

Luzula campestris (chimney-sweep grass)

Typha latifolia (chimney-sweep cleaner)

Chimney sweeps climb through the chimney just like ancestor spirits, witches, sorcerers, shamans, Befana (the Christmas witch), St. Nicholas, and Santa Claus. They are all considered a connection between heaven and Earth. The chimney sweep, with a fly agaric mushroom in his hands, may be another of the many forms of Father Christmas.

Many people wrongly fear the fly agaric mushroom, believing it is poisonous. At the same time, it is widely treasured as a lucky mushroom. In Europe, huge fly agaric mushroom fireworks (tischfeuerwerk, or “table bomb” fireworks) are burned as a lucky symbol for Sylvester and the new year.

New Year’s day is the day of the lucky mushroom. (Illustration by Martina Schoenenberger, Lucky Collector, postcard, 2001)

New Year’s Day

Whoever is last to finish his meal on New Year’s Day will be too late to get into heaven.

OLD SAYING

New Year’s Day calls for a great deal of attention to detail. There are rules for meals, incense-burning, gift-giving, and treating hangovers, all to ensure that the new year is cleansed of whatever may be left over from the old year, like a chimney swept clean of last year’s cinders.