For most people Christmas Eve means rushing about in a state of panic because they’ve forgotten the turkey or one of the kid’s Christmas presents. It’s a last minute consumer grab before the serious business of gift wrapping, cooking and drinking begins. If you take a pause in between the madness, you’ll hear the echos of an almost forgotten celebration on 24th December: Mother’s Night. Mōdraniht (Mother’s Night or Night of the Mothers) is Anglo-Saxon but if you scrape the surface, you’ll find reference to Mothers in pre-Christian Germanic and Northern European societies. The maternal blood line formed a deep bond with the living: some traditions claimed the spirits of female ancestors from the maternal line were guardians over their kin. They took the role of guardian spirits but they also influenced the destiny of their charge (sort of like mini Norns). The actual practice of what happened at Mother’s Night is unclear. Saint Bede mentioned it in his 8th century writings: “And the very night that is sacrosanct to us, these people call Mōdraniht , that is, the mothers’ night, a name bestowed, I suspect, on account of the ceremonies which they performed while watching this night through.” There’s […]
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