Planning for the Longest Night

This time of year is possible my most favourite (and no, not just because of the presents. Although I do love presents!). As the years have gone by I have come to love it more and more, revelling as the snow falls deeper and the lights go up to ward off the darkness. Lights and spices and dark green things, sharp scents and wine, chocolate and alcohol, and taste of salt-soaked flesh in love are highlights for me. Over time I’ve gathered a lot of information on what different pagans (or witches) do for the holidays, and I’ve been especially interested in the traditions of the Germanic and Slavic tribes, although I have a very minor blood relation at best to them (Anglo-Saxon British roots). Then again, that’s never stopped a pagan before (although those who take things willy-nilly are given the side-eye).

But when the time comes to celebrate, I find myself lost and unplanned (always my problem), and I don’t do much save for attending the Cauldron’s “Up All Night: A Technopagan Winter Solstice”. I chat and watch tv, and stay up the whole night until sunrise. I also generally do some sort of liquid libation, either something homemade (last year was eggnog), or mead.

This year I want to do something different and put more effort into my celebration. Something that spurred me on was Ms. Graveyard Dirt’s “Holy Effin’ Supper” challenge. Now, I’ve always admired her blog (and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I encourage you to do so!) and the way she’s done things. In fact reading her blog helped me spur myself into doing my own thing, as it were. It was my introduction to Cailleach and Brighid (which later led to the Lady of the Stars thing). It’s inspired me to look at my own sovereignty, to look at the ways to full incorporate myself into my spirituality, rather than being a bystander. But I won’t lie and say my first thought was “Ooo! Ms. GD stuff! Oo, challenge!” I am a fiercely competitive motherfucker, even if I lose most of the time. Which isn’t the point of the challenge anyways, but still!

I began doing most of my research last week, first starting with my Métis roots. It’s one of the things I slowly came to terms with after really and truly finding out that part of my family was Métis, much more so than I was led to believe initially. It took me years to come to terms with, and I’m still coming to terms with it. But more on that later. I started researching not expecting to find much, as a lot of written Métis culture is amalgamated onto the French or Native side, or is only briefly written about with little detail. What I found initially was.. pretty surprising, I think.

For one, my father’s side of the family (Métis, French, and Irish) celebrated their family get-together on Christmas Eve. I didn’t realize that this was very traditional for French Canadian families, as well as Métis families. In fact many would feast, go to bed for a little while, and then get up for Midnight Mass. When that was over, they returned home to open gifts and some would stay up all night. Traditional foods includes tourtiere (a meat pie, commonly filled with pork?) and a buche de noel, basically an edible Yule log. I found the buche de noel actually pretty surprising to me, as I was planning on making one after getting the recipe from Ms. GD for her’s! So that synched up nicely.

Other things I have lined up: for Cailleach, a buttermilk gingerbread loaf recipe especially for Her (and me, but shhh) and homemade eggnog for family, the ancestors, and the Wild Hunt when it passes through.

Tomorrow I’ll be going to the grocery store to pick up the supplies and then to Value Village to pick up dishes, then when J gets off work we’ll be going to the mall to look for cooking dishes for me to bake in, because my household lacks them. :(

It’s certainly going to be an interesting couple of days!