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Modresnach – The Mothers' Night  
 
This is a Germanic/Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon annual commemoration, an Odinist Midwinter festival held approximately on this date*, many practices of which can still be found in our Christmas traditions.  
 
We know about it from the Venerable Bede (c. 672 - 735), a medieval monk, author and scholar, whose best-known work is Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Writing about the customs of the pagan Anglo-Saxons, Bede mentions their practice of celebrating a holiday he called "Modranicht" or "Modresnacht" on the eve of Christmas. (Modresnach is another spelling and seems the most commonly used, at least on the Internet.) Bede, writing in 730, informs us that Modresnach was the most important pagan festival in 8th-Century Britain. Bede referred to this time of Yuletide celebration as 'Kilderdaag' – the time of slaughtering (animals for the feast – often a pig).  
 
From the little we know, it seems that motherhood was celebrated on this night, and it had a divinatory function as well. It was apparently believed that dreams on this night foretold events of the year to come.  
 
Traditionally, pine or other evergreen trees are decorated tonight to represent the tree of life. The decorated evergreen tree symbolises the Tree of Life, or Yggdrasil (World Tree). In Norse Mythology, Yggdrasil was a gigantic ash tree, thought to hold all of the different worlds: such as Asgard, Midgard, Utgard and Hel. Like Jesus on the Cross (often called 'the Tree' in the Christian tradition), Odin suffered on Yggdrasil.  
 
Deities of many cultures in the Book of Days  
 
The star on the Christmas tree  
 
The star at the top of the Modresnach tree represents the pole star of the Star God or Goddess. Feasts and gift-giving were in honour of the bounties given by the Mother Goddesses to their human children. According to German folklore, at around this time a Yuletide witch known as Lutzelfrau flies through the sky on her broom, bringing mischief to mortals who neglect to honour her with small gifts.  
 
Perchta is another witch of Germanic Yuletide. In the southernmost areas of Germany, children traditionally carry masks and carry a broom (besom), while going from door in door begging gifts in the name of Perchta.  
 
In the Orkney Islands, tonight was called Helya's Night – the night the children of the household were committed into the protection of 'Midder Mary' – Mother Mary, the Virgin Mary. This name superseded the older name of Modresnach. Perhaps Helya is a corruption of the Old Norse heilagr meaning holy.  
 
In an old custom from the Orkneys, a mother would raise her hands over a slumbering infant, speaking these words:  
 
Mary Midder had de haund  
Ower aboot for sleepin-baund  
Had da lass an' had da wife,  
Had da bairn a' its life.  
Mary Midder had de haund.  
Roond da infants o' wur land.  
 
These words would be repeated over all the children.  
 
Yule was greeted in Orkney households that were especially clean and tidy. This need for tidiness may have been connected to the fact that the trows were rife at Yule. These creatures were known to despise untidiness in a house – harking back to their original role as spirits of the dead. Three burning coals were dropped into water, lest the trows "take the power o' feet or hands". Also, a round oatcake was prepared for each of the children in the family: these 'Yule cakes' might have symbolised the sun.  
 
Across many cultures, motherhood is commemorated in the guise of such deities as Mary, Isis, Yemaya and the Three Mothers (Sarasvati, Lakshmi and Parvati).  
 
* Sources vary. Formerly, I had this at December 20, but based on the Venerable Bede's reference I have placed it at December 24.  
 
"It is important to note that both the Anglo-Saxon word 'modra-(niht)' and the Latin 'matrum' are in the plural, not the singular. Modern Heathens often celebrate this holiday primarily as 'Mother Night,' conceived of as being the night the year is born, the solstice tide. This is very beautiful imagery, and certainly a most fitting way to celebrate this event. But we should not lose sight of the fact that the Anglian holy tide described by Bede was very clearly the 'Night of the Mothers', -what would in Scandinavian countries be called the disablot, Disting, or festival of the disir, the tribal soul-mothers. It is also clear that, since the festival is described as a sacrifice, it was intended primarily for the deceased mothers more than the living ones: the mothers who have gone through and past death to become sources of wisdom and soul-might for their living folk. Thus, while indeed it makes perfect sense to celebrate the solstice with the imagery of Mothernight, and honor today's living mothers, there is no question that the tribal soul-mothers are the ones who should receive highest mindfulness and honor on this holy night."  
Matrons and Disir: The Heathen Tribal Mothers  
 
The Disir (maternal guardian deities) and the Disting (Disablot, Disirblot) celebration in the Book of Days  
 
Origins of the Christmas tree  
 
The old Roman Saturnalian greening of the temple soon led to church decorations at Christmas (in old church calendars, Christmas eve is marked 'Templa exornantur': churches are decked) and eventually the Christmas wreath and tree emerged. The latter had an interesting path down the centuries to modern homes. Tradition has it that St Boniface in the eighth century substituted a fir tree for the pagan oak, as a symbol of the faith. While Church reformers often turned their zeal and malice towards "idolatrous" practices, Martin Luther fostered the ancient Christmas tree cult by using a candlelit tree as a representation of Christ's home, the starlit heavens. Fir trees decorated with candles, apples, fruits and paper flowers were introduced by German immigrants into Britain, and popularised later in the 19th Century by Prince Albert, the German-born consort of Queen Victoria.  
 
"Christmas Trees and Maypoles are remnants of the Scandinavian Ash, called Yggdrasil, the Tree of Time, whose roots penetrate to heaven, Niffheim and Ginnungagap (the gap of gaps). In Ginnungagap the frost giants dwell, in Niffheim is the great serpent Nidhögg: and under this root is Helheim, the home of the dead.  
 
"We are told that the ancient Egyptians, at the Winter Solstice, used a palm branch containing twelve leaves or shoots to symbolise the 'completion of the year.' [cf Twelve days of Christmas, PW] The modern custom comes from Germany."  
Ivor H Evans, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988  
 
Wikipedia has an article on this subject  
 
More on the Christmas tree may be found in Clement A Miles, Christmas In Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan, T Fisher Unwin, London, 1912