Happy
Winter Solstice to everyone (because this is exactly what the
solar deities religions really celebrate)! The solar deities that brought people the bright Sun which made the soil fertile, kept them warm and threw the darkness and their fears away.
By the way, this year's Winter Solstice occurred at 19:12 of December 21, local time (ATH).
For the record, the ancestor of the Christmas tree is
Eiresione, which was the custom of the decorated tree that was broadcasted via the Greek voyagers to northern peoples who, lacking of olive trees, they adorned branches of their local trees.
Eiresione was a branch of olive decorated with white and red wool and with early winter fruits (figs, walnuts, almonds, chestnuts, grains, etc., excluding apple and pear). It was an expression of thanks for the fertility of the past year and a plead to continue the fecundity and fertility during the following year; it was a festival dedicated to Athena, Apollo and the Ores (Eunomia, Dike and Irene) on the seventh day of the month Pyanepsion (22 September - 20 October, which was the first month of the new year) celebrated with the festival called
Pyanopsia.
The custom of Eiresione was condemned as pagan by the theocratic regime of Byzantium and its telesis was outlawed with the penalty of death. A few centuries later the same custom returned in the form of Christmas and New Year's tree by the Bavarians, as we know it today.
Have a nice holiday break and enjoy whatever is this you are celebrating!
-George
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