Midwinter
Winter Solstice
Midwinter celebration at Nasavrky, Czech Republic
Also calledYule, Christmas
Observed byTraditionally: Europe, particularly the Northern and West Slavic countries.
TypeCultural and Spiritual
SignificanceMarks the traditional (solar) middle of winter, and the beginning of meteorological winter.
CelebrationsFestivals, bonfires, feasting, singing
DateDecember 21, 22, 25 (a date close to the Winter Solstice
Related toWinter, Winter Solstice, Quarter days

Midwinter is a celebration of the season of winter occurring at the midpoint of the winter season, which is known under the system of solar reckoning as the Winter Solstice.[1][2][3][4] As the precise date of the seasonal midpoint can vary from year to year, different traditions may celebrate or fix Midwinter at different dates or under different names occurring on or around the actual solstice. A variety of traditions have developed often rooted in regional, spiritual, or religious practices.

The term is attested in the early Germanic calendars and appears with several meanings in later sources, including the season of Yuletide, the first day of Þorri, and the celebrations of Christmas. It is often equated with the winter solstice in contemporary English.

Attestations

Midwinter is attested in the early Germanic calendars, where it appears to have been a specific day or a number of days during the winter half of the year. Before Christianisation and the adoption of the Julian calendar, the date of midwinter may have varied due to the use of a lunisolar calendar, or it may have been based on a week system tied to the astronomical winter solstice.[5]

In Old English, midwinter could mean the entire Christmas season or specifically Christmas Day (25 December), which was also called middes wintres mæssedæg (midwinter's mass-day).[6] Old English midwinter could also mean the winter solstice, which was regarded as 25 December in Anglo-Saxon England, following the Julian calendar and the localisation of Jesus' birth to this date.[7]

In the medieval Icelandic calendar, midwinter day was the first day of Þorri, the fourth winter month, which corresponds to the middle of January in the Gregorian calendar.[8] The entire month of Þorri was sometimes referred to as midwinter (Old Norse: miðvetr).[9] According to Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla (c. 1230), the pre-Christian holiday Yule was originally celebrated at midwinter, but in the 10th century, the king Haakon the Good moved it to the same day as Christmas, about three weeks earlier.[10]

If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
The half o' winter's to come and mair;
If Candlemas day be wet and foul,
The half o' winter gane at Yule.

Scottish variation of a proverb about
when the middle of winter occurs[11]

In Scandinavia, in popular language since the medieval period, midwinter can refer to the period from the middle of January to the middle of February, which usually is the coldest part of the year in northern Europe, sometimes with Candlemas as winter's midpoint.[9] In British verses and proverbs attested since the early modern period, fair weather on Candlemas indicates that at least half of winter remains, whereas foul weather means that winter is over.[12] In the Sámi week system, 5–11 February is known as the midwinter week.[9]

Beginning in the 18th century, the term midwinter, and associated terms such as the Icelandic hǫkunótt [sv] and Old English modranect, has sometimes been misunderstood by scholars as synonymous with the astronomical winter solstice.[13] Olof von Dahlin in 1747 wrote that the hǫkunótt had been at the winter solstice. The word hǫkunótt is only attested from Snorri who located it to midwinter.[14] Modranect, attested from Bede, has been interpreted as the "mother of nights", and thereby the longest night, but the word is more correctly translated at "mothers' night".[15] The association between midwinter and the winter solstice is related to the idea that the pre-Christian Yule was a celebration of the sun, a theory that first emerged in the 17th century and still had a few supporters among scholars in the early 20th century, but since then has been refuted and abandoned.[15]

The Cambridge Dictionary says that "midwinter" can mean the winter solstice in modern English.[16]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Solstice". National Geographic.
  2. ^ Monks, Gillian (2018-12-20). "Celebrate the winter solstice to reclaim the festive spirit". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  3. ^ English Heritage. "The history of midwinter traditions". English Heritage. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  4. ^ Mattson, Craig (2019-12-17). "The Science and Culture of the Winter Solstice". Schlitz Audubon. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  5. ^ Nordberg 2006, pp. 43–44.
  6. ^ Karasawa 2015, pp. 36–37; Parker 2022, pp. 70–71.
  7. ^ Karasawa 2015, pp. 36–37, 86.
  8. ^ Jansson 2011, p. 59.
  9. ^ a b c Nordberg 2006, p. 111.
  10. ^ Hollander 2007, p. 106; Nordberg 2006, p. 35.
  11. ^ Kernan 1980.
  12. ^ Apperson 2006, pp. 81–82.
  13. ^ Nordberg 2006, pp. 120–121.
  14. ^ Nordberg 2006, p. 120.
  15. ^ a b Nordberg 2006, p. 121.
  16. ^ Cambridge Dictionary.

Sources

Further reading

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