Midwinter Light: Celtic Traditions That Shaped Our Holiday Rituals

As November deepens and the days grow shorter, we begin moving toward one of the oldest celebrations of light. The Celtic midwinter festival of Yule honours the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, when the sun appears to stand still before beginning its slow return. This moment reminds us that even in the darkest season, light endures.

Many of the rituals associated with Yule continue to echo through modern holiday traditions, weaving ancient folklore into our contemporary celebrations.

A Festival of light returning

In Celtic regions, lighting candles or tending the hearth fire during Yule symbolized calling back the sun. Although we now brighten our homes with the flick of a switch, many of us still turn to the natural glow of candlelight for comfort, especially in wintertime.

Bringing the outdoors inside

During Yule, the Celts brought evergreens such as holly, ivy, yew, and pine indoors to symbolize life persisting through the cold. These plants were believed to protect the home, invite good fortune, and honour the resilience of nature. Influenced by her German husband, Queen Victoria popularized the custom of decorating a fir tree at Christmas. Their influence sparked a Victorian-era fascination with festive evergreens, an echo of the much older practice of bringing the outdoors inside during midwinter.

Songs and mulled cider

One of the most charming Yule traditions was wassailing, a practice rooted in gratitude for the land that sustained the community. Orchard wassailing was a midwinter ritual in which people gathered in apple orchards to sing songs and pour spiced cider at the trees' roots to bless the orchard with a generous harvest in the year ahead. The Victorians revived many of these customs and shaped what we now recognize as carolling and mulled cider or spiced holiday drinks.

A Maritime note: Wassailing in Nova Scotia

If you happen to be in Nova Scotia this December, you can experience a live wassail event at the Manning Memorial Chapel in Wolfville. I attended last year, and it offered a gentle, seasonal way to welcome the holidays that was rooted in our Celtic heritage.

Winter rituals

The Victorians were experts in romanticizing winter. They fully embraced the season as a cozy time of year filled with comfort and ritual. Their winter customs often echoed ancient Celtic beliefs: even as the nights grew long and the air turned cold, people found warmth by illuminating the darkness with candlelight, greenery, and communal celebration.

Today, those same traditions guide our modern rituals. Lighting candles, decorating evergreens, sharing warm drinks, and gathering together all stem from the timeless desire to create light in the darkest part of the year. You’ll find echoes of these midwinter traditions woven into several of our seasonal fragrances, including Cold Snap Pear Harvest, Victorian Christmas, and Yuletide Sugarplum.