It all begins with the Mother. Tonight on the longest night of the year, we honour our matrilineages and the spiritual lineages of prophesy, blessing, abundance and nurturance passed down through the ages through myths concerning Crones.

Source materials for this miniseries:

A Brief History of Christmas Tradition

Apple Tree Lore, druidry.org

A Visit from La Befana, JSTOR Daily

Bärbeletreiben

Biedermeier period

Berserks In History and Legend, M.Speidel

Between the “Thracian Substratum” and “Oriental Accretions”: Bulgarian Mumming and the National Heritage Canon, Ivo Strahilov

CHRISTMAS GIFTS AND THE GIFT-BRINGER, LESLIE D. JOHNSTON

Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices, C.Lecouteux

Deutsches Weinachsmuseum, All About Christmas Glass

Doe A Deer A Female Deer, Danielle Prohom Olson

Feasts and Feasting in the Fourteenth Century, Jon Mackley

foodtimeline.org

Frau Holle in Legend

HiddenGlen.org, Michael Newton's courses are chock full of Gaelic lore and language. Highly recommended.

How Guy Lombardo Became Mr.New Year's Eve, Canadian Encyclopedia

Industrial Revolution, Chocolate Revolution

Lucy of Syracuse. Patron saint of eye disorders, Carlos Ortiz-Hidalgo

Marzipan Pigs Christmas Tradition

Notes on Italian Folk Customs, Stanley Gee

Otto Hofler, Wikipedia

Perchten and Krampusse: Living Mask Traditions in Austria and Bavaria, Molly Carter

Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead, Claude Lecouteux

Roast Beef, The New Poor Law, and the British Nation, 1834-63, N.Durbach

St. Lucia's Day: An Italian saint, a German child and a female demon all play a role in the story of 13 December, ScienceNorway.no

St.Lucy, Brittanica.com

Shedding Light on Saint Lucy, Aubrey Minshew

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Unknown author

Some Ancient and Modern Yuletide Customs (Dec.1939), L.Johnston

Sugar Past and Present

The Kissing Bough

The Ancient Jus Gentium of the Aryans (1899)

The Feast of Saint Barbara with Pagan Traditions

The Krampus in Austria: A Case of Booming Identity Politics, Gertraud Seiser and Matthäus Rest

The Lussekatter

The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year, L.Raedisch

The Pomander: A Brief History

The Problem of Mysteriousness of Baba Yaga Character in Religious Mythology, Evgenia V. Ivanova

The Rowan Tree and a Rowan Cross

The Scots Kitchen (1929), F.McNeill

The Silver Bough, Volume 3: A Calendar of Scottish National Festivals - Hallowe’en to Yule (1961), F.McNeill

The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices, C.Lecouteux

The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, B.Walker

Unwrapping Yuletide: A Century of Icelandic Traditions, Gudrun Jonina Gunnlaugsdottir

We Don't Know The Origin Of The Candy Cane But They Almost Certainly Were Not Christian, Smithsonian Magazine

Witches, Werewolves and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages, Claude Lecouteux

Yule: The Pagan Holiday of Light, The TROTH | Education and Service for Inclusive Heathenry

Yuletide Monsters: Christmas Hauntings in Medieval Literature and Modern Popular Culture, Medieval Studies Blog Hosted by the University of Notre Dame's Medieval Institute

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Buy The Spirited Kitchen: Recipes & Rituals for the Wheel of the Year

Pre-order Spells for the Apocalypse: Practical Magic for Turbulent Times (publication date: Jan.14, 2025)

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