"Subtitled The Demons, Witches and Ghosts of Christmas, the book opens with Clegg embarking on a pre-dawn walk to a graveyard on Christmas Eve. She is recreating an old Swedish tradition called arsgang, or year walk, which is said to offer glimpses into the walker's future along with shadowy enactments of the burials of anyone who will die in the village this coming year."
"Elsewhere, Clegg tells of horned figures rampaging through the streets in Salzburg on Krampus night; dawn solstice rituals at Stonehenge; and horse's skulls mounted on sticks in Chepstow, their cloaked carriers engaging in a battle of rhyming insults. There are chilling stories of an Icelandic ogress who kidnaps people and turns them into stew as her Yule cat looks on, and witches who find children who haven't done their chores, cut open their bellies and stuff them full of straw."
Unsettling midwinter traditions and stories fell out of favour in the Victorian age. A pre-dawn graveyard year walk (arsgang) offers glimpses of the walker's future and stages shadowy burials of villagers who will die in the coming year. Horned figures rampage through Salzburg on Krampus night. Dawn solstice rituals occur at Stonehenge. Chepstow parades display horse skulls mounted on sticks while cloaked carriers trade rhyming insults. Icelandic tales feature an ogress who kidnaps people and turns them into stew as a Yule cat watches, and witches who cut open undutiful children's bellies and stuff them full of straw. Victorian tastes recast Christmas as a sedate, domestic festival centered on Saint Nicholas imagery.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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