In ancient religions, winter was a time of sacrifice. It was a time of practical, daily sacrifice because conditions were so harsh and also a time of ritual sacrifice. The idea prevailed throughout the ancient world that offering in most ancient times a person and later an animal to the God(s) at this time helped ensure a fruitful harvest in the following year. It is from this tradition that many, many myths have sprung, including April Fools' Day.

In Scandinavia, the custom still lives in the form of the Yule Boar. At Christmas in Sweden and Denmark, a loaf is shaped like a pig and baked. The substitution of a ritual loaf for a man or animal is found in other cultures as well, (and makes one wonder if the person was eaten -- ick but the implication is clearly there). The idea appears in conjunction with a sacrificial victim in the April Fools tradition. A ring or other token was hidden in a cake and whoever received the slice containing it was king for the night, able to do whatever he chose, but was killed the next day.

Anyway, the loaf is called the Yule Boar and it's usually made from the last ear of corn reaped in the preceeding harvest. In most households it remains on the table only through the Christmas season but some maintain the older tradition of keeping it until Spring when it's mixed with the new corn and given to field workers to eat. This represents the presence of the spirit of the harvest through the seasons.

Before the loaf was common, a real boar was sacrificed. Prior to that, a man dressed as the Yule Boar was sacrificed. In Sweden shadows of this are still seen. At Christmas there a man is wrapped up in leather and holds bristle-like straws in his mouth in emulation of the animal. An old woman with a blackened face then takes a knife and pretends to kill him, (the death goddess perosnified).

On the Esthonian island of Oesel a cake with 2 ends turned up like tusks is baked as the Christmas Boar and kept on the table till New Year's Day when it's fed to the cattle. On another part of the island a pig is still used. The woman of the house chooses one born in March and hides it from the family, fattening it all the while. She kills it on Christmas Eve, still in secret, and then sets it on all 4s on the table, where it stays for several days.

In yet another Esthonian tradition a cake is baked at Christmas, (but it's not called the Christmas Boar), then divided in half at New Year's. At that time, 1/2 is eaten by the family and the families' animals, (4 legged ones anyway). The other half is again distributed at sowing-time in the Spring.

Lastly, in other parts of Esthonia, the Christmas Boar is made from the first rye of harvest. Shaped like a cross or cone, it is embossed with 3 from a buckle or piece of charcoal or with pig bone or key. Throughout the holidays it sits by a light on the table. Part of it is crumbled and salted then given to the cattle before sunrise on New Year's and Epiphany morning. When the cattle are taken to pasture for the first time in the spring the rest is divided among them. The practice is thought to keep the livestock from magic or other ills throughout the year.

The Yule Pig is also found in German traditions. All share the same mythological source, the winter arrivial of an other-worldly boar. The tradition is very ancient; pigs were sacrificed to Demeter, Greek Goddess of the Harvest, as well as to the Egyptian fertility God Osiris, for example.

Possibly in Greece and definitely in Rome a horse was similarly sacrificed. In Rome, each year on Oct. 15, a chariot-race was held in which the right-hand horse of the winning team was sacrificed to Mars to ensure a good harvest. It's head and tail were cut off and used in ritual and the blood was kept until April 21, when the Vestal Virgins sacrificed un-born calves and mixed it with their blood. The mixture was given to shepherds who used it to fumigate their flocks. Hate to think what the origins of that tradition might have been.

Again, the goal of this was a good harvest. Examples of the practice are found throughout the ancient world and their remnants are still seen in many cultures. The Christmas 'King Cake' of New Orleans, for example. The sacrifices were seen as ensuring the blessing of the God or Goddess of the culture for the coming year.

The winter constellations reflect these myths. From the North looking at the sky from the Southern horizon to the part above you, you seen: Orion the Hunter, Canis (Dog) Major, Canis Minor, Taurus the Bull, Auriga the Charioteer, Gemini the Twins and the Pleiades (7 Sisters).

Orion offended the Gods, Apollo in particular. Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt, was tricked into helping him get revenge by shooting Orion. She made him immortal and placed him in the sky when she saw what she'd done. There he is said to hunt for Tarus, accompanied by his 2 dogs, (see Ghost Riders in the Sky: The Myth of the Wild Hunt).

There are several accounts of the even more ancient myth of Auriga the Charioteer. In some he invented the chariot, in others he trained the best horses for them. The twins of Gemini are Castor, a great horseman, and Pollux, a great boxer. In one myth, they are brothers of Helen of Troy and sons of Zeus and Leda, hatched from an egg.