The In-Between Times
What gets you through this in-between time from Christmas into the first week in January?
This image sums up my memories of the days after Christmas. Snuggled down, watching cartoons with my dad. Houses changed and I learned to read so the scene shifted — still cozy and snuggled down, but on a sofa with a book. That’s how we spent the days between Christmas and January 6th when I was growing up.
The hurried rush and excitement that builds and culminates on Christmas Day is well behind us for this year. The days after Christmas are so very different than the ones leading up to Christmas. Until January 6th everyone is home. No alarm clocks. Even the dog and cat sleep late. Lots of reading, art making, and listening to music by cozy fires in the fireplace. It’s an odd bit of in-betweenness. A liminal time.
It feels like the world is slowing down. Almost like an ebbing tide that has gone slack. Soon it will move towards flooding again, but not quite yet. Other in-between times occur during the year, but none feel in my bones quite as deeply as Christmas Day until January 6th.
The Wild Hunt
Our Northern European ancestors seem to have been well aware of this in-betweenness. For them it was not just the deep cold and dark, but it was deep uncertainty. Deep silence and stillness. Food insecurity. Without electricity to turn on to demystify shadows and dispel fears when howling winds blew through, imagination filled in the space. Stories and the practices built from and with those stories provided directions to draw close, stay together around the hearth for protection, reassurance, and comfort.
The Wild Hunt is one such story. The first written mention of the Wild Hunt is in 1127 CE in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, one of the oldest sources of Anglo-Saxon history.
"...it was seen and heard by many men: many hunters riding. The hunters were black, and great and loathy, and their hounds all black, and wide-eyed and loathy, and they rode on black horses and black he-goats. This was seen in the very deer park in the town of Peterborough, and in all the woods from the same town to Stamford; and the monks heard the horn blowing that they blew that night. Truthful men who kept watch at night said that it seemed to them that there might be about twenty or thirty horn blowers.” (page 260, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" - Translated by G.N. Garmonsway, London, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1953)
The story was later popularized by Jacob Grimm in 1835 in his works Deutsche Mythologie. Grimm wrote about it extensively in the section entitled Spectres. The English translation by James Steven Stallybrass, 1883–1888 can be found here. And, I suspect that if you think about tropes you see in movies, television shows, and literature, you will see that the story is alive and well today.
There are three major time periods where the stories of the Wild Hunt emerge, including during these in-between days in winter — the coldest, stormiest time of the year. The Wild Hunt was a band of the dead led by a deity or demon. They rode at night through forests and fields accompanied by howling hounds. Anyone found outdoors at the time could be involuntarily swept up into the hunting party and dropped miles from their original location or never seen again. In some versions, they wreaked havoc in towns, and entered homes and stole food. As folk stories do, The Wild Hunt has adapted over the years based on geography, who the leader is, who is in the hunting party, the appearance of its members, whether animals are present, and other details. (If you are interested in more about the Wild Hunt a good place to start is here and here.)
The protections and directions that grew out of this story and these in-between days, included:
stay inside if you hear howling winds and howling dogs,
burn frankincense, myrrh, juniper, and pine to protect the family and animals from harm,
fireworks and loud noises will keep malevolent spirits away,
charms, fortune telling, and divination are powerful during these days,
and, one I find particularly interesting, no work or laundry could be done during this time.
Our Family Practices Right Now
For our family, it’s a time of rest, relaxation, reading, and long walks. Slow and easy living. There’s not a lot of pressure to do. It’s a good time to pay attention. Its a good time to look to the future, bring the old year to a close, reflect on what has happened, and get in the mood for the new year. There’s also a palpable feeling of magic being at play.
When the kids were young it wasn’t always easy for them to figure out new ways to play and be engaged each day. We endeavored to help them by having a small activity for each morning. The range was broad but was always filled with the intent of inspiring their imagination and creativity and compassion. For example, one morning was making wishing ornaments, another morning was a hike, another was a game of Hidden Treasure, another was cleaning out spaces and finding items to donate.
We’d read stories, folklore, and myths about the gods and goddesses within the cultures represented by our family, and stories about the Winter Witches. We came up with actions to take that could show someone else the power of justice, love, and peace.
Now, that they are older we still do some of the same activities but we’ve also refined some. Each day from Christmas Day until January 6th, we try to spend a portion of the day outside. When the kids were younger this was a family hike designed not only to run, be active, and burn off energy, but also to see what was happening with the Earth and the more than human beings around us. Sometimes I’d make a scavenger hunt for them and sometimes it was just pure exploration. It depended upon their energy levels. We’d keep track of what they saw during our explorations and we’d record the weather.
I fervently believed, and still do, that there is evidence of life all around, even in the cold, gray days. It wasn’t until much later that I learned about how my ancestors used these 12 in-between days to forecast the weather of the approaching 12 months.
December 25th predicts the weather of January
December 26th predicts the weather of February
December 27th predicts the weather of March
and so on.
Now, we continue the practice of noting the weather and activity amongst the more than humans on each day. When the month comes around we refer back to our list and reflect on the prediction and what transpired during the month.
Wishing traditions are some of my favorites of this in-between time. It speaks to the hope that comes with a new solar year and new calendar year. We no longer make wishing ornaments. Instead, we write 13 wishes for the coming year, each on a separate piece of paper and placing them in a bowl. Beginning 12/26 we draw one slip every day. We place it (unopened) into a cauldron or fire proof bowl and light the paper releasing the wish out into the universe. This is done in the hopes that the wish will be heard and will come true. On the twelfth day, one last wish remains and this is the we are responsible for making come true in the new year.
My final practice for this in-between time is to review the past year, set intentions for the new year, and identify my word for 2025. I have hints at what my word will be but will keep it close until January 1st when I know for sure.
What gets you through this in-between time?
5 Notes
Five final notes on what I’m diffusing, making, reading, listening to, and practicing in yoga.
Diffusing: Orange, Cinnamon, Black Spruce essential oils.
Making: A warming and invigorating body oil that is great for these damp, heavy, and slow in-between days. I love using this body oil, especially on my hands and feet because they seem to be always cold and dry right now. You can find the full recipe on the Herbal Academy blog.
1 ounce total combination of:
*black pepper (Piper nigrum)
*clove (Syzygium aromaticum)
*dried ginger (Zingiber officinale)
*calamus (Acorus calamus)
*juniper (Juniperus spp.) berries
*mustard (Brassica nigra) seeds
*orange (Citrus spp.) peel
6 ounces almond oil
16 ounces water
Reading: Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Soundtrack: Erland Cooper
Yoga: There’s a new moon during these in-between days. It’s the darkest time of the month, paired with these out-of-time-sort-of days. Winter new moons are a time for introspection and reflection. The New Moon + winter means going slow, steady, intentional, and grounding yoga flow that includes lateral stretches and heart opening yoga poses. My practice right now, looks like this:
