Grianstad an Gheimhridh
The Irish Gaelic term “Grianstad an Gheimhridh” translates to “Winter Solstice” in English. This refers specifically to the astronomical phenomenon occurring annually around December 21st marking the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern hemisphere.
Ancient pre-Celtic peoples such as the megalithic societies that constructed iconic structures like Stonehenge ascribed great spiritual and ceremonial meaning to the turning of seasons, including the Winter Solstice. Their astronomical observations and elaborate solar-oriented monuments indicate that they conducted rituals celebrating the symbolic death and rebirth of the sun during the solstice period.
In contrast, historical evidence suggests pre-Christian Gaelic societies inhabiting Scotland and Ireland did not formally recognise or mark the Winter Solstice, as Celtic festivals centered more around seasons like Summer, Harvest, and the Celtic New Year (Samhain). Ritual observation and celebration of the Winter Solstice arrived later via cultural diffusion and assimilation of earlier megalithic peoples’ traditions by later Celtic and Gaelic groups.
Over time, Gaelic subcultures across modern Scotland and Ireland have revived and reinterpreted ancient seasonal customs through a Gaelic cultural lens, attaching their own myths, observances, and traditions to existing solstice or Yuletide festivities even whilst adding more recent influences. For instance, some Gaelic communities in Ireland and Scotland celebrate the solstice today with Celtic-inspired bonfire rituals, whilst Scottish Gaels incorporate relics of Norse Yule traditions absorbed via “cultural contact” centuries ago.
Yuletide begins today
Indeed, the Winter Solstice has held cultural significance for communities across northern Europe since prehistoric times. Ancient peoples like the Picts and Norse observed this key seasonal shift with rituals symbolising the death and revival of sunlight in the darkest depths of winter. This resonates with human fears and hopes tied intrinsically to nature’s cycles of renewal.
In Scotland, the modern Yuletide period stretches from December into early January, preserving remnants of these ancient winter festivals infused with Celtic folklore and Norse legacies. The very word Yule emerges from Old Norse ‘Jól’ - denoting midwinter feast cycles commemorating changing seasons. Originally these midwinter observations marked the winter solstice and wild celebrations to revere the Norse gods. Celtic and Norse beliefs syncretised in Scotland’s unique crosscurrents of cultures. Hence Scotland’s enduring Yuletide festivities sprout from mingled Pictish, Celtic, Gaelic, Norse and later Christian midwinter myths woven across centuries.
Surviving accounts depict monumental months-long Yuletide feasts held for visiting allies hosted by Celtic chiefs and early Scottish clan leaders until at least the Late Middle Ages. Such feasts displayed wealth and hospitality, underscoring the hosts’ ability to nourish hundreds of guests through barren winters - thus affirming their authority. Traces remain as the Hogmanay festival. So the enduring backdrop for Scotland’s winter merrymaking is rooted in archaic ancestral customs tied to primeval natural events like the December solstice and ensuing renewal of sunlight - ultimately giving birth to the protracted revelries of modern Yuletide beginning each year with the winter solstice.
Indigenous “gift economies”
Yah, yah, yah … it’s the solstice. Why this history lesson?
I saw a quote from a conservative pundit the other day and it got me thinking. The quote said in essence, that only capitalism can produce charity. I thought what a numpty this person must be to think that a particularly economic system is the only one that can enable / produce charitable acts, especially since it’s only been around for about 400 years. Knowing my own culture as I do, I figured a short refutation was in order.
Having paid attention in anthropology and history, I know the term “gift economy.” In many historic indigenous societies, hospitality and generosity were highly prized values before contact with modern capitalist economies. Tribes like the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest in North America, for example, practiced elaborate customs around gift-giving within tribes and to outside visitors. Often gifts would be given without any expectation of immediate material return - simply out of goodwill and protecting collective survival.
In another example, historically, the Kwakwaka'wakw people of the Pacific Northwest we known to host lavish feasts called potlatch - where they would give away their prized goods like ornamental copper shields, canoes, fur blankets, etc. as gifts to visiting tribes. The recipients were not “expected” to reciprocate immediately. This demonstrated the family’s generosity, wealth, and reinforced community bonds.
This sense of communal sharing extended naturally to those in hardship situations like elderly tribe members who could no longer hunt or fish for food. The collective would care for the elderly and disabled to ensure they too were fed from the food stores. Similarly, orphaned children would be cared for via shared resources - an early illustration of looking after disadvantaged members for no personal gain.
Anthropologists see collectivist attitudes and gift rituals in such groups as early iterations of how charity and social security later evolved in human groups. It arose from the human tendency to show compassion and take care of one’s own with whatever resources were available at the time. In today’s terms we may call voluntarily sharing foods and other resources to support distressed tribe members a form of “charity” even if the formal word did not exist.
So in essence, these gift economies demonstrate how charity has deeper roots in human solidarity - not contingent on modern political or economic structures alone. It has always existed in societies in one form or another.
Then, there’s Dāna
I would be remiss if I didn’t include evidence from one of the major population centres in the world, where we get the concept of “dāna” in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Dāna refers to the practice of generosity, charity, or giving. Some key points about the concept of dāna include:
In all three religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism - dāna is an important spiritual practice and moral virtue.
The practice of giving or donating without expecting anything in return can take many forms, such as offering food to mendicants, donating to temples or monasteries, or helping the needy.
Generosity and relinquishing material attachments are believed to help cultivate detachment and purity of spirit. Dāna can therefore contribute to better karma or spiritual enlightenment.
Many religious festivals and pilgrimage rituals incorporate dāna as ceremonial offerings. These gifts to deities, temples, monks or brahmins may honor the principles of generosity and interconnectedness.
Thus, dāna emphasizes selfless giving as an important ethical value and spiritual act. It generates merit whilst reducing greed and attachments. The concept spans across Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism even whilst interpretations and practices may vary.
Where’s the evidence for this, you might ask. Well, OK. The concept of dāna or selfless giving is believed to date back to the oldest of the Hindu sacred texts. There are several mentions of dāna or the practice of generosity for spiritual purposes in the Rig Veda, which consists of hymns dating back at least 3,500 years:
“The one who performs dāna goes to the heavenly realms and reaches greatness among mortals.” (Rig Veda X.107.6)
Later texts that are part of the Hindu tradition like the Upanishads (800-500 BCE approx), Brahamanas, and Epics also stress the importance of dāna:
“Dāna saves from death and wins Heaven.” (Taittiriya Brahmana 3.5.3.2)
“One who stands immovable in dāna, unable to be provoked to anger, and refraining from harmful action to all beings, gains heaven.” (Bhagwad Gita 16.2-3)
Descriptions of dāna and generosity as a “virtue that leads heavenward” are found in the Mahabharata (500-100 BCE), including the famous “gifting away of an entire kingdom” by King Shibi.
So in essence, textual references indicate that the practice of generosity or charitable giving seems to have existed at least by the time of some of the oldest Hindu Vedic scriptures composed in the second millennium BCE. And this concept continues to remain an integral spiritual practice and moral ideal in modern day Hinduism as well as other Indian religions like Jainism and Buddhism.
So, yes, charity predates capitalism by at least 3,000 years, but I digress.
The arrival of capitalism in the Highlands
The emergence of private mercantile wealth and capitalist trade transformed Scotland’s traditional indigenous networks irrevocably by undercutting communal bonds of kinship. Whereas Celtic brehons of yore measured a chieftain’s worth by their mettle at sharing grain and ale freely amongst their own in both feast and dearth, the so-called Age of Enlightenment spawned a new commercial ethos around wealth creation, “rational self-interest,” and greed.
The driving impulse was no longer survival of the folk but enrichment of an individual. Lands once held in common became commodities auctioned to wool merchants and hide traders as indigenous society was destroyed across the Highlands after the bitter defeat of the Jacobite uprising and the Acts of Union. Disdaining tribal obligations of reciprocal charity, these capitalist sassenach evicted multitudes of now landless clansfolk unable to prove legal tenure under the newly imposed colonial / commercial law, despite generations of ancestral ties to the same soil.
Bereft of communal assets, starved off their forfeit crofts, and accursed as rebels for clinging to the tattered tartan fabric that capitalism unwove, the pauperized dispossessed faced stark choices - submit to the workhouse, enlisted military service, or sail the Atlantic as many did during the genocide now known as the Clearances. The chasm between opulent merchants and destitute beggars swelled as the stadialists’ doctrine of capitalist commercial progress took hold. In this climate, grudging alms were tossed only to the “Christianworthy” whilst communal Buffer of old became anathema. With it perished the ancient bonds of kin, hospitality, and charity once binding Scotland’s clans together.
In other words, capitalism impoverished and destroyed Scotland’s natural generosity and charity.
Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ùr | “Gleðileg jól og farsælt nýtt ár”
As we see what capitalism has done to our holidays and festivals, re-branding them and selling them back to us with full mark-up, I’m all for returning to the auld ways. I’m all for communities of care that span culture / generations. To me, the phrase “Land Back” includes not only the indigenous re-population of their historic lands but also a re-claiming of culture and practice. For me, reconnecting with my West Highland roots is part therapy and part praxis.
So with that in mind, I’ll wish you “Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ùr. ”Phonetically spelled in English: "NOL-ik hree-al AG-us BLEE-a vah UR"
Breaking this down:
“Nollaig Chridheil” - Literal translation is “hearty / merry Christmas.” But “Nollaig” refers to Winter Solstice / Yuletide season more broadly in the auld Gaelic context rather than just the Christian holiday alone. So it wishes festive merriment for the entire early winter period.
“agus Bliadhna Mhath Ùr” - Translates to “and a Good New Year.” Offers an additional greeting wishing the person celebratory blessings extending into early January and the turn of the calendar year per ancient Gaelic seasonal reckoning.
So in totality, pronouncing “Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ùr” serves as a traditional blessing and well wishing in Scottish Gaelic meant to capture merry tidings for both the winter solstice Yule period as well as ringing in the New Year on its heels!
Or, if you prefer the Old Norse, “Gleðileg jól og farsælt nýtt ár.” In phonetic English, this would be pronounced roughly as: "GLETH-ileg yoal ohg FAR-saylt nyut owr"
Breaking down the meaning:
“Gleðileg jól" - Translates to “Merry Yule/Jól.” wishing festive cheer during the midwinter feast of Jól marking the solstice period.
“og farsælt nýtt ár” - Means “and a prosperous new year,” offering additional well-wishes for the year ahead.
So in Old Norse, the phrase “Gleðileg jól og farsælt nýtt ár” serves the same function - wishing everyone happiness in the moment and prosperity to come. Prosperity that will not be greedily hoarded, but lavishly shared.