Solstice Eve: Mōdraniht

Mōdraniht / Modranicht / Mother’s Night is tonight, the night before solstice, the longest night of the year kicking off Yule in various widespread Germanic influenced traditions. What little that is known about this obscured holy-day celebration in writing was recorded in the 8th century by early medieval English historian Bede in De Temporum Ratione documenting Anglo Saxon pagan vestiges under the expanding Roman Catholic empire. The contents of this text indicate that the Northern Europeans of the time who kept these indigenous practices going were likely not jumping at any opportunities to indulge the privileged literate in the details of such celebrations with rightful suspicions toward the Romanized ruling class. Although Bede recorded his observations in Brittania, modern scholars most popularly theorize the mothers of Mother’s Night itself could most commonly have been the feminine Norse spirits of the Disir or the Norns based on artifacts evidencing a triplicate emphasis on Modranicht. I am sharing my portrait of a decidedly British goddess, specifically of the Isle of Éire, Brighid whose name itself is revealed through anthropologist study as more of a title than formal name which denotes a triplicate aspect. She is associated most notedly with Spring however she also embodies general seasonal change as well making her appropriate to invoke on all sabbats of the year. The longest night of solstice and the return of the light on Christmas Day are part of the greater year, part of not just their own season of winter (as experienced in the northern hemisphere) but also part of the spring to come.