Rough Nights

Today is Barbara Day which means that all the unmarried girls in my hometown will run through the streets in the evening dressed as moss mask wearing witches to pay respect to Mother Earth and scare the evil winter ghosts away in the rough nights (the nights before and after Christmas are considered dominated by the evil spirits as counterpart to the holy nights of Christ's birth - yin/yang so to say). On the nights of Dec. 5th and Dec. 6th the bachelors are then joining dressed as scary looking Wild Santas dressed in furs, carrying huge cow bells. All the good people are supposed to stay at home during those nights of chasing the evil but of course everyone is out in the streets getting teased and whipped by the Baerbele and Wild Santas. Pure barbaric Germanic and Celtic fun I call that, yay! There is more to Barbara: if you cut a twig from your Apple or Cherry tree on Barbara and put it in water, it will blossom on Christmas Eve. The blossoming twig in the dark cold winter is considered a sign of hope that the days will soon be warmer and brighter. In my home town you grow up Catholic but also Pagan, make no mistake. Both parts are in me.