I love a good paradox and liminal spaces and thresholds. So I’m intrigued by a new old way to think about the transition between calendar years called the Rauhnächte, a way to actually find a minute to take in the moment. I really do want to stop and think about last year and look forward to the next. I’m an introvert, after all. But I don’t want to sacrifice the time it takes to prepare for the holidays or the conversations shared with family and friends between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. The time is too precious; the years are passing. Turns out, there have been “extra days” waiting for just this purpose all along. It’s all in how you frame it, a bit like finding a week of February 29ths in plain sight.
Not all that long ago, the winter solstice would have been encountered as downright existential. And darker than dark. No wonder there were structured ways, the Sperrnächte and Rauhnächte, for thinking about this thin veil between worlds and years. Unlike our ancestors, who might have lived in mountain climes, winds howling and driving snow sideways while families huddled before a fire in the same room with their goats, we’re not wearing dirty clothes for fear the ghosts will snag themselves on laundry hung to dry. (In contrast, we just had the furnace replaced in a matter of hours, and it’s not even that cold here.) The appeal of these Germanic traditions that bookend the holidays is still compelling, if stemming from a different but related impulse. Now, we are trying to slow time down enough to be aware of time’s passing, to clean out our physical, mental, and spiritual rooms. Then, human beings just wanted to live through the long nights and winters and to quiet fears of unwanted spirits, to nurture faith in the return of the light and spring. It had never occurred to me that the twelve-day difference between the lunar and solar calendars after the hustle of the winter holiday season could provide a respite, just as dark turns to light, to get right with yourself for the coming year.
Modern German Rauhnächte seem to cull a range of old European customs and adapt them. Those I’ve been reading about were originally largely Germanic, but there must be others from all over the world that are equally intriguing. The explanations I’ve seen look something like this, give or take a day or two in each instance:
December 8th—December 20th: the Sperrnächte (once time to repair and store farming and hunting equipment/time to organize and clean and reflect on the past year)
December 21st—22nd: Winter Equinox
December 21st—January 1st (after Christianity took root, December 25th—January 5th) : the Rau[c]hnächte (time to use smoke to smudge or cleanse/time to ponder the year to come)
This year, before a friend told me about these old and revived traditions, I had already missed the Sperrnaechte, and to be honest, who has time to reflect on the past while getting ready for the holidays? Seems rather aspirational. However, maybe it’s more feasible to snatch a few days after the celebrations (I’m thinking from January 2nd to the 5th) to at least then, if not before, think on the year that was and make room for what you want to welcome into your life, even as we get back into the swing of routines.
As a kid, going back to school after the holidays was always a bit sad, and this often meant returning just before my birthday. This felt wrong—not only for the obvious reasons—but because I experienced that shift as jarring, like artificially jumping instead of smoothly stepping over a threshold. Even before I was helping shape the holidays for others, I always wanted to steal a little more time to attune to the season. In honor of that childhood instinct, I appreciate this new way to frame the liminal, especially the 12 days after Christmas, the period between the 354 day lunar calendar and the 365 day solar calendar, these “smokey” nights, or Rauhnächte.
Below are some links about the origins of these traditions and their modern iterations. I’m less interested in the particulars of which rituals we might choose on these days—I think we are capable of shaping that for ourselves—than I am in the permission to take the time, even in early January, to still be in transition, to cross over the threshold into the new year in peace with intentionality. And it doesn’t have to be all serious, but it can be if you want it to be. I’ll journal, work in my planner, meditate, hopefully work on a collage or paint, then get to work on the writing goals I’ve set for this year. Plus, this new perspective of time passing adds an element to look forward to next year—both the communal celebrations and the inward-looking Rauhnächte. Now to come up with a decent English translation for these smoking/hairy nights . . .
Wishing you, then, a smooth slide (einen guten Rutsch!) into the new year, especially, if like me, you take a little longer to land, ideally with grace but however you get there, into the rhythm of the new year.
A Few Resources
• Rauhnächte—In Germany It’s the Time Between the Years https://germangirlinamerica.com/what-is-rauhnacht/
• 5 Rituals with which you can manifest your wishes for 2023 https://www.brigitte.de/leben/rauhnaechte-ab-21-12—5-rituale–mit-denen-du-deine-wuensche-fuer-2024-manifestierst-13443696.html
• How the Sperrnächte help us to say goodbye to the old year with gratitude. https://www.brigitte.de/horoskop/sperrnaechte-ab-8-12—so-koennen-wir-sie-nutzen-13730256.html
• What is the Difference Between the Lunar Calendar and the Solar Calendar? https://sciencing.com/difference-between-lunar-calendar-solar-calendar-22648.html
• Raunächte: Magische Zeit zwischen den Jahren by Vanessa Nawka Leschke.