Smokey Nights!

What? Smokey nights ……. is she listening to 70's music? No! She’s talking about the Rauhnächte, the smokey nights,  a tradition in Germany and many nordic countries. 

Rauhnächte 

This mystical time, ''the time between the years'' was celebrated by Germanic tribes and is still reflected in many folk’s traditions that take place in the twelve nights between the 21/24 December and the 6 January. 

It is the time of the ''Wild Hunt, or chase'', according to where you live this is a horde of riders, warriors, horses, dogs, lost souls and those who met an untimely death. You can imagine sitting at home without electricity and listening to the winter storms howling through the forests; the imagination running wild, you can hear the thunder of hooves, the clamour of dogs and feel the icy fingers and shadows of those hunters chasing past. Children and women shouldn’t be out after dark, you shouldn’t do any washing and certainly not hang white washing outdoors, the Wild Chase may use it for your shroud.

Sometimes the Wild Chase is seen as a premonition of evil to come but some hear beautiful music, don’t be tempted to stick your head out of the window while trying to listen …. your head will swell and you will be stuck, then you will have to join the chase. There are lots of different interpretations from Germany over Scandinavia to North America, in the Northern Isles of Scotland it’s even associated with fairies. 

My painting is an attempt to capture the mystical atmosphere at this time of year! Light in darkness, mist rising from cold waters, the expectations of a New Year. I actually wanted to try out rituals associated with the Rauhnächte (the name come from Rauch Nächte, smokey nights) but didn’t manage it it. One tradition among the Germanic tribes was to smoke out the evil spirits or bad luck that was hiding in the rooms of your home; using bundles os smoking dried herbs like sage, rosemary or mint you walked through your rooms purifying the air. 

Last year, members of my family (who will remain nameless) decided to add to the festive atmosphere of the Christmas season by igniting frankincense which we brought with us from a trip to Oman a couple of years back. I must admit that I'm not a big fan of the smell of frankincense so I went for a long walk. After an hour, I returned to the house, about 500m away I could see blue smoke billowing out of the windows and the unmistakable smell of incense, smoke alarms were wailing incessantly and as I fought my way through clouds of stinky smoke one family member announced ''and the fire brigade have been here too''! 

And there you have it …. not one evil spirit or ghost could have survived that frankincense attack, so we felt that this year we really didn’t need to repeat this ritual. That said there are lots of others to try, maybe a little less smokey or smelly….. let’s give those a go at the end of 2023!