Imagination, Magic And Illusion, Resilient Resources
In all European cultures we find traditions around the winter solstice that come loaded with gifts
The Roman Saturnalia, dedicated to Saturn, God of death, were celebrated from December 17 to 23, illuminated by torches and candles, making them coincide with the winter solstice, in an effort to celebrate that the Sun is winning over the night. after the longest nightfall of the year. Saturnalia coincides with the completion of field work, after winter sowing, when the seasonal rhythm leads us to rest and contemplation.
A retreat around the light of the fire, an environment conducive to narrating, telling, helping to transcend collective fears and creating equally collective illusions of better times.
Time to rejoice with the little ones and encourage innocence and naivety and charge them with prosperity Time to transcend vulnerability, fear and insecurity and encourage an immediate future filled with the prosperity of the humble and symbolic gifts that were projected to the rituals of transition from childhood to adolescence or early adulthood.
On that last day of the Saturnalia, the day of Figlinaria, name due to the wax and terracotta figurines that were given to the little ones and also surprisingly among adults, gifts full of symbolism were received, along with nuts and baskets of groceries.
According to Pilar Caldera, anthropologist, nuts were not only symbolic fruits and toys of Roman childhood, but were also part of the rituals of passage into adolescence, called “relinque nuces” (abandon nuts).
While the wax figures were delivered to the altars of Saturn, the terracotta toys loaded with symbolism were kept and treasured along with their symbolism of good omens, and thus the men gave them to the gods as an offering on the day they took the virile toga. . Some of these terracotta figurines, like dolls, have appeared in the graves of women who died young.
That attempt to protect childhood and extend that protection further, to guarantee a period, even if it is short, very short of calm, family warmth and the illusion of a world of protective beings that provide us with the fantasy of a welcoming, prosperous world. and better, it still is a cultural group attempt that transcends borders and spreads through towns and villages, each with its own iconography in the northern hemisphere, associated with that light that begins to gain ground after the winter solstice, the longest night of the year.
In Catalan mythology we find the Tió de Nadal, Christmas log, a log that is collected in Advent and covered with a blanket and fed every night until Christmas Eve. The children of each house sing and hit the trunk with sticks, so that the gifts emerge from under the blanket.
The Basque Olentzero includes the pre-Christian pagan tradition of celebrating the winter solstice, related to fire. We meet again with the trunk and the fire, in the mythological charcoal burner who initially gave away nuts and charcoal and currently distributes Christmas gifts.
We are going to meet The most diverse characters in charge of delivering the gifts So in Italy, the witch Befana does it, accompanying her on her trip to the Three Wise Men. In Slovenia we have three wise old men who distribute gifts on different days. In Austria, among his customs, we find the Tyrolean elf or demon Krampus, who has achieved more popularity than Saint Nicholas himself. This elf warns that, if the children do not behave well, Saint Nicholas will not bring them gifts. In Iceland we have 13 trolleys, in Greece and Cyprus, on St. Basil’s Day, January 1, gifts appear under a miniature ship. In Lapland we have the village and Santa Claus’s house, in Korvatunturii, only reindeer are able to get there.
Among us is the very popular Three Kings Day. And we also find traditions such as the Three Kings rosco or the Cyprus cake, in which we can find the aba or the lucky coin for the whole year.
All of these traditions, regardless of their iconography, They share the need for an illusion that maintains the magic of childhood which feeds that magical symbolic world of childhood where everything is possible and hope is easily imaginable.
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Illusion as a source of resilience
Just before Christmas, at Vitaliza Health Psychology, we started a workshop with immigrant families; Each family came from very different cultures with different traditions and they all shared in common the excitement of these dates that they expected to be full of surprises and gifts, along with the pleasure of tasting typical and delicious products from their land and countries of origin.
Not only was the brilliance of illusion and magic awakened in the eyes of the participating children, but also in their mothers we found that brilliance that provides the naivety of children’s imagination, where anything is possible, when remembering their customs around Christmas. or the solstice.
They, the adult mothers, were precipitated into that lost childhood where the fragility of the vulnerability of childhood reigns, the vibrant energy of childhood and the resilience provided by the imagination of the magical symbolic world.
Research shows how Imaginative children have a greater ability to cope with traumatic situations how that imagination becomes a resource to face adversity by finding fantastic solutions that provide them with the warmth and calm that they do not find in the present.
The adult needs something more than dreaming of a better time. You will need experiences from the present that allow you to encourage and believe in that possibility, and there is no doubt that the ability to imagine a safer and more reliable future encourages us all to continue forward, children to adults, and becomes an resource whatever the age.
Today yes… today more than ever dreaming and envisioning the end of the pandemic helps us to continue, to continue protecting ourselves and enjoying the immediate closeness and the dreams that we all create.
Let’s maintain and take care of the enthusiasm and imagination in childhood because it is a resource that protects and encourages us in adulthood.
Author: Cristina Corte Viniegra, Psychologist, director of Vitaliza and author of attachment books.
