Honeywheats - "On All Levels Except Physical, I Am A Hobbit."

Elijah in the Wilderness, Frederic Leighton, created: 1877–1878

If you travel up to the middle of nowhere in the UK, you might be lucky enough to find the remnants of a long lost people. (5413x3609)

home by the sea.. .

Glögg: an ancient drink!🍷

✒️Hello everyone! Today I bring you a bit of European history and gastronomy, focusing on an ancient Scandinavian drink called "Glögg", which I had the pleasure to taste last night. Sources can be find at the end in APA formar!

What is Glögg?

Glögg or glogg (Danish: gløgg, Norwegian: gløgg, Swedish: glögg, Icelandic: glögg, Faroese: gløgg, Finnish: glögi, Estonian: glögi) is a spiced, usually alcoholic, mulled wine or spirit. It is a traditional Nordic drink that has been drunk since ancient times during the cold winters, and later, to celebrate Christmas.

Nowadays many people drink this drink at "Christmas", the Christian celebration, however, we know very well that it was an appropriation of pagan festivities.

In the Nordic countries, drinking mulled wine is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century. It was drunk especially by messengers and postmen who travelled on horseback or skis in cold weather.

How the Nordic countries gave us Christmas:

Long before Christianity had come to the Nordic regions, the pagans and other ancient Germanic peoples would celebrate the winter solstice each December, the time of year when the days were the shortest and the night's the longest. Friends and relatives would get together and enjoy food and drink in a festival known as Yule.

As Christianity swept across Germanic Europe centuries ago, many Yuletide traditions were adopted and absorbed into the Christian faith, mixing together to create the modern Christmas we celebrate today.

Source: UK History blog.

Traditional Swedish Glögg recipe:

You can find the recipe right here!🍷🍂

Sources:

How the Vikings gave us Christmas. (n.d.). Sky HISTORY TV Channel. Retrieved September 2, 2021, from https://www.history.co.uk/articles/how-the-vikings-gave-us-christmasWikipedia contributors. (2021, July 31). Glögg.

Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gl%C3%B6gg

Keiths Tower, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

Juniper

Juniper is known for its stimulating and mind-clearing properties and its cleansing and purification of the atmosphere. Its also known for its calming and relaxing effect on the nerves, and its sharpening of mental awareness and alertness.

When burned Juniper clears negative energies but it can also create a safe, protective, positive and healing space when that negative energy is removed.

In Scottish folk magic juniper was used to sain (bless, purify) objects, people, places and livestock. This purification process was there to remove influences that might be overlooked or to remove negative spirits. Juniper is the most used plant to sain with but Rowan was also used regularly. They would usually sain a new house by burning juniper in every room enough to fill the whole house with smoke and they would sit in the house until they coughed from the smoke, this was also done every new year as well.