Modranicht (Old English, Night of the Mothers) is the one pagan Anglo-Saxon observance the monk Bede names directly in De Temporum Ratione, recording that the pagan English reckoned the start of their year from the night we now call Christmas Eve and called it by this name. Bede does not describe the rite itself, and the little that is inferred about it, an offering to female tutelary spirits or ancestral "mothers" comparable to the continental Germanic Matronae cult, is reconstruction from that comparison rather than direct attestation.
Facts
Reckoning
Calendar SystemAnglo-Saxon lunisolar (Bede's reckoning) 1 Its own record ties it directly to Bede's De Temporum Ratione, the reckoning this enum value names. Date RuleChristmas Eve, 24 December, per Bede's own dating of the pagan English year's start. 1 Fixed or MovableFixed date in its own calendar 1 Observance
Observance Type Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Anglo-Saxons directly: "Modranicht (Old English, Night of the Mothers) is the one pagan Anglo-Saxon observance the monk Bede names directly in De Temporum Ratione, recording that the pagan English reckoned the start of..."
Bede, Figures This source names Bede directly: "pagan Anglo-Saxon observance the monk Bede names directly in De Temporum Ratione, recording that the pagan English reckoned the start of their year from the night we now call Christmas Eve and..."
This source names Saxons directly: "Modranicht (Old English, Night of the Mothers) is the one pagan Anglo-Saxon observance the monk Bede names directly in De Temporum Ratione, recording that the pagan English reckoned the start of..."
Belongs to Tradition
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The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.