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Christmas across the Peak District

I have written previously about both deer in the Peak and surrounding areas and about fungi such as the fly agaric ‘magic mushrooms’. The latter take us seamlessly into the Christmas and New Year celebrations since the hallucinogenic mushrooms gave us leaping and flying reindeer, perhaps Rudolph’s red nose, and various other aspects of the Santa Claus myth. All parts of the fly agaric are toxic or at least hallucinogenic but the effects vary with the part of the fungus, its condition, and with the recipient. However, on the bleak semi-tundra landscape of Lapland with nomadic reindeer herders and the persistent mushroom lasting into the winter cold, the bright red-and-white cap attracted attention. Both Laplanders and reindeer consumed the mushroom with predictable effects. A mix of deer and viewers both ‘high’ led to the stories we have today. The aspect I still find hard to imagine is that Laplander shaman realised that the active hallucinogenic chemical passed through into reindeer urine intact and therefore they could get the desired effect by imbibing this. Therefore, the wise men of Lapland drank reindeer pee!

Our region’s deer are fallow (but very localised), red (widespread now on the high moors and surrounding areas), and roe deer (increasing in farmland and low-lying woodlands). We do not actually have reindeer except maybe a few around Christmas. However, I do recall an article in the Guardian newspaper many years ago, that suggested how reindeer might be re-introduced to the Peak and Pennines as part of a rewilding programme. The article was a bit bonkers then I and I think remains so today! Wrong species, wrong habitat, and above all, wrong climate. Nevertheless, Christmas and New Year are a season to rejoice and to take stock of lives, landscapes, and of places. Head out to the Peak’s high moors and you are back in a land of prehistory, of Bronze Age and Iron Age farmers. The wonderfully rich landscapes tell of people who venerated the seasons and especially summer and winter solstices. The barrows, cairns, and especially stone circles stand as testament to this lost culture of our ancestors. Often today, these monuments are unseen and hidden for the many recreational visitors to the region. Yet it is worthwhile to stand quietly in these special pre-Christian places and to ponder our ancestors celebrating the death of one year in the winter chill and the darkness, and then the hope of a new year to come. This is a nod to the endless cycle of life and death and new life again. In amongst the modern hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, endless playing of ‘Jingle bells’ or ‘Last Christmas’ in shops and garden centres across the land, perhaps head out for the loneliness of the hills, moors, and bogs and simply take time to wonder what it is all about. Stand on the Peak District edges and look westwards from the Eastern Moors, or maybe eastward from around Goyt or Buxton, and imagine prehistoric communities and settlements on each of the high points you can see. What, I wonder, was their midwinter celebration like.

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