Cured meat - Solstice preparation for the cold months ahead

Cured meat - Solstice preparation for the cold months ahead, originally uploaded by Rusty Marvin (feel free to comment) aka WYSIWYG.

P1130929 - Apologies if this offends anyone.
This is English Bacon, normally more fatty than our European friends, but on a personal note, it is the only Bacon for the famous bacon butty recent and previous travel around northern Europe can confirm this, previous southern Europe absolutely no chance of even getting near.

So why is it part of the Winter solstice theme, bacon is a cured meat (either brine or wind dried) and theory has it that old ancestors cut the fat off then eat it in a celebration, then wind dried the meat for the cold months ahead after the sun's rebirth on the 21st of December.

Now the interesting part is, if you follow this concept, you can party from yesterday right the way through. At mid-winter the Norsemen lit bonfires, told stories and drank sweet ale. If you follow the Roman methodology Saturnalia ran for seven days from the 17th of December. It was a time when the ordinary rules were turned upside down. Men dressed as women and masters dressed as servants. The festival also involved decorating houses with greenery, lighting candles, holding processions and giving presents.. Then Celts The Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter and during this time a log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year.

If you follow these three you should be pretty happy and warm by now, so why wrap it all into one day God known's.

Me, I like to give all year and be merry (even though many consider me grumpy) , enjoy and what it throws at me. So may your God be with you and bring you merriment as you wish.

Part of the RM winter solstice theme click the "#RM winter solstice theme" tag to see the rest of the series www.flickr.com/photos/rustymarvin/tags/rmwintersolsticeth...

Data from: www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/festivals/december/christmas-...
www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/winter...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon