Yuletide

Our fascination with ghostly tales around Christmas time goes back thousands of years and is rooted in ancient celebrations of the winter solstice. In the depths of winter, pagan traditions included a belief in a ghostly procession across the sky, known as the Wild Hunt. Recounting tales of heroism, and monstrous and supernatural beings became a midwinter tradition. Dark tales were deployed to entertain on dark nights. The Christmas Ghost – Where Did it Start? Ghosts have been associated with the winter cold since those ancient times. According to art historian Susan Owens, author of The Ghost, A Cultural History, the ode of Beowulf is one of the oldest surviving ghost stories, probably composed in the eighth century. This is