White Horses of Winter/Sun Horses

There are a great many white horses which appear in wintertide, Saint Martin's horse being the first. The German expression is "Saint Martin rides a white horse" meaning that the winter snow is coming. He is followed by Saint Nicholas on December 6th, also traveling with a white horse. The hobby horse appears with the mummers and, in Wales, the mysterious Mari Lwyd appears on the Solstice itself—the shortest day. The Feast of Epona, the horse goddess, falls on December 18. Following right on the hooves of Epona, "in comes" Saint George and his beleaguered horse in the mummers play.

In England there are numerous earthworks in the shape of white horses carved in to the hillsides. Filled in with white chalk they can be seen from a distance—from the sky. As with so many British folk figures "nobody really knows what they mean..."

The horse is a sun symbol in several cultures. In this winter season the pale white sun rides low in the sky, across the horizon. I never put the team of winter horses together before, but there you have it. The horse is a symbol of the sun and the white horse seems to be a symbol both of winter snow and of the winter sun. The Mari Lwyd seems to bear this out. This Welsh custom—which could be described as peculiar even in relation to other Anglo-Celtic traditions—involves mounting a horses skull on a pole and bringing it round from house to house. The horses jaws are wired so it "snaps" at people.  Imagine encountering a ghostly horse skull puppet in a shadowy lane on the darkest night of the year and having it run at you and snap. The Mari Lwyd is also called the grey mare. If we think of the horse as a solar symbol—or a magical object—it makes sense that the horses skull, as opposed to the lovely living white horses ridden by Sinter Klaas and Saint Martin, appears on the dark night of the solstice when the sun dies. 

The meaning of the white chalk horses carved in to the countryside is also unverified, but I suspect that they too may be sun symbols. The lively hobby horse of the mummers represents the sun in strength and splendor and the Mari Lwyd reminds us of the death and rebirth of the Yuletide sun.

This is not a particularly well written little essay, but the kitchen sink is a calling me. I just wanted you to pause and think of Saint Martin tomorrow, bringing in the winter on his snow white horse, the first of several horses who appear throughout the Yuletide season.