Rauhnächte: Yule smoke for the twelve nights.

What are the Rauhnächte?

The Rauhnächte are the nights at the turn of the year, between Christmas and Epiphany. In the Alps, in Bavaria and in Austria the custom has stayed alive: house and stable were smoked through, and in some valleys masked Perchten still run through the villages. In the north the same days were called die Zwölften, "the Twelve". Depending on the region, people count anywhere from three to twelve nights.

Where the name comes from is debated. One explanation traces it to Middle High German rûch, "hairy", after the fur-clad demons said to roam those nights. Another to Rauch, smoke: hence the other name, Rauchnächte, the smoke nights.

Their age is debated too. One hypothesis sees in them the days between the lunar and the solar year, days outside time. The idea of a great Germanic solstice feast goes back to the 19th century, to Jacob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology (1835), and remains contested: almost all the old texts on these nights are Christian.

Rauhnächte 2026-27: the dates

In the most common count they run from Christmas Eve to Epiphany: 24 December 2026 to 6 January 2027. Elsewhere the first night falls on 25 December, or as early as St Thomas's Night, at the winter solstice.

Four nights weigh more than the others: St Thomas's Night (20-21 December), Christmas Night (24-25 December), New Year's Eve (31 December-1 January) and Epiphany Eve (5-6 January).

Farmers' almanacs read the weather of each of the twelve months to come in the weather of each of the twelve nights. Those who keep a dream journal give each night a page, and read it again as the year goes by.

Yule and the Rauhnächte

Jul is an old Germanic word for midwinter; in Scandinavia, Christmas is still called jul. The Rauhnächte begin at the solstice or at Christmas, which is why they are linked to Yule. Whether the Germanic peoples held a pagan solstice feast is still debated; the Yule celebrated today, with its candles and its fire, is mostly a recent revival.

What to burn during the Rauhnächte?

In 1534 Sebastian Franck wrote in his Weltbuch that during the twelve nights between Christmas and Epiphany there was no house that did not burn incense every day, against devils, ghosts and sorcery. The priest or the farmer carried the smoke through house and stable. Today, herbs from far away go on the embers too. The ones we carry:

• Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, the herb of these lands. The Nine Herbs Charm, copied in England in the 10th century, calls on it first. Our mugwort grows in France.
• Imphepho, Helichrysum odoratissimum, an everlasting from South Africa. The Sangoma burn it to call the amadlozi, the ancestors; it suits nights when, the story goes, the dead pass by.
• Palo Santo, Bursera graveolens, the "holy wood" of Ecuador. The stick is lit as it is. In our House we say it makes any space, any moment, any being sacred.
• White Sage, Salvia apiana. A sacred plant for the Indigenous peoples of California, heavily picked in the wild there; ours grows in the foothills of the Himalaya.
• Dragon's Blood, the red resin of Croton lechleri, wild-harvested in Peru. Being liquid, it is laid down as a drop: on the forehead before you begin, or after the imphepho, to close the space you have just walked through.

The gesture room by room, and more herbs: how to smudge your house.

What was avoided during the Rauhnächte

The custom mostly kept bans on work. No white laundry was hung out: the riders of the Wild Hunt would have taken it for a shroud; no washing line was strung, where the Hunt might get caught. In Bavaria the spinning wheel was put away; elsewhere nobody played cards. In Styria it was told that Frau Perchta went from house to house with the souls of dead children.

What many keep from it today: little work, a quiet house, time for what the passing year leaves behind.

Care with the smoke

Smoke irritates the airways. Keep a window ajar while smudging and air the room well afterwards. Avoid rooms where babies or young children sleep, and take pets out, birds above all. With asthma or an allergy to the daisy family, such as mugwort and imphepho, it is better to abstain or to burn outdoors. Never leave the ember unattended; at the end, put it out completely.