MMario:

re: documentation. Well, the books of Ron Hutton (particularly Stations of the Sun) include a number of references to boar's head feasts in England, especially as part of lavish festivals at Yuletide. Huge festivals with lots of food were very much in vogue at one time (especially the peak of the aristocracy just before the beginning of its decline near the turn of the previous century), and gave rise to competition for generosity among country estates. In other words, the amount of food and merriment and generosity shown towards your servants at Yule was a status symbol of sorts. Hutton attributes the custom of opening one's purse for the less fortunate at Christmas as a remnant of this show of wealth. The most coveted dish of all was, of course, the boar's head; if your master served that "rarest dish in all the land" he was surely the finest lord of the countryside...not to mention one who had the finest huntsmen at his command...

As to whether these were Christian festivals or pagan ones; many of the folk traditions of the English rural areas were based in the times of pagan worship, and various ancient harvest and nature-based festivals were gradually usurped by Christian ones (like Christmas for solstice festivals, Easter for spring fertility rituals, May Day for Beltane, Hallowmass for Samhain, etc.).

That said, I think the ritual, post-battle or magical consumption of boar's flesh as practiced by the ancient Celts, as opposed to the much more recent (Christianized)Boar's Head feasts of the gentry, are two different animals, so to speak. There is probably little or no historical connection, except that this animal was native to Britain for a long time; and eating it was a custom that died hard (as well it should; roast pork is delightful).

peg