I meant to post this earlier, but clicked the wrong button at the wrong time, and lost it. (Just as well, I was being long-winded and pedantic. I'll keep this one short)

I've been a casual scholar of folklore and mythology most of my life, and while I make no claims of expertise, I've come to two basic conclusions:

1. Human responses to the changing seasons are fairly universal, because they all spring naturally from our human needs. So when it's dark and cold, we'll feel the impulse to gather together, light lights and be generous with one another.



2. And when we cross paths with strangers for extended periods of time (as with trade and the expansion of empires), we tend to share in each others' celebrations, because when we're invited to join a party, we're more likely to accept than decline. Hence, the Roman soldiers adopting the Celtic Goddess Epona and the Persion god Mithras into their "official" pantheon.


So I think it's (ultimately) unimportant whether or not a tradition has been passed down in a completely "unbroken" line, because even if it's been suppressed and forgotten for 1,000 years, eventually some new version will spring spontaneously from some human mind. If it has meaning and power, many people will join in, and remember it, and share it with others. It doesn't need to be "authentically anceint" for that.

And, it doesn't surprise me that Britain, being on an island, has elements of rituals from both the Norse and the Celts.