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A wicker man inside which people are sacrificed, surrounded by the principal deities of the Saxons. Wicker Man was a Druidic effigy built out wood and straw, then covered with grass to form a giant man. Legend states that the Druids packed the hollow statues with humans and animals and set them alight in sacrifice to the Celtic gods Taranis, Esus and Teutates. The Wicker Man ceremony was a harvest sacrifice meant to appease the gods of the earth and trees. The rite of burning straw men, sans sacrificial victims, persisted well into the 19th century in spring and midsummer festivals throughout Europe, which often swapped the ceremony's pagan tropes for Christian ones. Etching by Smith after R. Verstegen and A. Sammes, 1550-1640 (cropped and cleaned).