You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Yule' tag.
How many times have we heard this line? Always it is accompanied by an image of a baby in a manger. AWWWWW, how cute. Also, how wrong. I know that this is a subject written over and over about by Pagans all over the world. Allow me to throw my hat in the ring too. If I bore you, you can always peruse my other posts or click away to something more attention grabbing. You won’t hurt my feelings, honest.
Traditions:
The Date - Where to start? One theory states the Mesopotamians were among the first to celebrate the solstice with a 12-day festival designed to help the god Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for one more year.Solstice celebrations are held by many peoples all over the world and no one really knows how long, we do know it’s been thousands of years. Today we still have evidence of perfect markers of the solstice in Stonehenge; Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland; Maeshowe, on the Orkney Islands north of Scotland; and Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, built a thousand years ago by the Chacoans, ancestors of the Pueblo people.
By the early fourth century, Church leaders decided they needed a Christian alternative to rival popular solstice celebrations. They chose December 25th as the date of Christ’s birth and held the first recorded Feast of the Nativity in Rome in A.D. 336.
Wassailing – Not just a drink or an obscure lyric in a favorite holiday carol. This was a medieval custom of blessing the apple trees ensure their fertility. Groups would go out into the orchards and give offerings of song (Caroling), decorations (Why do you decorate your tree in December again?) and pouring cider on the trees so that they would be prosperous and “fruitful” (Yes I meant the pun) in the following season. Once a solstice ritual, because it is so linked to the themes of nature’s rebirth and fertility.
Yule Log – First burned at the Winter Solstice in Scandinavia, Ireland, Greece and other countries in celebration of the rebirth of the sun after a
long winter. Due to the proximity to the chosen date of Christmas, it latter became associated with a representation of the light of the Savior rather than the light of the sun.
Holly and Evergreens – Anything Green in this time of flora hybernation and death has been seen as symbols of rebirth and life. Holly, with it’s pointy leaves is especially prized and desired around door and windows as protection, warding off “evil” spirits and unwanted energies.
Mistletoe – The Ancient Greeks and others thought this plant to have mystical properties, able to bestow life, fertility and protect against poison as well as an aphrodisiac. It has long been used for ceremonial purposes. Druids for example would cut a certain rare type off the oak with Golden sickles and sacrifice white bulls for prosperity. It was hung at doorways for protection. The kissing part developed from the fertility belief.
The Tree – First, see my earlier notes on Wassailing and Evergreens, additionally, read on.
Pagan people who had revered the Oak but converted began to see the Fir as “God’s” tree. (whose triangular shape represented the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) By the 12th century it was hung upside-down from ceilings, undecorated, as a symbol of Christianity.
The first decorated Fir tree was in 1510. Martin Luther is said to have decorated a small Christmas Tree with candles, to show his children how the stars twinkled through the dark night.
Ok, so How is that infant the reason again?
Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it’s all right
- George Harrison
Love to all this Solstice Eve.
Well, it’s snowing for the first time this season. Large white fluffy flakes slowly drifting to the ground. Time to post my newly re-decorated altar. The wand is birch that I carved myself and although you can’t see it, wood burned my name on. Thank you to Boleskine 93 for the pics and the support in allowing me to “create”.
