Winter Solstice - Yule

Southern Hemisphere – June 21^st

Northern Hemisphere – December 22^nd

The Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year and at Sunrise is the birth of the Waxing Year, the days begin to grow longer and the nights shorter until Summer Solstice/Litha, the shortest night of the year.

The Winter Solstice can be a bit harder to celebrate in the Southern Hemisphere as Yule is associated with Christmas and here we are in the middle of June.  Although this does not mean that we can’t celebrate it.  It is Mid-Winter and it is the Shortest Day of year still. The Winter Solstice still represents the birth of the Sun God and days begin to lengthen from this point onwards. 

We can also take the blessings from Yule, honouring the return of the Sun and all the promises that this time brings.  The birth of Sun God is the birth of our potential.  As the days grow so does our potential.  What we birth/create for ourselves at this time can benefit from the Energies that come with this significant day. 

The Anglo-Saxon word for Solstice is Yule, that is derived from the Nordic word “iul”, meaning “Wheel” or “Sacred Circle” or “Wheel of Nature.

This is the witch's Christmas; so to speak.  It is a time of feasting and celebration.  In the Myth of the Wheel, it is the time the Goddess  as the Great Mother who gives birth and the Sun God is re-born. 

As with Samhain, this is a time that the Church were unable to convert the masses so came up with their own myth of the Birth of Christ from the Virgin Mother Mary.  The church originally celebrated Christmas in August but as the people the resisted their celebrations, they were forced to move their celebrations to December to coincide with the pagan festival.  Virgin is yet another word that’s meaning has been altered in modern times.   Originally the term Virgin meant that a woman was not promised to a man or married.  Therefore, a Virgin Mother was an unwed mother, yet again another contradiction in the teachings of the church.  A Virgin was therefore free to give herself to any man she chose.  In the Ancient Temples, Virgins of the Goddess or ‘Vestal Virgins’ were very active sexually.  Men who visited these temples gave themselves to these Virgins as an act of worship.  Any children born from these acts of worship were considered as a gift from the Goddess and given the utmost respect by the temple members. The Virgin, who is more commonly referred to as the Maiden were not the shy young girls as the church wished to turn them into but wild and free vibrant full of energy seeking the wisdom of life and her place in the world.

The Sun God who is born at Yule will become the Goddess’s Lover at the Spring Sabbath of Beltaine and the father and son again at Yule.  As our ancestors relied on the sun’s powers to grow the crops and provide light it was important that when the nights grew longer and the days shorter that the Sun God was called back to he’s fullest.  In ancient times many cultures only had two seasons Summer and Winter, unlike our four seasons, which now include Spring and Autumn.

In Norse traditions, Yule went for twelve nights, which perhaps is where the modern twelve days of Christmas originated.  This was also a time for them to contact their departed ancestors, just as the Celts do for Samhain. 

In ancient Egypt, they celebrated the return of their Sun God Ra and also the creation of the Universe.  In Egypt, December was the beginning of their short raining season and it was said that if it rained on the eve of Yule it was a special blessing from Ra whose tears brought new life on the night of his birth.

Native Americans celebrate Soualanwal, which means to Bring New Life.  They would aid the return of the sun with a Birthing Ceremony.

In many cultures Yule represents the beginning of the new year and as the year was represented by the Wheel it became a tradition the symbol for Yule became a wreath of holly that was hung on the front door, which is still a tradition practiced today by pagans and non-pagans alike.

The tradition of giving a Yuletide gift originated from leaving out gifts for the departed ancestors from the previous year.  This tradition continued to grow into the giving and receiving gifts we now enjoy at this time.  Although, like other festivals this is a time that has become over commercialised and has lost much of the original meaning that was intended.

Another tradition of this time was the burning of the Yule Fire.  Great fires were lit to welcome back the Sun.  The ashes of the fire would be kept for use in ointments and other healing products and a log would be kept until next Yule to be burnt again.

©Ange Foster

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