Tag: Yule

The Real Meaning of Yule

The Real Meaning of Yule

The Real Meaning of the Holidays
or A Peaceful Solstice From the Good God Thor!

by Rel Davis

A Reading:

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock,
“Now they are all on their knees,”
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years!  Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
“Come; see the oxen kneel

“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,”
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.

(“The Oxen” by Thomas Hardy)

The real meaning of Christmas.  What is it?

I keep hearing that we have lost sight of the real meaning.  Too much Santa
Claus.  Too much emphasis on gift-giving.  Too much feasting and making merry
and mistletoe and … not enough talk about the baby Jesus!

I’d like to offer a slightly unorthodox version of the real meaning of these
holidays.  But first we’ve got to do some straightening out about some facts.

First, Jesus was not born on December 25.  Couldn’t have been. There were no
“shepherds watching their flocks by night” in or near Bethlehem in December.
Sheep were taken on a constant journey all year long, spending certain seasons
in certain parts of Israel.  In December, the sheep would have been across the
Jordan river (having been taken over the “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” a
real river crossing described by a shepherd psalmist named David), miles from
Bethlehem.

Shepherds would have been in Bethlehem only in the spring.

In fact, the church celebrated Jesus’ birthday in the spring for hundreds of
years, until it saw that the masses had their biggest festival on December 25
and moved his birthday to mid-winter.  This wintry season has nothing
whatsoever to do with Jesus the Nazarene.

Second, a mid-winter’s festival on or about December 25 is an ancient event
predating Christianity (and Judaism) by thousands of years.  The festival
traditionally featured gift-giving, evergreens, lots of food, circular wreaths,
fires, and (in the north) a flaming yule log plus holly and mistletoe.  Sound
familiar?

The evergreens, holly and mistletoe symbolized life in the midst of winter.
The fires, log and wreaths symbolized the reborn sun at the winter solstice.
The food and gifts were in honor of the bounty to return with spring.

Virtually nothing in the modern-day celebration of Christmas has anything
whatsoever to do with Christianity.

Third, Santa Claus is not Saint Nicholas.  Santa Claus pre-dates Nicholas by
thousands of years and was a traditional element of the ancient mid-winter’s
festival.  Santa Claus today might be traveling under a bit of an alias, yet he
actually has much more right to this holiday season than does the baby Jesus.

Face it, there is something comforting about Santa Claus.  He’s a friendly old
fellow.  Does only good things.  Lives far away in the northlands.  Laughs a
lot.  Likes children.

And, as I say, he fits in better at Christmastime than all that stuff about the
Christ-child.

Evidence indicates that the Christ-thing is just window-dressing added on to an
ancient festival to make it more palatable to the Church, and that the whole
rigmarole about magi and shepherds and mangers is part of a charade that the
mass of people put up with in order to be able to celebrate Yule as they have
for thousands of years.

I submit that to be true.  And that the way we celebrate Yule today is quite
fittingly similar to the way our nordic ancestors celebrated it long before
Christianity arrived on the scene.

Yule, of course, is the time of the winter solstice.  The word is derived from
two ancient words:  one meaning “to turn” and thus similar to the Latin word
“solstice” (describing the sun’s standing still before it turns).  And the
other meaning “feast” and describing the eating that traditionally went on at
the solstice season.  (The ancients apparently liked puns as well as we do!
They combined the two words into one season:  “jul geol” (pronounced “yule
yule”) would mean “feasting at the solstice.”)

This season traditionally was celebrated by our nordic ancestors like this:  A
large log would be burned in the home, a symbol of the sun’s warmth.  Candles
would be lit throughout the house, symbolizing the sun’s light.  A fir tree
(usually undecorated) would be placed in the house because the evergreen was a
promise of coming spring.  Mistletoe, another plant that was green in winter
(and which lived on the sacred oak), also would be brought into the home.  It
was believed that enemies meeting beneath a mistletoe-bearing oak tree would
become friends at least for the day, and that couples kissing beneath the
mistletoe would be married within the coming year.  Kissing beneath the
mistletoe was a way of announcing your engagement.

Gifts would be given to friends and family.  Singing and dancing, usually in
circles — witchcraft style — would be featured at Yule.  The word “carol”
derives from a Greek word meaning “to chorus with flutes” (compare
“choreography”) and referred to the popular circle dances of pre-Christian
Europe.

Drama would be used, and often gifts would be brought by a symbolic figure.  In
Russia, children to this day receive gifts from “babushka” or grandmother, a
winter figure, or by Father Winter. Father Christmas was the name used in
England for awhile.  Before the Christians, he was called Father Winter in
England as well. The Germans called him Knecht Ruprecht — Knight Robert.
Originally, he was someone quite different!

Gradually the gift-giver in Christianized Europe took on other forms.  In
Italy, the gift-giver is called the Christ-child. German children once called
this the Krist-kindel, which became eventually our alternate name for Santa
Claus: Kris Kringle.

Food, of course, was important at Yule.  Fruit, candied or preserved, would be
served.  (The fruitcake, and plum pudding, are modern equivalents.)  A major
meal would be served on the day of winter solstice –with a roast pig or goose
(the turkey, of course, is an American species).

If this all sounds familiar it’s because our culture hasn’t really changed the
holiday much over the years.  They’ve added new names and tried to put new
meanings onto things, but really haven’t changed things a lot.

The central figure of our holidays is a person called Santa Claus. Not Jesus.
Not Mary.  And certainly not Joseph.

Let’s look at Santa Claus a minute.  Nicholas was a bishop in the city of Myra
in Asia Minor.  The historical reality is just that. He was supposed to have
been imprisoned by the Emperor Diocletian and later released by Constantine.
And he died about the year 350. Around the turn of the first millennium, his
remains were dug up by Italian merchants and taken to the city of Bari in Italy.

Nicholas hated to see women unmarried, so he went around giving money to
unmarried women so they could have a dowry and get married.

That’s it.  The myths, of course, are numerous.  He is a patron saint of
mariners, of unmarried women, and of children.  He was supposed to have given
gifts by throwing money in the windows of homes (always of unmarried women, of
course).  The church recognizes his feastday as December 6.

At some point, his name was transferred to the gift-giver of Yule. Dutch
children brought their favorite Yuletide character, “Sinter Klaus,” to New
Holland (later New York) and English children picked up the name.  And the
church pretended that “Santa Claus” was the Dutch pronunciation of “Saint
Nicholas.”  Not only is that not true, but no Asia Minor bishop would have been
caught dead wearing furs and red clothes and driving a sled pulled by reindeer.

Santa Claus, I’m afraid, is not Saint Nicholas.  Santa Claus is someone
altogether different.  The common people of medieval times probably thought it
a great joke on the church to call their gift- giver “Saint Nick”!  Nick was
the usual name for the consort of the Goddess in pagan Europe (compare our
expression “Old Nick” for the devil.)  Nick was one of the names given to the
most popular of the pagan gods.

Before the Aesir — the stern warlike gods of the Norse led by one-eyed Odin —
were worshipped by the peoples of northern Europe, another race of gods were
revered, the Vanir.  Later myths place the two races of gods side by side in
the nordic pantheon, though sometimes they seem to be opposed to one another.

The reality is that the Vanir are the original gods worshipped in northern
Europe and the Aesir are the usurpers, the gods worshipped by the warlike
hordes which overran Europe not long after the advent of Jesus.

The Vanir were gentle farming deities, led by Erda, earth, also called The
Goddess.  When the warrior classes conquered the aboriginal farmers, Erda was
destroyed, but some of the Vanir, like Niord and Freya, survived.  In the place
of a seasonal honoring of earth and sky and weather, was placed a stern,
vengeful set of gods who lived in Valhalla (the Hall of Death) and honored war
and killing and dying.

One other of the Vanir refused to die.  The rulers might honor stern Odin (or
Woden, for Wednesday is his), but the common people preferred the kind god
Thor, Thunder.  The rulers later transferred the day and the honor of Odin to
Peter — who is worshipped by the church each Wednesday!  And the people
transformed Thor into Santa Claus.

Who was Thor?  Thor was originally the son of Erda and was associated with the
sun and with fire.  As such, he is the same as the druidic “Be al,” and the
Phoenician “Baal” and the Roman Apollo or Mithras.  And as such he shares their
birthdate — for the sun is reborn each year at the winter solstice.

Thor was worshipped in every home:  his altar was nothing but the chimney
itself!  When a person translocated he or she would take the entire fireplace,
or at least a brick from the fireplace, so that Thor would have a place to
live.  The first European structure in Iceland was a chimney transferred intact
from Norway as an altar to Thor.

Thor was dressed always in red — the color of fire — with fur boots and hat.
He visited homes by coming down the chimney, of course.  He drove a chariot
pulled by two goats (called Cracker and Gnasher).  He lived in the Northlands,
in a castle surrounded by icebergs.  He was elderly, always jovial and
laughing, and of heavy build.  He could be expected to visit between December
21 and 25 and would bring gifts when he came.

Our modern Santa, of course, lives at the North Pole, drives a sled pulled by
reindeer and … that’s really about all the difference I can think of.  Two of
Santa’s reindeer, fittingly, are called Donner and Blitzen, and it’s only right
that Thor’s sled should be pulled by thunder and lightening!

Santa Claus is the god Thor.  The Dutch name Sinter Klaus was the children’s
title for Thor as the Yuletide gift-giver.  It means simply “Klaus of the
cinders.”  However much rulers try to substitute the stern Yahwehs and Odins
for the gentler goddess and her children, the people will refuse and will
continue to worship as they feel best.

The church has known this for all time, of course.  Much of the history of
Christendom has involved an attempt by the Church to abolish Christmas.
Christmas was completely banned over and over again throughout the Medieval
period, only to be reborn again by popular demand.  The Puritans in England
tried to abolish Christmas and faced rioting which virtually destroyed some
cities!

Every year I hear people attacking Christmas as being too “commercialized,”
that is, too much Santa and not enough Jesus. That, of course, is hogwash.
Christmas is commercial because we happen to live in a commercial, capitalistic
society.  As long as we choose this form of society, don’t knock our most
popular folk holiday as reflecting that form of society.

My feeling, of course, is that there is too much Jesus and not enough Thor —
or Santa, if you will.  Some years ago I formed the National “Keep Christ Out
of X-mas” Committee.   I might be the most active member but I think it’s
necessary that we remember our true roots as human beings.  I’d like us not to
forget the old ways, not to lose touch with our ancient verities, not to fall
from the path of the Goddess.

The solstice, the time of the turning of the sun in its path down toward
darkness, is a time of looking back and of looking forward. It’s a time of
analyzing one’s life and making changes, if necessary.

The solstice is a time of being thankful for life itself.  That is the meaning
of the fires and the evergreens.  Life is precious and we need a time of year
to express that preciousness.  For had the sun not turned each year, there
would be no spring and no life at all.  Yuletide is a time of joy and
happiness, a time of honoring the fact of life itself.

And the Yule is a time for reaching out to others.  To bring people in to our
homes, to give gifts to children and grownups, to provide aid to those in need.
This again, is an extension of the joy of life itself.  And is a reflection of
the concept in ancient goddess-worship that all humankind are of one family.
Of one flesh.  Of one kind.

There is much meaning in the festival of the Yule.

The northern people at this season wish “God Jul” or a “Merry Solstice.”  The
word “merry” did not originally mean “joyful,” but meant: “peaceful.”  In the
carol,”God rest ye merry, gentlemen,” the wish is that they remain peaceful and
contented.

That should be our wish this solstice season:  may you be peaceful and
contented in the year to come.  May you be grateful for continued life and have
good health the year through.  May the goodness and kindness personified in the
image of the good god Thor be yours, not just at Yule, but all the year around.

God Jul!  And Blessed Be!

Pagan symbols for Yule Tree

 Pagan symbols for Yule Tree

Besides Holly berries and leaves, apples, winter birds, fairies,
lights, snowflakes, candles, stags, suns, moons, gingerbreadmen,
mistletoe, acorns, bayberry and cranberry garlands, wreaths, Father
Winters, Santas, and many more? Even the Christ child in the Nativity
set has a Pagan equivalent, although most neo-Pagans I know refuse to
decorate with anything reminding them of a Christian Nativity.

Quite literally, this holiday more than most was lifted from the old
Pagan European holiday, and there is very little that isn’t
appropriate to both Christian and neo-Pagan celebrations of it.

Mirrored Glass Globes to Amaterasu? Balls etched with Holly leaves,
candles, wreaths and birds abound in the stores. If you start now, you
can have clove covered pomanders ready for the trea to ass a nice
spicy smell. Have fun, and take another look at the decorations in the
stores.

The Winter Solstice – Yule Lore

The Winter Solstice – Yule Lore

The date varies from December 20 to December 23 depending on the year in the Gregorian calendar. Yule is also known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences.Yule, (pronounced EWE-elle) is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half. Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, the sun’s “rebirth” was celebrated with much joy. On this night, our ancestors celebrated the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth. From this day forward, the days would become longer.

Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were “wassailed” with toasts of spiced cider. Children were escorted from house to house with gifts of clove spiked apples and oranges which were laid in baskets of evergreen boughs and wheat stalks dusted with flour. The apples and oranges represented the sun. The boughs were symbolic of immortality (evergreens were sacred to the Celts because they did not “die” thereby representing the eternal aspect of the Divine). The wheat stalks portrayed the harvest, and the flour was accomplishment of triumph, light, and life. Holly and ivy not only decorated the outside, but also the inside of homes, in hopes Nature Sprites would come and join the celebration. A sprig of Holly was kept near the door all year long as a constant invitation for good fortune to visit tthe residents. Mistletoe was also hung as decoration. It represented the seed of the Divine, and at Midwinter, the Druids would travel deep into the forest to harvest it.

The ceremonial Yule log was the highlight of the Solstice festival. In accordance to tradition, the log must either have been harvested from the householder’s land, or given as a gift… it must never have been bought. Once dragged into the house and placed in the fireplace it was decorated in seasonal greenery, doused with cider or ale, and dusted with flour before set ablaze by a piece of last years log, (held onto for just this purpose). The log would burn throughout the night, then smolder for 12 days after before being ceremonially put out. Ash is the traditional wood of the Yule log. It is the sacred world tree of the Teutons, known as Yggdrasil. An herb of the Sun, Ash brings light into the hearth at the Solstice.

A different type of Yule log, and perhaps one more suitable for modern practitioners would be the type that is used as a base to hold three candles. Find a smaller branch of oak or pine, and flatten one side so it sets upright. Drill three holes in the top side to hold red, green, and white (season), green, gold, and black (the Sun God), or white, red, and black (the Great Goddess). Continue to decorate with greenery, red and gold bows, rosebuds, cloves, and dust with flour.

Many customs created around Yule are identified with Christmas today. If you decorate your home with a Yule tree, holly or candles, you are following some of these old traditions. The Yule log, (usually made from a piece of wood saved from the previous year) is burned in the fire to symbolize the Newborn Sun/Son.

Deities of Yule: All Newborn Gods, Sun Gods, Mother Goddesses, and Triple Goddesses. The best known would be the Dagda, and Brighid, the daughter of the Dagda. Brighid taught the smiths the arts of fire tending and the secrets of metal work. Brighid’s flame, like the flame of the new light, pierces the darkness of the spirit and mind, while the Dagda’s cauldron assures that Nature will always provide for all the children.

Symbolism of Yule:
Rebirth of the Sun, The longest night of the year, The Winter Solstice, Introspect, Planning for the Future.

Symbols of Yule:
Yule log, or small Yule log with 3 candles, evergreen boughs or wreaths, holly, mistletoe hung in doorways, gold pillar candles, baskets of clove studded fruit, a simmering pot of wassail, poinsettias, christmas cactus.

Herbs of Yule:
Bayberry, blessed thistle, evergreen, frankincense holly, laurel, mistletoe, oak, pine, sage, yellow cedar.

Foods of Yule:
Cookies and caraway cakes soaked in cider, fruits, nuts, pork dishes, turkey, eggnog, ginger tea, spiced cider, wassail, or lamb’s wool (ale, sugar, nutmeg, roasted apples).

Incense of Yule:
Pine, cedar, bayberry, cinnamon.

Colors of Yule:
Red, green, gold, white, silver, yellow, orange.

Stones of Yule:
Rubies, bloodstones, garnets, emeralds, diamonds.

Activities of Yule:
Caroling, wassailing the trees, burning the Yule log, decorating the Yule tree, exchanging of presents, kissing under the mistletoe, honoring Kriss Kringle the Germanic Pagan God of Yule

Spellworkings of Yule:
Peace, harmony, love, and increased happiness.

Deities of Yule:
Goddesses-Brighid, Isis, Demeter, Gaea, Diana, The Great Mother. Gods-Apollo, Ra, Odin, Lugh, The Oak King, The Horned One, The Green Man, The Divine Child, Mabon.

 

–Adapted by Akasha Ap Emrys For all her friends and those of like mind–
Akasha, Herne and The Celtic Connection wicca.com.

Welcome To The WOTC’s Annual Yule Edition (Part 2)

Yule Comments & Graphics
Welcome To  The WOTC’s Annual Yule Edition(Part 2) We hope you enjoy our first installment of this year’s Yule Edition. Today’s issue will also be packed with more articles, recipes, spells, graphics and lots of useful information you can use. We hope you enjoy it and again….. 

 

Blessed Yule To You!  
Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics
Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics

Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics
~Magickal Graphics~

Dancing in a Wiccan Wonderland

Dancing in a Wiccan Wonderland

by Alexander, Aarcher

“Walking in a Winter Wonderland“

 

Pagans sing, are you listenin’,
Altar’s set, candles glisten,
It’s a Magickal night, we’re having tonight,
Dancing in a Wiccan Wonderland.

Chorus:

In a Circle we can light a Yule Fire,
And await the rising of the Sun,
It’s the Great Wheel turning for the new year,
Loaded with abundance and great fun.

Blades held high, censer smoking,
God and Goddess, we’re invoking,
Through Elements Five, we celebrate life,
Dancing in a Wiccan Wonderland.

Queen of Heaven, is in Her place,
Triple Goddess, now the Crone Face,
Above and Below, She’s the Goddess we know,
Dancing in a Wiccan Wonderland.

Chorus

Now the God, is the Provider,
Supplying game for our Fire,
Above and Below, He’s the Horned One we Know,
Dancing in a Wiccan Wonderland.

Later on, by the fire,
Cone of Power, gettin’ higher
It’s a Magickal Night we’re having tonight,
Dancing in a Wiccan Wonderland.

All Hail Ye, Simple Pagans

All Hail Ye, Simple Pagans

Author Unknown

“(Oh Come, All Ye Faithful)”

 

All hail ye, simple pagans
Gather round the Yule fire
Oh come ye Oh come ye
To call the Sun!
Fires within us
Call the fire above us:

Oh come let us adore him!
Oh come let us adore him!
Oh come let us adore him!
Our Lord, the Sun!

Yea Lord, we greet thee
Born again at Yuletide!
Yule fires and candle flames
Are lighted for you!
Come to thy children
Calling for thy blessing!

Oh come let us adore him!
Oh come let us adore him!
Oh come let us adore him!
Our Lord, the Sun

A Holly Jolly Yuletide

A Holly Jolly Yuletide

by Johnny Marks, Susan M. Shaw

Tune: “A Holly Jolly Christmas“

 

Have a holly jolly Yuletide
It’s the best time of the year
I don’t know if there’ll be snow
But have a cup of cheer

Have a holly jolly Yuletide
And when you walk down the street
Say hello to friends you know
And ev’ryone you meet

Oh, ho, the mistletoe
Hung where you can see
Somebody waits for you
Kiss her once for me

Have a holly jolly Yuletide
and in case you didn’t hear
Oh, by golly have a holly jolly Yuletide
This year!

Our Yule Log

Our Yule Log by Bendis

The Yule log is a remnant of the bonfires that the European pagans would set ablaze at the time of winter solstice. These bonfires symbolized the return of the Sun. The Yule log can be made of any wood. Each releases its own kind of magic:

  • Aspen: invokes understanding of the grand design.­
  • Birch: signifies new beginnings.
  • Holly: inspires visions and reveals past lives.
  • Oak: brings healing, strength, and wisdom.
  • Pine: signifies prosperity and growth.
  • Willow: invokes the Goddess to achieve desires.

On the night of Yule, carve a symbol of your hopes for the coming year into the log. Burn the log to release its power. Save a piece of this year’s Yule log for kindling in next year’s fire. You may also wish to decorate the log with greenery, flowers, ribbons and herbs for magickal intent. Some choices might be:

  • Carnations: protection, courage, strength, healing, increases magical power, vitality
  • Cedar: wealth, protection, purification, healing, promotes spirituality
  • Holly: dreams, protection
  • Juniper: Exorcism, protection, healing, love
  • Mistletoe: a catalyst, fertility, health, success, protection, banishing evil
  • Pine: healing, wealth, protection, purification, exorcism, exorcism, fertility, wealth
  • Rosemary: health, love, protection, exorcism, purification, increase intellectual powers, peace, blessing, consecration, very powerful cleansing and purifying
  • Roses: love, courage, luck, health, protection, beauty

Ribbons can be used according to their color magic correspondences. Each year my family gathers to decorate and burn the Yule Log. We have collected what we wish to use for days and we all have an assortment of colored ribbons, fresh sprigs of pine and holly, anything to make it merry! We have little slips of paper and once we have decorated our log, we each write down on those papers all of the things we wish to banish, let go of or remove from our lives; those things that are simply in the way or no longer useful. Then on more scraps of paper we write all of our wishes, all of our dreams, our hopes – what we want to manifest in the coming year. All of these tiny scraps of paper are then tucked in amongst the decorations to be offered to the fire. Then we turn on some good dance music, something that will induce trance and we all dance, keeping our focus on that which is yet to come, igniting the spark of creativity within us. When the music ends we gather around the Yule Log and together we toss it on the fire. My daughter has prepared a mix of powdered coffee creamer and glitter and all of us sprinkle or toss this onto the fire. It ignites into many sparkles of light. Shouting with glee we all stand transfixed as our log burns and as we see our dreams in the fire.

May your holidays be as blessed!!!

Anglo-Saxon Yuletide

Anglo-Saxon Yuletide by K. A. Laity

­­The Anglo-Saxons settled Britain in the early fifth century, giving their name to the land now known as England. Very little remains of the native culture of the Anglo-Saxons. We learn from the Venerable Bede, a seventh century Christian historian, that the months we now call December and January were considered “Giuli” or Yule by the Anglo-Saxons. According to the historian, his Anglo-Saxon ancestors celebrated the beginning of the year on December 25th, referred to as “Modranect”— that is, Mothers’ Night. This celebration most likely acknowledged the rebirth of Mother Earth in order to ensure fertility in the coming spring season. An Anglo-Saxon charm for crop fertility, recorded in the eleventh-century and known as “Aecerbot,” refers to the Earth as “Erce, [the] Earthen Mother” and contains the following praise poem for her:

Hale be you, earth,
mortals’ mother!
May you ever be growing
in god’s grasp,
filled with food,
useful for folk.

It could be that the poem refers to Nerthus, the earth goddess the Roman historian Tacitus identified as venerated by the continental Germanic tribes, but we will probably never be sure.
Many scholars have suggested that the mother goddess Friga (Frigg in Old Norse) played a central role in the Yuletide observances, although no records remain of specific celebrations for Mothers’ Night. Chief of the goddesses and the consort of Woden, Friga ruled over childbirth and marriage and inspired the naming of several English towns like Frobury and Fretherne, as well as the English word for the day of the week, Friday.

It is very likely too that the Yule celebrations also included honors for Freyja, who governed love and fertility. Both she and her twin brother Freyr were associated with the boar, the primary animal represented in Yuletide customs and indeed in Anglo-Saxon culture in general. Scholars first discovered the importance of the fierce wild boar through warrior poetry like the epic Beowulf. Beowulf’s men wore boars on their helmets both to protect their own heads—and to intimidate their opponents. But it is not only in literature that we find the boar motif. Twentieth-century archeological discoveries like that of Sutton Hoo (a dig containing a royal burial and many different artifacts) have revealed the truly widespread significance of this totemic animal, even into the Christian era. The boar continued to ornament brooches, bowls and jewelry as well as more military objects for centuries.

The boar’ significance as the center of the Yuletide celebration outlived not only the conversion to Christianity, but even the disappearance of the creature itself from England. By the late Middle Ages, the offering of the boar’s head had lost its religious significance, but it continued to be the centerpiece of the Christmas feast, and indeed the Yule procession. Along with songs honoring the traditional holly and ivy—often said to fight with each other for prominence in the hall—the songs to accompany the boar’s head still convey the joy its arrival would bring and the twelve days of merriment this first course promised, as this fifteenth-century song attests:

The boar’s head I bring,
Singing praises to the lord. [chorus] 

The boar’s head in hand I bring,
With garlands gay and birds singing!
I ask you all to help me sing,
Who are at this banquet.

The boar’s head, I understand,
Is the chief service in all this land,
Wherever it may be found,
It is served with mustard.

The boar’s head, I dare well say,
Soon after the twelfth day [of Christmas]
He takes his leave and goes away—
He has left the country.

 

The second course, according to another contemporary song, was cranes, herons, bitterns, plovers, woodcocks and snipe. Then came the larks in a hot broth, almond soup—to say nothing of the sweet wine, good ale and brown bread—and then venison, capons, dove entrails, currant jelly…and the list continues. At Yuletide in Medieval England, no one in the hall was going to go hungry.

About Yule

About Yule

a guide to the Sabbat’s symbolism

by Arwynn MacFeylynnd

Date: December 21-23 (usually, the date of the calendar winter solstice).

Alternative names: Winter Solstice, Alban Arthan, Meán Geimhridh, Midwinter, Christmas.

Primary meanings: Renewal and rebirth. The dark force, which the sun battles all winter, gives way. People celebrate the shortest night and anticipate the return of the light and warmth. Yule or Winter Solstice celebrates the rebirth of the Sun Child.

Symbols: Mistletoe, holly, ivy, Yule logs, strings of lights, wreaths, candles and gingerbread men.

Colors: Red, green, white, gold and silver.

Gemstones: Cat’s-eye and ruby.

Herbs: Bay, cedar, holly, ivy, juniper, mistletoe, rosemary and pine.

Gods and goddesses: All newborn gods and sun gods, and all mother goddesses and triple goddesses. Gods include the Greek Apollo; Egyptian Ra, Osiris and Horus; Irish-Celtic Lugh; Norse Odin; Native American Father Sun; and Christian-Gnostic Jesus. Goddesses include the Irish-Celtic Morrigan and Brigit; Egyptian Isis; Greek Demeter, Gaea, Pandora, Selene and Artemis; Roman Juno and Diana; Middle-Eastern Astarte; Native American Spinning Woman; and Christian-Gnostic Virgin Mary.

Customs and myths: Light a Yule log or candles; bring light into the dark! The Yule log is ceremonially burned in the main hearth, kindled with a piece from last year’s fire and allowed to smolder for 12 days before being ceremonially put out. The log must come from your own land or be given to you as a gift. Decorate it with greenery, and douse it with cider or ale. Sing and be merry! The seasonal Santa Claus, or Kris Kringle, comes from the Norse traditions. During the Yule season’s stormy nights, Odin rode his eight-footed horse throughout the world bestowing gifts on worthy people and dispensing justice to wrongdoers. Kris Kringle (“Christ of the Wheel”) is the title of the Norse god born at Winter Solstice. Our ancestors believed that by decorating with evergreen plants such as holly, mistletoe and ivy, they were helping to bring the Sun through a dangerous time of diminished light.

Yule – Winter Solstice


Yule Comments & Graphics

Yule – Winter Solstice

 

Yule: the Winter Solstice, Yuletide (Teutonic), Alban Arthan (Caledonii)

December 20 – 23 Northern Hemisphere / June 20 – 23 Southern Hemisphere

This sabbath represents the rebirth of light. Here, on the longest night of the year, the Goddess gives birth to the Sun God and hope for new light is reborn.

Yule is a time of awakening to new goals and leaving old regrets behind. Yule coincides closely with the Christian Christmas celebration. Christmas was once a movable feast celebrated many different times during the year. The choice of December 25 was made by the Pope Julius I in the fourth century AD because this coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one.

The Christian tradition of a Christmas tree has its origins in the Pagan Yule celebration. Pagan families would bring a live tree into the home so the wood spirits would have a place to keep warm during the cold winter months. Bells were hung in the limbs so you could tell when a spirit was present.

Food and treats were hung on the branches for the spirits to eat and a five-pointed star, the pentagram, symbol of the five elements, was placed atop the tree.

The colors of the season, red and green, also are of Pagan origin, as is the custom of exchanging gifts. A solar festival, The reindeer stag is also a reminder of the Horned God. You will find that many traditional Christmas decorations have some type of Pagan ancestry or significance that can be added to your Yule holiday. Yule is celebrated by fire and the use of a Yule log. Many enjoy the practice of lighting the Yule Log. If you choose to burn one, select a proper log of oak or pine (never Elder). Carve or chalk upon it a figure of the Sun (a rayed disc) or the Horned God (a horned circle). Set it alight in the fireplace at dusk, on Yule. This is a graphic representation of the rebirth of the God within the sacred fire of the Mother Goddess. As the log burns, visualize the Sun shining within it and think of the coming warmer days. Traditionally, a portion of the Yule Log is saved to be used in lighting next year’s log. This piece is kept throughout the year to protect the home.

The Winter Solstice has been celebrated for millennia by cultures and religions all over the world. Many modern pagan religions are descended in spirit from the ancient pre-Christian religions of Europe and the British Isles, and honor the divine as manifest in nature, the turning of the seasons, and the powerfully cyclical nature of life.

Most pagan religions are polytheistic, honoring both male and female deities, which are seen by some as two aspects of one non-gendered god, by others as two separate by complementing beings, and by others as entire pantheons of gods and goddesses.

It is common for the male god(s) to be represented in the sun, the stars, in summer grain, and in the wild animals and places of the earth. The stag is a powerful representation of the male god, who is often called “the horned god.”

The Goddess is most often represented in the earth as a planet, the moon, the oceans, and in the domestic animals and the cultivated areas of the earth.

In many pagan traditions the Winter Solstice symbolizes the rebirth of the sun god from his mother, the earth goddess.

The Winter Solstice is only one of eight seasonal holidays celebrated by modern pagans.

Welcome to the Annual WOTC’s Yule Edition (Part 1)

Yule Comments & Graphics
Merry Meet & Welcome To The WOTC’s Annual Yule Edition

{Part 1}

We hope you enjoy the next two days of our Annual Yule Online Edition. You will find your usual Daily posts such as the Horoscopes, Runes, Tarot, I Ching plus tons and tons of information on Yule.  Everything from graphics to use as greetings, to the history of Yule, to craft projects, to recipes, everything we can dig up, just for you, our dear readers.

Enjoy and Blessed Yule!

 
Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics 


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics 


Yule Comments & Graphics 


Yule Comments & Graphics 


Yule Comments & Graphics


Yule Comments & Graphics

Magickal Graphics

 

Waiting For Yule

Yule Comments & Graphics  

Waiting For Yule

 

Snow gently falls through the night,
Rich, pure and deep,
it covers the bear branches,
crisping every last solitary Mabon leaf.

As Her icy blanket drapes lovingly across the land.
We wait…

The dream of Spring glows within us,
stirring in our hearts.
The gentle chimes of Hope ring in Our words and blessings.
Our candles flicker in the heavy darkness,

We wait…

Wrapped in our faith,
surrounded by the bonds of love,
family, friends, near and far.

Our altars and hearths, brimming with evergreen,
We wait…

The Yule Moon,
Magnificent in the black beyond,
whispers of the coming Light.

In Our silent moments of contemplation,
We wait…

The World around us, bustling with preparations, stress, chaos, war and loneliness…

We, The Watchers…look on…
waiting for the turning of the Wheel.

In anticipation, we long to reach out to the coming Spring, smile and say…

“You are most welcome in our hearts and homes, Good Friend!”

Till then…

We wait and watch the snow gently falling beyond the window pane….

© Hellen Davis

   

~Magickal Graphics~

Hello Wonderful World! It’s Friday! It’s Friday! Ya-Hoo!

Yule Comments & Graphics
Hello dear friends! It’s Friday! I bet you would have never guessed. Got busy plans for the weekend? Getting those last-minute gifts? Or just starting your Yule and Christmas shopping? I haven’t bought anything yet. For the last couple of years, I have waited to the very last-minute to buy anything. I know what it stems from my daughter (the one that use to tell me I was going to hell all the time) would make comments that I didn’t appreciate about Yule. She got to the point were she would ask me, “Not buying any presents or putting up a Christmas tree this year?” My reply would be, “Yes, when Yule gets closer, I will buy presents and put up the Yule Tree.” I think she associated presents with both Yule and Christmas. So she wanted to know what this “Yule” was all about. I told her and now she doesn’t ask when all the goodies are going to appear. 

 

 But speaking of Yule, this weekend the WOTC will have its’ Annual Yule Edition. This year it is going to be an all weekend event. We will features Yule spells, rituals, home-made gifts, ideas for children, Pagan Yule carols and much more. You will have plenty to read and plenty of ideas to make this a great Yule for you and your family. 

Now On The Magick…….

  

Friday

Magickal Intentions: Love, Romance, Marriage, Sexual Matters, Physical Beauty, Friendship and Partnerships, Strangers and Heart

 
Incense: Strawberry, Sandalwood, Rose, Saffron and Vanilla

 
Planet: Venus

Sign: Libra and Taurus

Angel: Ariel

 
Colors: Green, Pink, Aqua

 
Herbs/Plants: Pink Rose, Ivy, Birch, Heather, Clematis, Sage, Violet and Water Lilly

 

Stones: Rose Quartz, Moonstone, Pink Tourmaline, Peridot, Emerald and Jade

Oil: (Venus) Cardamom, Palmrosa, Rose, Yarrow

Friday belongs to Venus, and its energies are warm, sensuous, and fulfilling. Efforts that involve any type of pleasure, comfort, and luxury, as well as the arts, music, or aroma (incense and perfume) works well on this day. As Venus lends its sensuous influences to the energies of this day, use it for any magical work that deals with matters of the heart.

  

Spellcrafting For Today

  THE “PERFECT LOVE FOR ME” SPELL

On a Friday, in the waxing phase of the Moon, (from new to just before and including full Moon)
take two long red candles, a piece of parchment, pen and ink, a pie plate (for safety’s sake) and
find a quiet place free from interruptions. Write on one side of the parchment “The Perfect Love For Me”,
and on the other side, draw a semi-circle.
On one of the candles scratch in “The perfect love for me” and on the other, scratch in your name.
Place the parchment in the pie plate with the semi-circle side up.
Place the one candle (in a holder if need be) that has your name on it on the inside of the semi-circle,
the other one (once again, holder okay) on the outside of the circle. Light the candles, concentrating
on your desire for a perfect love. Let it burn for about an hour, snuff them both using a snuffer or your
fingers (do not blow them out) and on each night thereafter, walk the outer candle closer to the center
of the semi-circle, burning the candles for about an hour each night. Once the outer candle is close
to the inner one, take the same pen you used originally and close the circle around the two in a
clockwise direction. Allow the candles to burn out. When done, burn the parchment and save
the ashes and any left over wax in a small bag (preferably red) under your pillow until your love arrives.
As with all magic, you must really desire this, and put that desire into your spell.
Your love should arrive soon. If you only wish someone to date, you can also put that instead of
perfect love on the candle and parchment.  

Magickal Graphics

Howdy Ya’ll! Have A Very Happy Thursday!

Days Of The Week Comments
How’s my dear friends doing today? I hope fine. I have the sun is shining and your spirit is soaring. And I hope you are excited about our Blessed Sabbat that is coming, Yule. I know this year I am very excited about Yule. Or perhaps, I just forget how excited I was last. So I think I am more excited the next year. But I will be so glad when Yule gets here. I was going to mention this when Samhain was on the way but I didn’t. I think it is time to let the magick flow on this blog.  Now I know you are wondering what I am talking about. I think everyone knows that we have the chatbox down on the right-hand side. I was thinking on the night of Yule, doing a simple ritual or blessing. It wouldn’t be anything complicated nor would it be anything to make you uncomfortable. All you would have to do is answer every now and then with a “So Mote It Be” or a “Blessed Be.”

 

 We had an online ritual in the old group. You could feel the ower moving through the computer screen. It was an unbelievable experience. Since then, I have always wanted to do another one. If there is enough people interested, I will get a regular chatroom somewhere. That chatbox on the box you can harder read, I might do it anyway. Well there something to chew over! Think about it and let me hear from you. I would love to do another online ritual. 

 

Now On To The Magick…….

  

Thursday

Magickal Intentions: Luck, Happiness, Health, Legal Matters, Male Fertility, Treasure and Wealth, Honor, Riches, Clothing Desires, Leadership, Public Activity, Power and Success Incense:

Cinnamon, Must, Nutmeg and Sage

Planet: Jupiter

Sign: Sagittarius and Pisces

Angel: Sachiel

Colors: Purple, Royal Blue and Indigot

Herbs/Plants: Cinnamon, Beech, Buttercup, Coltsfoot, Oak

Stones: Sugilite, Amethyst, Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli and Sapphire

Oil: (Jupiter) Clove, Lemon Balm, Oakmoss, Star Anise

Jupiter presides over Thursday. The vibrations of this day attune well to all matters involving material gain. Use them for working rituals that entail general success, accomplishment, honors and awards, or legal issues. These energies are also helpful in matters of luck, gambling, and prosperity.

  

Magickal Graphics

Yule Joy

Yule Joy

by Harley Hashman

 

‘Tis the age when the Christ signs his name to the season in a giant “X” and it becomes the X-mas, when throngs of shoppers like locusts with tombstones in their eyes foam the waters with their frenzy of consumption. Retailers pray that their hour has come, credit card companies rub their hands together like avaricious spiders contemplating the trapped fly, and we choke back bile at the seven hundredth playing of “Rudolph” and “Frosty the Snowman.”

If I may be allowed to diverge for a moment, Rudolph should have steered those insufferable hypocrite reindeer to impalement on iron spikes. “Then all the reindeer loved him,” indeed.

The term Yule is still used by some as a synonym for Christmas. Of course it is not. Yule comes at the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. It is paradoxically, a Pagan solar festival, and in some traditions is the time when the Holly King – representing death – is overcome by the Oak King – representing rebirth. The Teutonic Yuletide begins on Mother Night, Dec. 20th and ends on Yule Night, Dec. 31st. These are the “Twelve days of Christmas” in that annoying song.

The ecologically questionable tradition of buying a severed young evergreen tree for an entire day’s wages, then dragging it indoors to decorate it, place presents beneath it while it gradually dies, then dump it unceremoniously on the curb is originally a Pagan one, although I suspect that the tree was live and rooted before and after the celebrations. Many people are now using live potted trees which are later replanted. The Yule trees were illuminated by candles, a dangerous practice indoors, which technology has replaced with colored lights that burn out, ornaments that sing “Silent Night” and Hallmark replicas of Star Trek vehicles.

Holly wreaths are another Pagan invention, as are decorated cookies and special breads for the feast. The extensive use of the colors red and green for Christmas is derivative of their use in Yule; maybe an echo of the colors of the holly leaves and berries?.

Consider the Santa myth. The use of reindeers: are these leftover symbols of the horned god, presented in a palatable form? And what about those elves? Why or how did earth elementals become the thralls of a human in red jumpers? The book When Santa was a Shamandiscusses extensively the myth of Kris Kringle. Suffice to say, the character originates in pagan Europe. St. Nick is one of the few magical beings of a non-angelic species accepted by Christians and promoted to their (and Pagan) children. Santa is a micro version of Jehovah, complete with the white beard, who doles out rewards to the faithful – toys instead of paradise – and punishment to the wicked – a coal in your stocking rather than a lake of fire.

When a child finds out that Santa is a fraud, a rite of passage has been completed; never again will that child blindly accept the word of an adult. For some children the realization that Santa is make believe makes it easy to be as cynical about God.

The ritual of the Yule log has been dropped from most mainstream Christianity. A pity, for it is perhaps the most wonderful. Small scrolls containing wishes for the new year are placed on the Yule fire. A portion of the log is saved to protect the house the year-round and to light the log of the next Yule.

The Yule of Our Ancestors

The Yule of Our Ancestors

by Wülfgar Greggarson

The Yule tree is probably one of the most recognizable symbols of the Yule season. For me, the tree always stood for the coming together of family. It has been one thing that bound my family together, the center focus for the children eagerly awaiting the present-opening ritual. For the adults, it was a comfortable place to drink and catch up on old times. The Yule tree was a much-needed place of peace for my large family. Now, as an adult with a little more worldly knowledge, I have found a deeper understanding of the Yule tree’s lore and purpose.

Customarily, the tree was a spruce or other evergreen, which symbolized the survival of green life through the barren months of winter, the people’s hope and nature’s promise that the earth would once again spring back to life. It was a symbol that the cold touch from the god of death would wane with the rebirth of the newly returned sun. Surely the goddess of life would and could replenish all of the earth after Old Man Winter had his fun.

In various parts of Europe, fruit-bearing trees were an important feature during the Yule season. In more natural times, the folk would gather at a large apple tree on Twelfth Night to hang cider-soaked bread on its branches for the good spirits and all the fey and thus renew and strengthen the fragile and cherished relationship with the wee folk.

Yule has also been a time to begin certain harvest magick. In parts of Denmark, the people would go out and shake the fruit trees, then hang a token of the Yule season in their branches and pray for a good harvest in the summer. The fruit tree is also a sign of the triumph of life through death, much as the evergreen is a symbol of life’s continuance.

Possibly the origin of decorating the Yule tree lies with the people known as the Lapplanders or, more correctly, the Sami. It is said the Sami would take small portions of meals eaten on holy days, put them in pieces of birch bark, then after making ships out of them, complete with sails, hang them on trees behind their homes as offerings to the Jöl (Yule) spirits.

At some point, it became unsafe to observe heathen Yule practices publicly; it is probable that, at this point, the Yule tree was brought into the home. Pagan Yule practices, symbolism and holy tokens became enmeshed and hidden within the Christ birth mythology. Yule’s theme of honoring the sun, newly reborn, and the triumph of light through darkness is quite an easy target for an opportunistic religion.

There are many other Yule traditions, such as wreath making, cake baking, ale brewing and so on. Another was wassailing, a kind of ritual toasting and singing, which comes from the words Wes Hal, meaning to be whole. Wassail the drink was usually a hot cider mixture drunk from a maple turned bowl.

The actual Yule feast is also a favorite of this hungry heathen. The Yule season ended on Twelfth Night, which is now celebrated on December 31. In more ancient times, Mothers Night was observed on December 25 and the festivities continued until January 5. Mothers Night, the beginning of the Yule season ritual observance, was practiced on different days at different places and times and is now celebrated beginning at sunset on December 20. Mothers Night activities included making wreaths woven with wishes for the coming year, a rite to bless the family and exchanging gifts.

Wreath making can be a fun activity for a coven, kindred or family. Wreaths can be made using a circular candle holder that holds four candles. Evergreen branches, sprigs of holly and nuts are good items to offer as gifts to the Yule spirits. Being that a gift calls for a gift, we can tie small pieces of red ribbon onto the wreaths with our requests and wishes for the coming season, to be answered by the Yule spirits.

The Yule log is probably one of the most important aspects of the Yule time festivities. The log traditionally was kindled from the burnt remains of the previous year’s Yule fire. The Yule log symbolizes the light returning to conquer the darkness. Decoration for your log can be of various evergreens, holly, mistletoe, nuts, fruit and so forth. There are many traditional ways to collect your log; what I do, because it seems most practical, is save the thickest part of my Yule tree when it comes time to throw it away. This I keep through the year (making sure a well-intentioned friend doesn’t accidentally throw it in the fireplace – no names mentioned), then I decorate it, put offerings on it and send it to Valhalla.

The burning of the log can be a fun party for your group or family with a round of toasting, boasting, bragging or promises for things to come in the next year. In my opinion, this is best done drinking hot cider, because when mead or ale is drunk, the toasting, boasting and bragging can get out of hand.

Appropriate items to hang on our trees include cookies in the shape of horses, swine, birds, cats and trees. Apples if available, most varieties of nuts, strings of cranberries and popcorn are also nice. I like to use my scroll saw to cut wood into shapes such as horses, swine or other holy tokens such as pentagrams, labrys, Thor’s hammers, sun wheels and, one of my favorites, the Valknut, which is three interlocking triangles, a symbol sacred to Odin.

Other Yule season facts are out there, not far out of reach. We can research and find these things and revive the practices that touch our heathen hearts. It is our right and responsibility to revive this old lore and educate others of the many pagan origins of this very heathen time. I hope this small article will stir your interest in our pagan heritage.

Wassail!

Yule Meditation

Winter Solstice marks the longest night of the year. The altar is decorated with mistletoe, holly, and evergreens, such as pine, bay, rosemary, juniper, or cedar. With the solstice, the dead of winter is passing, and you can light a red, orange, or yellow candle as you wait for the coming of light. A Yule log is burned to symbolize the return of the Sun, whose coming marks the beginning of outward expression, within nature and ourselves. The best time of day to burn a Yule log, traditionally oak or pine, is at dusk.

Light your Yule log, sit before it, and try this fire meditation: Through your stomach/solar plexus, direct your consciousness into the flames. Take a deep breath and let the fire reach the extremities of your body, mind, and soul. As you breathe in, you expand the fire. As you breathe out, soot and ashes dissolve and recede back to the Mother to be recycled.

Take another breath and feel the fire increasing – strengthening, and cleansing your whole being. Listen for any messages. Direct any of the excess heat to go down your arms and legs and out through your hands and feet. See yourself as illuminating light. You may want to chant this Pagan incantation:

May the log burn,
May the Wheel turn,
May evil spurn,
May the sun return.

Your strength and power are ever growing. The fire before you is a reflection of warmth, love, and comfort. It is the true representation of the wealth, abundance, and goodness within you. Everything that you thought during this meditation can and will come to you because you have prepared the fire of action, determination, and success.

Moonspinner

Rekindling the Fires: How We Gather and Celebrate for Yule

Rekindling the Fires: How We Gather and Celebrate for Yule

by Catherine Harper

I am a person much concerned with the rituals of hearth and home, and in general I am more likely to mark the turnings of the year in my kitchen or garden, or alone in the woods, than I am in larger gatherings. But even this preference aside, Yule seems to me a holiday that focuses around these intimate spaces. In the face of the darkest time of the year, who we share our table with is especially important. If sunlight brightens the whole community, away from the sun one can pick those who are each of our chosen families by candlelight. Winter, to me, breeds a love of small spaces.

Reaching for this sense of family and continuity is a challenge for the many of us who are first-generation pagans. I know that I want to be able to reach back to my own memories of being a child and find something there that I can bring forward to give to the children in my life. But this can be almost an archaeological challenge, finding amid so much past the right pieces, bringing them to the surface, cleaning them and restoring them to some kind of meaning.

I have a vague fondness still for stockings, but no context from which to hang them, and the woman who knitted the stockings I once loved is dead and gone. That memory I can love and yet watch recede into the distance.

I remember the candles on a tree in the yard of one of my dearest childhood friends that, starting with the youngest child, we would each light in turn on the eve of the winter solstice, singing carols into the night.

I love and remember the smell of a fresh fir tree brought inside, but equally I remember being seven and in tears faced with that same tree two weeks later that had died and dried and lost its needles. And mixed in with my childhood memories of yearning for lights and magic are my adult wishes for fewer malls, a different sort of family and a clear line of demarcation drawn between what I do and what is so nationally celebrated as Christmas.

Out of these conflicting needs has come our own synthesis. I don’t pretend that the answers that our dialog with the past has produced extend to anything beyond our own threshold. We don’t bring in a tree, though that ritual is as pagan as it comes. We do exchange presents and stay up all night and party and play and keep a light going through all the long hours of darkness. At midnight, everyone gathers in front of the fire and feeds it with tokens of things they are glad to have seen the last of, accompanied by explanations and applause. (A ritual that started more or less by accident but has grown and continued until it has developed such momentum I suspect I will never see the end of it.) We make candles. We eat soup, bread and little sandwiches, and trays of cakes, cookies and fruit tarts.

In the last several years, these gatherings have begun to set fruit. When they started, we were college students and young adults, mostly. Now, we are overrun by children, competing among each other to dip candles thicker than their own wrists, gorging on sweets, playing tournament mancala, helping grind flour, swimming laps in the hot tub and staying up far past their accustomed bedtimes.

My senses of past and present are becoming satisfied. Bit by bit, out of the flotsam from our childhoods, from the chance occurrences that recurred and became tradition, from literature, from history, from the stories we have imagined for ourselves, we are building something solid, something that returns and carries us along with it, something that we will pass on.

(To people who will doubtless prune it into a shape they find pleasing. There is no point in being too attached to any particular notions for the future….)

Meanwhile, for me Yule will smell like fir and beeswax and taste like cinnamon. In this land of evergreens, it is natural to bring in a little greenery when so much else has died away. In a time of darkness, of course we make a fuss over light and warmth. And when there is so little in season for the table but we need the extra nourishment to stave away the cold, our celebratory food is rich with saved eggs and butter, and spiced to overcome the monotony of the winter stores. And in 15 years, or 20, if the gods be kind, a nephew, or niece, or godson (or child?) will call me from another city where they have gone to work or to school and say “That cake, you remember? You used to make it on longest night? Do you still have the recipe?”

Gingerbread

This is simply the best gingerbread in the world. The recipe is not original with me, but it has changed more than a bit in my keeping and may in yours as well.

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3/4 very hot water
  • 1 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour your baking pan. (I use a 9-inch round pan, but a pair of loaf pans also works well.)

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the molasses. (It is very efficient if you pour the hot water in the same measuring cup you just poured the molasses out of — it will dissolve the molasses residue and save you time.) Add spices. Alternately, add a bit of the hot water and a bit of the flour until both are thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, and then quickly whisk in the baking powder and soda. Now quickly, before you lose any rise from your leavening, pour the batter into your pan and pop it in the oven. Cook for about half an hour, or until the middle is firm.

Moldable Shortbread

When I was young, I found a variant on this recipe and used it to make cookies in the shapes of fruit, stippling little balls of orange-colored dough to give them the texture of citrus peel, piercing them with a clove to make a blossom end, painting a blush on the surface of peaches and so forth, rather in the manner of marzipan. But the dough can be made into almost any form, as long as it is mostly flat. You can think of it as an edible, cookable play-dough. Don’t be timid with the food color — bright colors make it much more fun.

  • 1 part sugar
  • 2 parts butter
  • Flavoring to taste
  • 5 parts flour
  • Food coloring

Cream together the butter and sugar, add flavoring if desired and then blend in flour. (If your one part is equal to half a cup, you can use &fraq12; to 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or a bit less almond extract, a bit more Grand Marnier, a teaspoon of citrus zest, a couple of tablespoons of minced candied ginger or whatever suits your fancy.)

Divide the dough into sections and add a different color of food coloring to each one, mixing it in first with a fork and then with your fingers. Form each color into a ball, wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.

When it is chilled, form it into whatever shapes you — or your children — like. Bake at 325 for 20 to 30 minutes. If the dough becomes hot and sticky while it is being worked, just stick the cookies into the refrigerator to chill before you bake them. As long as they are cold when they hit the oven, the texture will be fine.