Yule is…
For me at least the turning of the year is one of the facets at the heart of Yule. I’ve been trying to identify these core facets of the Sabbats ever since my life’s journey took me from Alaska to Florida, from the Sub-Arctic to the Sub-Tropical. So setting aside some of the climactic and seasonal associations of the Sabbats and trying to find the core concepts has been concerning me of late.
“New Year”, not just cause Yule is followed closely by the secular/calender New Year, but for me Winter Solstice has always felt more like the turning point of the years from one to the next. Naturally enough I suppose for someone who spent 33 years of his life living in a land where Winter Solstice sees around 4 hours of daylight, and you know that from that point on the days get 5 minutes longer each day…
This is when we turn our focus and attention from the Beloved and Honored
Dead of Samhain, to the Honored and Beloved Living. We turn from the introspection of inner mysteries to the mysteries of the hearth and heart and home. We make cookies and prepare feasts and call up friends and family far and near. We come back out of the shells of our introspection, that so many of us turn to at Samhaintide, and start to connect and reconnect with our families of biology and choice, with our dear friends, and to the earthly world around us.
It is a time to reconnect to that most essential of questions,
‘What can I give, what can I do to bring joy and peace into the world?’
It is easy to lose site of this aspect of the Yuletide with the crass commercialism of the modern day, but isn’t sharing our love and spreading joy to those we love and hold dear what this time of year is all about?
Yule is a grounding into our earthly lives as we prepare to honor the cycles of the world once more starting with Imbolc.
I spent this Yule at work at the park for a part of the day. That evening I spend some quite time at home, took a few minutes to enjoy the night and the quite and thank the Divine for this Yule and the last year and the one ahead, and then snuggled up next to The Big Guy for a good nights sleep.
Not the flashiest Yule observance, but a nice and quiet one.
Happy Yule to all!
~~~~~~~~~~~
A few delightful links that speak to me about Yuletide…
Pagan Yuletide Media (mostly from Youtube)
Solstice Bells (this I discovered thanks to Evn)
Chrysalis 
Well, and to be blunt, Yule actually was the New Year for the Germanic people. That’s how our culture wound up with New Year being where it is on the calendar.
Samhain is actually Gaelic, like Beltane, Lughnasadh and Imbolc.
Yule, Ostara, Midsummer and Harvest are the Germanic big holy tides.
🙂
Hey Tracie!
I hadn’t known that about the Germanic/Heathen Yule being the New Year. I guess as a Witch I have been rather inundated with the, questioned by some historians and scholars, idea of Samhain as Celtic New Year idea.
I had known something about the Wheel of the Year being a blending of the different cultures festivals though. I just know that since I moved to Florida the Wheel of the Year has felt more than a little out of sync with the rhythms of the natural world I find myself in.
I hope you’re having a wonderful Yuletide! How was the vigil?
Peace,
Pax
Vigil = great!
I ate too much…lol
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