The Winter Solstice
The Festival of Yule, or Winter Solstice marks the point in the year when the sun is reborn. The days will now start to get longer, and the sun is growing stronger. Symbolically the sun's mother, the Goddess, gives birth to the God...the sun. Yule is a celebration of the sun's birth, and all manner of festivities are appropriate as they would be with any birth-day! Homes are decorated both inside and out. Gifts are given, and lights of every type and color symbolize the re-birth of the sun and the increase in the sun's light that will be evident in the days and months to come. Since Yule is one of the sun or fire festivals traditionally, all the hearths are kept ablaze though out this festival.
Because this is the solar turning point of The Wheel of The Year it marks the beginning of a new solar year. Like midwives attending our beloved Goddess as she struggles to give birth, Yule Eve is a time for ritual and nurturing. We gather our family together, and look foward to the morning when the sun will be born anew. The excitment we all feel at the dawning of the sun on Yule morning is like the excitement of little children
no matter what our age! |
