the_vulture

Saturday morning, I'll be up bright and early to run off to the nearest woods and observe the rising of the Sun on the morning of the Winter Solstice, as part of my Yule celebrations. For me, Yule marks the rebirth of the Sun, the God aspect of Divinity. It is a time to celebrate and be of good cheer.

In the past, when I have celebrated Yule, I've done so in households that celebrate Christmas. Of course, in most cases, "Christmas" has been more of the "let's get nice presents and a have great turkey dinner" variety, rather than the "Jesus is born!" variety, but I think, before anyone starts going into assorted rants about commerciality of holidays and what not, that maybe these households are not all that off the mark of the "true meaning" of Christmas.

I won't go into the history of the Christmas holiday and its origin in pagan Winter Solstice traditions; most of you either know about this already or can research it for yourselves, but, at the root of it all, is the astronomical significance of the Winter Solstice.

Let's keep in mind that, for ancient agricultural peoples of Europe, who would not have had gas heating, broadcast media and the convenience of grocery stores, winter was, at best, a dreary season filled with long hours of being stuck indoors, and, at worst, it was a prolonged and terrifying struggle for survival for those unable to prepare well. For a poor peasant family that would have to chop massive quantities of wood on a daily basis just to keep from freezing, and hoping that supply of withered roots and apples will hold till spring, SAD was taken to a whole new level. This would likely have been made all the worse as the days continued to get shorter and shorter.

However, it didn't take ancient peoples long to figure out that there is a point where the days stop getting shorter and start getting longer. While it still would have been a long time for the return of spring, seeing the beginning of the sun's "renewal" would have been an emotionally bolstering event (and still is for me and many others) and one worthy of celebration, especially given how dreary winter would otherwise be. Having something to look forward to and prepare for would certainly have eased much of the psychological burden of winter. As such, many European (and other) cultures adopted some form of midwinter celebration, usually corresponding to the winter solstice.

Today, in much of the Western world, these midwinter celebrations, be they Christmas, Yule, Hannukkah, or what-have-ye, have become the highlight of the year. Whatever the particular elements of one's religion are associated with it (or stripped from it, as many Humanists and the Japanese have done), the primal "reason for this season" is this: there is a light at the end of winter's tunnel - get together with friends and family and celebrate!

Whatever midwinter tradition you chose to celebrate, may it be filled with Light, Love and Laughter!