Honoring the Solstice, YULE

Image by RachelleB

In the barren cold of the winter months it is the sightings of earth's evergreen decor that remind us of the new life waiting just around the corner.  And as we carry ourselves through the day of longest night, we honor the rebirth of the light and cherish the bit of green that remains, despite the frigid darkness.  Deck your halls and deck your doors!

Since pre-Christian days of Saturnalia for the Romans, Winter Soltice for Celtic Druids and Festivals of Balder for the Scandinavian Vikings, people have decorated homes and hearths with the boughs of these stoic evergreen symbols.  Along with their candles and fires, they have, through the ages, welcomed firs, pines, spruces, holly, mistletoe and laurel into their homes.  And now this secularized tradition, [which places so many wreaths of green on so many doors in so many neighborhoods], pays quiet homage to the steadfast greenery of our winter months.

As our Yule logs calm to soft glowing embers, the strength of our Sol Invictus ["Invincible Sun"] begins to grow.  May your Solstice be blessed with warmth and light!

"On this day of longest night
await sun's birth at morning light. 

Tend your log to keep aspark
the warmth that shall combat the dark.

Boughs of evergreen to share
scents of life and sights of cheer."