The longest night of the year falls on Yule, which is one of the four minor Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year.  It celebrates the rebirth of the Sun God, rejoicing in the returning light. 

The exact date this is celebrated varies from year to year (between 20th - 22nd December) depending on when the Sun reaches His southern most point in His yearly cycle and shines directly over the tropic of Capricorn.  The Solstice this year occurs at 6.35pm on the 21st December and we shall be celebrating it by attending the Ashburton Centre of Awareness and hosting an evening for the Celebration of Light.

It is also traditional to look on the past year's achievements during your celebrations and give thanks to the Horned God - as this is the time when the Goddess gives birth to the Sun God and hope is reborn.

There are many different names for these holidays.  For example; Christmas, Fionn's Day, Alban Arthan, Festival of Sol, Great Day of the Cauldron, the Festival of Growth or Hanukkah, Las Posadas or Ta Chiu.  Others, like myself,  call it Yule, but whatever you call this festival, the Winter Solstice is the time to count our blessings and to show our appreciation for family, friends and those who have helped us throughout the year.   It is an opportunity to leave regret aside and kindle new intentions, a time to remember our ancestors and the ancient ones by reading tales of the past or watching plays.  Many even bring these old traditions alive by re-enacting the legends and lore of the past. 

It is a common belief that Christmas provided the foundation for all these holidays but this festival of balance with light waxing was celebrated long before the advent of Christianity.  In every faith and culture there is a central theme of celebrating the balance between light and dark and welcoming the return of the longer days. 

 About four thousand years ago in ancient Egypt the people extravagantly celebrated the rebirth of Horus, a god who appeared in the sky as a fiery orb each day - the celestial body that we now know as the Sun.  The Egyptians honoured Horus with a festival that lasted twelve days, each day representing a month based upon a twelve-month calendar.

During the festivities family dwellings and places that held special community events, such as churches, halls and shops were decorated with nature's gifts.  Leaves, leafy branches and even small evergreen trees were central to these trimmings with fir cones and stones being used creatively.  Palm branches that had twelve fronds upon them were highly valued as these represented the calendar and the complete cycle of the Sun.  Birth  -  Death  -  Re-birth.

As the Egyptians prospered and their numbers increased word travelled to Mesopotamia to the Babylonians who viewed their neighbour's Sun rituals as being at the heart of their success and because of this, created their own Sun God with similar emphasis being placed upon twelve significant days, but for different reasons.  Their festival started five days before the Winter Solstice, and lasted six days following, with the peak of the festival falling on the Solstice itself.   On the seventh day when the Sun stayed longer in the sky they would have been rewarded for their prayers and reassured  that the Sun was renewed for another year, bringing blessings of survival.   Gifts would be exchanged when the celebrations reached their peak.

As time progressed and word continued to spread, the Persians decided to create a festival that was slightly different again.  This still had a central theme of celebration and was a time when a mock King was crowned and slaves and masters changed places!  This chaos was furthered by the temporary abandonment of law and order with grudges and debts forgotten for the duration of the festivities and as the Sun’s light grew stronger so did the party!!! 

Many years ago the lengthening days were a mystery and those of the Old Religion (modernly called Wicca) honoured the reborn Sun God as he starts to grow in strength and banish the darkness and chill of Winter.  As the light continues to wax, frosts thaw, rivers swell and become musical, and nurtured by Mother Earth, the symbolic Sun God rises for an increasing amount of time each day.  He grows with the Sun in power, touching and awakening the Earth to new life as the Goddess stirs from her Winter’s sleep. 

The Celts believed this to be the time when the young, strong Oak King (the new, waxing year) won a battle over the Holly King (the old, waning year).  Some traditions of Witches re-enact the battle between the Oak and Holly Kings as a Yuletide ritual, bringing alive the message of this tradition of burying your past mistakes and looking forward to the future, focussing on the positive not the negative.

Yule provides the Witch or Wiccan practitioner with a time to tend to their Book of Shadows, to review the year's work and plan for the next.  Take a look at the year now by reviewing your personal triumphs, traumas and difficulties.  What challenges did you meet?  How did you deal with them?  What did you learn?   Have you grown (spiritually) and blossomed or stagnated?  Write down your greatest wishes and plans that you would like to realise for the coming year and refer back to this frequently to see if your ideas are taking shape.

With the Christian festival of Christmas being removed from its Pagan roots by only a few days, the Wicca are able to observe their own Pagan practices with comfort.  They can observe customs such as having a Christmas tree, decorating both this and the house, hanging Mistletoe (and kissing under it), singing carols, giving gifts, making a Yule log and even a "nativity" scene, without problem - although the central figures for the Wicca would be Mother Nature, Father Sky & the infant Sun King.

In fact, the Yuletide holiday has always been more Pagan than Christian, enduring much criticism from the Church who felt threatened by the tales of heroes such as Apollo, Hercules, Horus, Jason and Theseus, which pre-dated the Christian Saviour, Jesus.   The Christ child is believed to have been actually born in the Spring - after all does anyone know shepherds who "watch their flocks" in the dead of Winter?  Long before the people had heard of Jesus, Pagans were celebrating the mid-Winter and with this knowledge, Witches and Wiccans should reclaim this celebration and embrace the shortest day and perhaps observe the full Twelve Days of Yule as it was in the middle ages.

Yule is one of the four quarter days of the Wheel of the Year and, although very important, is known as a Lesser Sabbat.  Traditions for modern Witches include the burning of the Yule log, usually a large piece of Ash wood that was especially chosen, decorated and then set ceremonially alight on the eve of the Solstice with a fragment of the previous year's log.  This was believe to bring good luck to all in the household if it burned for a full twelve hours but was later replaced by the evergreen Yule tree, a symbol of life in the midst of Winter, which again was decorated, but instead of being burned it had burning candles placed upon it.  Today we have replaced this again with the somewhat safer version (although not nearly as charming) of electric lighting with the traditional decorations of natural fir cones, cinnamon sticks, gingerbread biscuits and candy canes now being reproduced as Christmas decorations in many of the shops.

As a symbol of fertility and everlasting life other plants were popular alongside the Yule tree.   The holly, ivy and mistletoe are all honoured magickally and are used in many spells.   Mistletoe was believed a powerful herb of love by the Celtic Druids who called this wonderful plant, "heal all".  They cut it with a golden sickle on the sixth night of the moon and never permitted it to touch the ground*.   Mistletoe is often used in love magick, although never consumed as it is highly toxic.

* To read the legend of the mistletoe click here

There are many folklore tales, such as the one that says a windy Christmas will bring good luck, as does a cricket on the hearth!  That if all the doors are opened in the house at midnight all evil spirits will depart and that you will have one lucky month for each Christmas pudding you sample.  It was also said that someone who was born on Christmas day could see the Little People and that all decoration must be removed by the Twelfth Night or bad luck would be sure to follow.  There are several rhymes about Christmas that predict the weather in the coming months, for example:-

"If Christmas on a Sunday be

A windy Winter we shall see

The hours of Sun on Christmas Day

Will bring as many frosts in the month of May"

Other traditions include wreaths, which represent the Wheel of the Year, of holly, ivy and mistletoe, garlands of poinsettia,  spinning wheels and eight-spoked wheels, decorated in colours of red, green, white and gold.  

Many of the Yule Goddesses are Spinning Goddesses, such as, Angerona (Roman), Eve (Hebraic), Pandora (Greek), Zvezda (Slavic), Metzli (Aztec), Yachimato-Hime (Japanese, Tiamat (Babylonian), NuKua (Chinese). 

The Gods are represented by re-born Sun Gods like Apollo (Greco-Roman), Balder (Norse), the Oak and Holly King (Anglo-Celtic), Ra (Egyptian), Saturn (Roman), Jesus (Christian-Gnostic), Helios (Greek) and Ukko (Finnish).

To you all

Celtic Moon   X

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