The Oracle

Yule/Winter Solstice - Dec 21st

Also known as Midwinter, and even Christmas, it is also the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. As it is one of the quarter festivals it is a solar festival rather than a fire festival, and celebrates the suns revival. The days start to get longer and the nights shorter, bringing with it the promise of spring (though not for some time yet). The world seems dead, the trees are lifeless and dormant, their leaves gone except for the evergreens, the animals of the wilds have either hibernated or migrated, or remained behind and are now lean and hungry. The battle between the now reborn Oak King and the Holly King takes place again. Though this time it is the Holly King that is defeated and the Oak King. This symbolises the polarity of Paganism, the darker months of the year now starting to recede. Nature is not as dormant as she seems though, certain plants now have berries, Holly and Mistletoe are the most famous fruiting plant at this time of year.

Yule is a time of transference, when the old passes onto the new, which is why it is sometimes seen as the start of the wheel of the year. In olden days, a whole village would gather, everyone bringing as much food as could be spared, an animal would be sacrificed. This was often a goose as it was seen as a creature of the sun for it flew so high. The entire community would have a feast and celebrate together. There would be feasting, there would be also be entertainment such as singing and dancing, but most importantly there would be story telling. Our ancestors did not know how to write, so through the medium of story telling morals were learnt, skills handed down and people educated about the world around them. The elders of the community would gather the children to them, and tell then the myths and sagas of their people and culture. This was the main way in which legends passed through the generations and is partly how many of the worlds old traditions managed to survive. It was also traditional to leave gifts to the land and the spirits in any body of water, springs, lakes and wells would all have offerings cast into them, usually it was of food, but in those communities that had craftsmen, smiths and artists, it was likely to be metal work or art as offerings. This can still be observed today, but in a more general way as we see people throw a coin into a wishing well.

Many of these things are still celebrated today in Christmas; the birth of the new king is the story of Jesus Christ. The community doesn’t often gather for a feast any more, but our extended families certainly do, it has become a strong tradition to visit those family members that will not be sharing the Christmas meal with. Gifts are also popular at Christmas, though it is no longer to the land that the offerings are given, but to each other. Singing is still very popular with Christmas carols being sung, many of which tell tales and recount myths and legends, as do the nativity plays that are performed by children.

Copyright Richard J Blackburn 2008