"And Ajax by mad passion borne stern had replied, fierce scorn enhancing scorn to fell extremes…"
The Greek goddess Alcyone was symbolized by the Kingfisher. Her feast day of December 15th marks the beginning of the Halcyon Days, seven days before and seven days after the Winter Solstice. In ancient Greece, these were days when the sea was smooth, a time of peace when the Kingfisher could hatch her eggs.
“’After the longest night, we sing up the dawn.’
The Pagan celebration of Yule, the Winter Solstice, is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world. The earth’s axis tilts away from the sun and the sun reaches at its greatest distance from the equatorial plane.
This is the longest night of the year.
Our ancestors worshipped the sun, which they saw as a wheel that changed the seasons. It was from the word for this wheel, ‘houl,’ from which the word Yule is believed to have come.
As a festival of the Sun, the most important part of any Yule celebration is light, candles, fires, and torches. We will hang lanterns outside our homes on this the longest night, and it is from this where our tradition of decorating our houses with lights during the dark nights of winter comes.
Fires will be lit and there will be merrymaking and great parties to celebrate the return of the sun. The Norse peoples viewed it as a time for much feasting, and, if the Icelandic sagas are to be believed, a time of sacrifice as well.
Yule has been celebrated in Britain long before the arrival of Christianity, where Druids cut the mistletoe the that grew on the oak tree and offered it as a blessing.
It was also the Druids who began the tradition of the Yule Log as the Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter. During this time a log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits, and bring luck for the coming year.”
“The wrapping paper’s put away
Except the bits the cat got hold of
Someone comes by to say hello
And bring a tin of cookies
The mistletoe’s not used up yet
And the popcorn garlands hold up
You secretly hope the snow will last a little while
In the week between
All your drunken uncles and cousin’s cousins are on the scene
The week between
New Year’s resolutions and conversation with last year’s dreams
We take a slow ride into town
Past empty office buildings
Red lights go green for wind blown snow
And so we don’t mind waiting
It’s almost time to eat again
The first ham sandwich shows up
We’re curling up on the couch to wait until next year
In the week between
All your drunken uncles and cousin’s cousins are on the scene
The week between
New Year’s resolutions and conversation with last year’s dreamsIn
The week between
All your drunken uncles and cousin’s cousins are on the scene
The week between
New Year’s resolutions and conversation with last year’s dreamsIn
The week between
All your drunken uncles and cousin’s cousins still on the scene
The week between
New Year’s resolutions and conversation with last year’s dreams…”
“All of the parents of the children of December
Have a clutch
‘Cause their birthdays are the hardest to remember
When you’re born on Christmas
Or the day before New Years
They can sing out your birthday
But but, but, but nobody hears…”
SONG LINK
From FB:
“December is named after the tenth month of the Roman calendar and the middle goddess of the Three Fates, Decima, who personified The Present.
December is a month of bitterly cold weather, short days, longest nights, when nature sleeps and the sun is the farthest off from the Earth during a period of time known as the Solsticio Brumali – The Very Dead of Winter. The trees are bare of leaves and much of the wildlife has disappeared into hibernation or migrated to sunnier climes.
The major festival of December is the winter solstice, also called Yule or Midwinter. The birth of many solar saviors and dying gods is celebrated at this time of year (usually on December 25th), including Osiris, the Syrian Baal, Attis, Adonis, Helios, Apollo, Dionysus, Jesus, Balder, and Frey.
In the Roman tradition, December 25th was Dies Natalis Solis Invictus (“The Day of the Birth of the Undefeated Sun”) and many of the aforementioned deities were given similar titles including ‘Light of the World’ and ‘Sun of Righteousness.’ The Christian festival of Christmas is an amalgamation of many religious traditions, both ancient and modern, Pagan, Zoroastrian, Jewish, and Christian.
Yule or Yuletide was a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples. Scholars have connected it with both the Wild Hunt and the god Odin. It later underwent Christianized reformulation resulting in the festival of Christmastide. The festival honors the god of the fertile sun and the harvest and was represented by a white goat.
The traditional Yule log, which was once ceremoniously dragged in from the woods on Christmas Eve to provide warmth and light for the festive season, is a relic of the ancient bonfires that brought light to an otherwise darkened world during this festive season.
December 31st is the Scottish New Year’s festival of Hogmanay. Its name commemorates the solar god Hogmagog. In England, the god was known as Gogmagog and was represented in the form of a giant chalk-cut hill figure close to Cambridge. Divided into two parts, Gog and Magog, this god is the spiritual guardian of the city of London.“
From FB:
“December 21st, 2021 is the Winter Solstice and the beginning of the pre-Christian high festival of Yuletide. Pagan festivals were primarily based on the chief points of the agricultural year, where these civilizations sought to align themselves with the ever-changing seasons and the world that surrounded them. Specifically, Yultetide was the Midwinter celebration with its name deriving from the Old Norse word “Hjol” (“wheel”) which signified the moment when the fiery Wheel of the Year (Sol Invictus) was at its lowest point, yet ready to rise again and roll across the heavenly sky.
Yuletide celebrations and traditions at the time of the Winter Solstice predate Christianity by thousands of years. In fact, there are numerous references to Yule in the Icelandic sagas and in other ancient accounts which note that this was a period of time dedicated to feasting, gift giving, and dancing. The holiday was considered the most popular of all the native Germanic spiritual celebrations, as it marked the return of Baldur (god of light, joy, and the summer sun) from the dark realm of Hel and the loosening of winter’s grip on the frozen Earth.
The commencement of the Yultetide has no set date, but it is traditionally twelve days long, with the start of the festivities beginning at sunset on the Winter Solstice. In the northern hemisphere, this date usually falls on December 20th or 21st.
As with other Pagan feast days (such as Halloween and Easter) early Christian missionaries converted the holiday into a more acceptable form, which today has become known as the “Twelve Days of Christmas.”
The first night of Yule is called The Mothernight, where the goddess Frigga and the Disir (female ancestral spirits) were honored. As the Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, a traditional vigil was held on this day from dusk to dawn to ensure that the sun would rise again.Yule was the season during which the Norse gods and goddesses were considered closest to Midgard, with Odin himself being called “Jolnir” (or “The Yule One”). According to the Norse, Odin was both a terrifying specter and an anxiously awaited gift-bringer, who soared through the skies on his flying eight-legged white horse, Sleipnir. Astride Sleipnir, Odin led the flying Wild Hunt, accompanied by his sword-maiden Valkyries and a few other gods and assorted ghosts. Together, they would fly over the villages and countryside, terrifying any who happened to be out and about at night. But Odin would also deliver toys and candy, and children would fill their boots with straw for Sleipnir and set them by the hearth for him to eat. Similarly, Odin was believed to slip down chimneys and fire holes leaving behind gifts.
On a related note, fans of Andy Williams’ Christmas classic “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” may be puzzled regarding this particular lyric:
“There’ll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories
Of Christmases long, long ago…”
As previously noted, the night of the Winter Solstice is the longest duration of nighttime of the year, and early Europeans believed this marked the blurring of the barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead. Thus, the practice of gathering around the fire on the longest night of the Yuletide season to tell ghost stories was as much a part of the experience for past generations as Santa Claus is for us.
As Yule was considered the season during which the dead were believed to return to Earth to share the feasts of the living, it was also believed that elves, trolls, and other magical beings roamed freely at this time and needed to either be warded off or invited to come into the home in friendship and peace. This moment of the year was also considered propitious for the rendering of especially meaningful oaths, which were sworn on a horn or cup while drinking at the Yule feast. The practice of the “New Year’s Resolution” is a diminished form of the ancient Yule Oath.
Further, carrying the fir or pine tree into the home was another ancient Germanic custom, with holy gifts being hung upon its branches representing gifts to Yggdrasil – the mighty Norse cosmic tree of life.
Finally, the Yule log is another Pagan custom, which was supposed to burn all night during the longest night of the year to symbolize the spark of life lasting even in the time of greatest darkness, and its fire rekindling the Sun in the morning.”
Song Of Ajax 