Hi . I know Christmas is going to be hard for us all this year. So I’m going back to Yule. The winter is hard and Yule is all about surviving the darkness and bringing back the light. The trees and lights get us through the times of darkness and help us survive into the new cycle. Life continues. We will move forward into brighter times.https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/wintersolstice.shtml
Hi. There. What a good idea. I have not heard of Yuletide for a long time. Christmas has so many connotations and memories, but Yule is not so evocative.
Yes, I do know about the time of the year when ancient folk began a new year, The Solstice, the ‘standing of the sun’. It’s downward journey stops and it begins to move back up into the sky. So slowly, so very slowly.
I wonder if we can make this analogy with the way we feel? We hit the bottom, then slowly begin to move up. It does happen and it’s happened to me. But it’s all so slow and it’s the slowness that is so painful. The ups and downs continue for some time.
It was a celebration time. The past with all its pain had gone, and a new year awaited them. There was hope after all. I believe we do feel the seasons wind down. It’s not just the grief but added to it is the seasonal imbalance. Too much darkness. Light is uplifting. It may be hidden memories from our ancestors that make us light everything up for Christmas. People cover their homes in light. Everything is ‘lit up’.
Light can banish darkness. Darkness can’t banish light. Even the tiniest candle in a dark room can be a sign of hope to come.
To suggest that anyone on here can ‘celebrate’ Christmas would be asking too much. But we may be able to feel the change in the days as they lengthen and bring more hope and light back into our lives.
Blessings and love and light to all.
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I’m loving the Sound of Yuletide too, I remember hearing it as a child.