Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice and Yule – the first day of winter. One of the best parts about celebrating the winter solstice is knowing that each day after it, the sun climbs just a little bit higher and stays in the sky just a little bit longer. The dark half of the year is making its slow handover to the lighter half of the year.
A brief background (because you know I love a bit of trivia and history):
Many Northern European cultures celebrated Yule as a festival of light at this time of year, and when Christianity was introduce to the area, Yule traditions and practices were incorporated into the Christmas festivities. You can hear the echoes of the pagan past in the way we decorate our homes for Christmas, the foods we eat and the carols that we sing.
Celebrating the Winter Solstice and Yule:
Decorate with nature
Evergreen boughs were traditionally thought to symbolise immortality as the leaves do not “die”. Holly and ivy can be brought indoors for use as decoration to welcome in nature and bring the home good fortune. Mistletoe is associated with fertility, and that’s where the tradition to hang it up and kiss underneath originates from.
Set out on a solstice walk.
Go out into nature and gather some greenery and berries that have fallen naturally with your hands for the aforementioned decorations and find your own Yule log. Spend time appreciating what nature and the earth does, even during the colder months of the year when we have the tendency to hide indoors.
Have a Yule Log.
And I’m not talking about the tasty dessert cake treat. (Though this is where the dessert comes from.) A Yule log was a log found or given as a gift, decorated, sprinkled with ale and then set alight to burn throughout the night. Use your Yule log to light your own solstice fire, if at all possible. Or maybe light some green, red, and white candles if you don’t have a safe place for a Yule log.
Write down your gratitudes
All the holidays and festivals serve as great opportunities to write down what you’ve been grateful for so far this year. Or maybe say them aloud with loved ones and find out what those nearest and dearest to you have truly been appreciating this year.
Cook a seasonal recipe with family and friends
Plum pudding, fudge, sun soup, wassail, fruit cake, buttermilk bread, cookies, a chocolate Yule log are just some of the delicious things that you might be interested in whipping up together.
If you, like me, love essential oils and want to have something evocative and comforting in your diffuser during this time, I’d focus on pine, cedar, and cinnamon. (Of course, always check if the essential oil you are using is safe for pets – not all are!)
Crystals that are great to use are clear quartz, peridot, ruby, snowflake obsidian, and black onyx.
This will be my last post until the holidays are over so have a very merry Christmas, and a very happy festive season. I’ll be back again with a review of 2018 sometime after Boxing Day and before New Years eve, so until then have a wonderful time.
Will you be observing in any way?
