Yule
Thursday, Dec. 21, 2006 ~ 11:19 p.m.

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So I started this month fairly well when it came to the whole diary entry thing, but then it died off.

It's Yule tonight and that's one of the reasons I wasn't going to go into work tonight when they called to ask me to come in and cover a shift. I told them that I already had plans. (which was mostly true ... Mike and I were going grocery shopping and all my work clothes were in the washer.)

Anyway. It's the longest night of the year and tomorrow we welcome the light back into the world as the days start to grow longer. There are many different stories about Yule and the Winter Solstice, but I found a good, basic description of it here at Witchvox.com and pasted it below:

"According to the Wiccan Wheel of the Year, Yule is celebrated in the northern hemisphere at the Winter Solstice... the longest night of the year. There is peace and introspection available to us during this long night of stillness and quiet. There is rest after our long labors, and the joy of knowing that dawn comes even to the longest night.

The Winter Solstice is a solar holiday, when the sun is reborn after its long decline. Since the Summer Solstice, we have watched the sun set earlier and earlier each evening, until it seemed that light itself had died. We can only see a weak, watery winter sun. Midwinter is the time of longest darkness. Yet, it is also the time of our greatest joy, for on this day the sun begins to strengthen once again. The Earth needs the Sun to bring forth new life, and at Yule, the Sun itself is reborn."

There is also a story about the Holly King and the Oak King. It's this night that the Oak King (who died on Samhain/Hallowe'en) is reborn and starts to grow while the Holly King loses power as the days pass until he dies at Beltane. The Holly King is reborn on Litha (or the Summer Solstice). Another version of this story doesn't say anything about these two living and dying, but at each of the summer and winter solstices, they fight and one overpowers the other to rule half the year.

Anyway. The point of all this is to celebrate the return of the light. To celebrate the regrowth of all that may have gone dormant through out the fall (of course we all know it will take a while before we get to see that regrowth, but without this turning point, there would be no regrowth).

It's probably my bed time though and I'm going to look for a Yule Log image to play on my computer monitor all night (since I don't have a fireplace and I think the landlord might get upset if we started a fire in the house without one) and then I'm going to go to bed and tryt to keep my coughing to a minimum.

Blessed Be and Blessed Yule.

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