CELEBRATING THE WINTER SOLSTICE

Winter Solstice/Yule (December 18-January 6)

This is the season of religious and cultural celebrations worldwide, including Christmas, New Year, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa. It’s the darkest day of the year, around December 21, yet with that darkness comes the promise of the returning Light. Celebrations and stories abound across cultures, telling of the birth of a sun God at this time of year. In the fourth century, by decree, this time of year became the official birthday of Jesus (the Christian “sun God”), and was moved to coincide with more familiar Solstice festivals and holidays.

Many of the better-known practices of this season have their roots in the practices of ancient peoples. One of these is the ancient Roman festival, Saturnalia, named after the god Saturn, which took place at this time of the year. It was considered to be the greatest festival of the year in Imperial Rome. A week-long celebration starting on December 18 and lasting until December 25, it was a time of revelry and the upheaval of social norms, where society was turned upside-down. Distinctions between servants and masters were temporarily abolished, schools were out, courts were closed, and even wars were delayed. Evergreens were used for decoration, feasts were held, and sexual liberties were indulged. It was all out party time, a time for pranks and practical jokes, time to revel and rejoice.

Yule was another term for this season. In Celebrate the Solstice, Richard Heinberg describes how we came to call this seasonal celebration Yule.

 The Scandinavian word Yule (Danish Jul) long ago came to denote Christmas, and is so used today in English-speaking and northern European countries. Its derivation is uncertain, though it may come from the Anglo-Saxon word hweol, or “wheel,” referring perhaps to the course of the Sun through the Solstices and Equinoxes. In any case, many historians have suggested that the term originally may have designated a Teutonic Solstice festival. Perhaps the twelve nights of Yule festivities coincided with the twelve days when the Sun’s rising and setting points seemed to “stand still” at the southern extreme on the horizon.

The Germanic peoples had marked their seasonal festivals with fires, dancing, and sacrifices. The fires of the winter Solstice were thought to promote the return of the Sun, to burn away the accumulated misdeeds of the community, and to ward off evil spirits. The tradition of the burning of a special log (the Yule log) on Christmas Eve was practiced throughout Europe, from Scandinavia to Italy. Indeed, the words for Christmas among the Lithuanians and Letts literally signify “Log Evening.” The Yule log was in some places considered the Fire Mother of the Sun god.

Heinberg goes on to suggest possible origins of the Christmas tree:

Though it’s somewhat futile to search back in history for the “first Christmas tree,” it’s possible to trace notable turning points in the evolution of the ceremonial evergreen— in seventeenth century Germany, with the first written descriptions of “fir trees set up in the rooms of Strasbourg and hung with roses cut from paper of many colors, apples, wafers, spangle-gold, sugar, etc.”; in England in 1840, when the German Prince Albert set up a tree in the palace for his wife, Queen Victoria; and across the Atlantic in 1845, when a children’s book, Kriss Kringle’s Christmas Tree, which has been described as the most influential Christmas book in the United States, spread the fashion throughout America.

There are even legends and historical clues about the foundations for our modern-day Santa Claus. There are legends about the fourth century Bishop of Myra, Nicholas—robed, gray-bearded, wearing the pointed bishop’s cap—famous for his anonymous generosity, especially to children. In Germany, legend tells of a man named Knecht Ruprecht, who traveled from town to town, testing children’s knowledge of their prayers. If they passed the test, he gave them treats, and if not, he gave them a stick. Christmas plays in England from the middle ages on often-featured “Father Christmas,” a jolly, white-bearded old man who wore a wreath of holly.

Washington Irving, in Father Knickerbocker’s History of New York published in 1809, is credited with a description of our modern Santa Claus, with his sleigh and magical reindeer who brought gifts to good children. This magical figure may even have more ancient roots in shamanism, as he has many attributes of the shaman. He flies through the air, talks with the animals, lives at the edge of village Earth (North Pole), moves from one realm to another (via the chimney), and has a magical bag that always has surprises in it (much like the “medicine bag” of the shaman).

The strongest component of this season is light. Throughout the year, there is the dance of light and dark, and at the winter solstice, this dance is at its most intense and pronounced, with the longest period of darkness and the shortest period of light. Our ancestors, without the advantages of electric lights and central heating, were no doubt apprehensive about whether the winter’s coldness and darkness would ever come to an end, whether their food supplies would hold—whether their family or tribe would survive the harshness of the season.

The fire that heated the home, candles placed about, and a great faith in the eternal cycles of light and dark, heat and cold, death and rebirth, were what kept up their spirits. The various solstice festivities kept up their hope. The symbols of light, such as the bonfire, hearthfire, and candles reminded them that the light would return as it had for every year. Other symbols, such as a tree that was brought in, an “ever-green,” helped them to remember that even in the harshest of times, life continue onward.

Commemorating Winter Solstice/Yule—Slow down! That’s perhaps the best way to commemorate these times. It’s the time of year when life is dormant, when the seeds that are in the ground will be there for a while, until the proper amount of light and heat beckon them to germinate and sprout. It’s time for us to rest and recuperate, to settle down for “a long winter’s nap,” to go to bed earlier and to sleep later. This is quite a challenge in these hectic, hurry-up times, but with such an intention, you can do it.

Everyone tends to rush around during the holidays, frantically trying to fulfill the Christmas wish list and prepare for the feasts. If our inner nature is in step with the season, then to override this with such tremendous forced activity can’t help but contribute to stress. When our organic self is stressed, it compromises the immune system, and voilá! —Illnesses, such as colds and flus, beat down the door of our natural defenses.

One effective ceremony to remind us of this is an energy fast, which I described earlier. This is perhaps the best cross-quarter day to do this. Let yourself surrender to the darkness. Light candles, and go to bed very early. An addition to this would be a day of silence, to couple this with the energy fast. If you want to round it out, at the same time as these do a cleansing fast.

On the morning of the return of the Light, that is, after the longest night of the year, I like to go up on a mountain and greet the sunrise. It’s possible to do various ceremonies with this. As I mentioned, one year I danced and drummed as the sun rose.

Needless to say, feasts and festivities with friends allow us that time for a pause and for appreciation. These kinds of activities remind us we’re part of a clan, tribe or family, and that we need not suffer the dark times alone. Make time in your schedule for such gatherings, and create ones that fit your needs and desires. Some of these can be formats for sacred ceremony.

Another powerful ceremony augmented by this season of darkness and light is a manifestation ceremony, similar to a release and renewal ceremony but with a slight twist. This past season, some friends of ours, Chris and Becky, had a few of us over for a New Year’s Eve ceremony. We all brought a dish to share, and there were snacks as we sat around the warm fireplace, socializing, with occasionally a flute or some drumming happening on one side of the room. On the steps leading to the house, they had constructed lamps made from paper bags folded halfway down, with sand in the bottom and a lit candle on top of that.

We started the ceremony rather informally, when our hosts brought out a whole bunch of crayons and paper and, not so subtly, placed them in the center of the living room. They explained that on one sheet of paper, write or draw the stuff you want to leave behind (release), and on another, those attributes and attitudes you want to have expand (manifestation).

We all set to work. On the release piece of paper, I wrote such things as “shame,” “fear of disapproval,” and “self-doubt.” On the manifestation paper, I wrote “faith,” “purpose,” and “courage.” On both papers, the words were stylized and multi-colored. We all had fun with this, and yet there was serious intent.

Whenever any of us finished, each person took the release list to the fire, and with a prayer threw it in. Once everyone had done this, then we walked ensemble to the back yard. There we found lanterns similar to those in front outlining a path to a small plateau of dirt. We followed the path, and circled around a hole that was dug in the center of the mound.

We prayed together, then chanted “Om” three times. Chris explained that we were to bury the manifestation paper when we were ready. Each of us in turn did so, and once we all finished this, everyone then added a handful of Earth. The purpose of this was so that Mother Earth could take these requests into her bosom and nurture them through the darkness of the winter into warmth and light of the coming sun days, such that these items would manifest.

We circled together once more, and sang a couple of songs, then closed with a prayer. There was a tremendous sense of camaraderie and support in that ceremony. It was a beautiful Solstice ceremony, designated to welcome not only the coming new year, but also the return of the light.