Origins of the Holiday Season
Compiled by mythological studies doctoral candidate and friend, Leslie Emery
What is "Yule?"
While in modern times this holiday is referred to primarily as
Christmas, it has its origins in many other traditions as well. The
word Yule is likely derived from the Danish "jul" or Anglo-Saxon
"hweal", both meaning wheel, as in the Wheel of The Year or the
circular path of the Sun.
Yule time is that part of the year when the End meets the Beginning --
the annual circle/cycle is completed and another one starts. Yule is
the time of the Winter Solstice, when the sun is at its lowest
position on the southern horizon and we have the "shortest" day of the
year. That means the day with the fewest hours of sunlight and longest
dark. This is the point in the earth's orbit around the sun when we
are farthest away from our source of heat and light.
After the Winter Solstice the Earth begins to shift on its axis in its
solar orbit, tipping us back toward the Sun again so the daylight
hours grow longer. Yet this is the day when Winter officially begins
on our calendars. So even though the days are lengthening after the
solstice, the coldest part of Winter is yet to come. This part of the
year has been important to most every culture located away from the
equator where the length of daylight hours does not change during
the year. The myths and celebrations associated with Yuletide (the
last tide of the year, a "turning of the tides") are many and complex.
The Sun's cycle observed from Northern Latitudes and from the Equator
The Solstice In Pre-History: Telling Time Without Clocks
Archeological evidence indicates that humans began tracking the cycles
of the Sun, Moon and stars as long ago as the Neolithic era. The
rhythmic waxing and waning of the Moon in its 28 day cycle and the Sun
in its 365 day one are "natural clocks" that measure the coming and
passing of the seasons. The Moon's cycle also resonates in the human
body via the monthly menstrual cycle. The Sun was once universally
regarded as all-important for bringing the abundance of Summer that
made life possible in northern and southern latitudes. When all humans
lived in deep connection with Nature, the rhythms of the year were
important in everyone's life.
Festivals, rites, and rituals were planned around the Sun and Moon
cycles. As a result there are two types of calendars, one Solar, like
the the Roman, and one Lunar, like the Islamic. Early astronomers used
these cycles to time the seasons for hunting, migrating, planting and
paying respect to the Earth and our sources of light and warmth. The
rituals that evolved helped give humans a sense of their participation
in the universe and thus a place in it. It was often believed
that if people did not perform their rituals the Sun would not
reappear each day, every Winter Solstice.
Nature-centered belief systems were the basis of all primal cultures.
Continuity of life, and meaning, was experienced in the revolving
cycles, in the endless process of death and birth rather than in a
linear sense of time such as the modern world conceives. In this
cyclic cosmology, the year's cycle returns the world to the state of
the original Chaos that came before the forces that order "life as we
know it." At the Winter Solstice, time stands still, all order
dissolves in the moment between the end and the beginning. Yule is a
time of death since plants go dormant in the cold weather, and a time
of the possibility of resurrection in the returning
Spring. The power of the seasons draws our attention to our
connections with Nature and so to sacred rituals and celebrations. It
is a time when humans are humbled if they attend these
changes and our egos are called to surrender to the unknown, the
unconscious, Nature and the Divine.
Solstice rituals were guided by shamans and priests who were the
intermediaries between the material and spirit worlds. They led the
community in attending to this annual transition to pay respects. to
participate in it and thus give our assistance to the new beginning.
Festivals were a making/taking time out of the everyday to connect
with soul and spirit. These ancient celebrations that were held on
"Holy Days" dictated by the solar cycle have become our modern
"Holidays." It is difficult for us moderns to appreciate the
significance of these festivals to people who lived without the
comforts we take for granted. Cars, houses, California vegetables,
40 hour work weeks all insulate us from Nature and The Elements.
The Historical Solstice
Not all New Years are celebrated immediately after the Winter
Solstice. For some cultures the year begins at the Spring or even
Autumn Equinox, when the Sun is halfway between Winter and
Summer solstices. Then the dark and light part of the days are equal.
But those that did associate the Winter Solstice with the beginning of
the year often had traditions of reverence for the "dying and reborn"
Sun. This notion seems to have led to many beliefs in a dying and
reborn (or resurrected) "Son" or god. This annually new born divinity
was an assurance that Spring would come, though the depth of Winter
was yet to be endured. These annually renewed divinities
were masculine, such as the Horned god who attended the Earth Mother
goddess, dying or being "sacrificed" to her each year to be born anew,
as well as subsequent ones like the Greek Dionysus, Roman Mithras and
Attis, the Norse Baldor.
The Romans named the first month of the year January, after Janus,
their god of doorways, portals between Here and There. Janus had two
faces, one looking forward and one backward at the same time. This
powerful sense of transition at this time of year spawned many
combinations of new born Sun/Sons. This non-ordinary time of ending
and beginning was felt to be rich with possibility for change and
renewal. Our remnant of these rituals of dissolution and
reassessment are our modern "New Year's resolutions."
The general pattern of these Solstice/New Year festivals had four
parts:
1. Mortification or undergoing austerity: restricting privileges,
surrendering power or
reversing roles.
2. Purification or exorcism: bad influences and habits in individuals
and the community were expelled by fires, bell ringing, loud noises,
cleaning with water or investing a "Scapegoat" with
these unwanted aspects and then banishing it. This was done literally
with a goat set free in the wilderness at one time.
3.lnvigoration and rejuvenation of energies: often by mock combats
between Life and Death, the Seasons, Old Age and Youth.
4. Jubilation with feasts, merriment, sacred unions and sexuality that
reestablished the bonds of Nature and human society.
Akitu, the Winter Solstice festival on the ancient Babylonian
calendar, is an example of such a historical festival. It was 1 2 days
long and led by the ruling King as the Son and representative
of the Divine.
Day 1. The social order is reversed, the high are the low and the city
is plunged into symbolic
anarchy representing the Chaos before "The Beginning."
Day 4. The Story of Creation is recited, telling the struggle between
Light and Dark with Marduk the creator contending with Tiamat, the
Dragon of Chaos.
The Roman Saturnalia was a solstice festival dedicated to the Saturn,
Lord of Time and reflection, associated with the deeper reaches of the
soul. The days leading to the solstice were filled with play, mocking
authority and social hierarchy. Slaves and masters switched roles. A
prankster pseudo-king was elected by lot. This period was a
remembering of the "Golden Age" was at times viewed as a contest
between the waxing and waning Suns which is symbolized in a struggle
between the Oak King (creative aspect of god) and the Holly King
(death aspect of god) - - though these are two aspects of the same god
or divinity. Viewing this struggle as having an uncertain outcome
draws attention to our mortality. If humans lend their support to the
New Year, the Holly King, the reborn God, the year will gain positive
direction.
Christmas
Many different traditions, beliefs and rituals have blended together
over the last 2,000 years to create this rich, though now mostly
unknown, Solstice heritage. The Christian celebration of Christmas is
complemented and supported by these other traditions acknowledging
death and rebirth and the eternal life of the Spirit. Christ is the
Son of God, a messenger of the divine with supernatural powers who
brings light and hope to humanity just as the new Sun of the coming
year does. His birth heralds salvation, is attended by a special
light/star and the animals, his resurrection demonstrates eternal
life.
If we come to know the many sources and meanings of the symbols and
rituals we encounter around Christmas, the depth of our experience in
this special part of the year can be greatly enriched.
Sacred Trees and Solstice Symbols
The Trees of Life
Trees have been revered as holy since pre-history. This pervasive
reverence for trees appears in many cultures in an image called The
Tree Of Life. There is an great variety of representations of this
notion, with trees that hold the sun, stars, animals and humans in
their branches. There are World Trees which have their branches in the
world we inhabit, reaching for or supporting the sun and heavens while
their roots reach into the dark riches of the Earth or Underworld
(unconscious) that feeds and supports our conscious life. In some
versions the trunk of the tree is the "Axis of the World" or the
passage way between our world and those above and below. The World
Tree holds everything up and in place.
In the Garden of Eden there was a Tree of Knowledge and a Tree of Life
(or Paradise Tree). When Adam and Eve ate the fruits of the Tree of
Knowledge they were denied access to the garden of the Paradise Tree
by an angel with a fiery sword and doomed to a life of toil. They were
expelled from the changeless Golden Age into the realm of Death and
Time
Trees are important elements in many tales of death and resurrection.
In some stories the Cross on which Christ is crucified is made from a
tree whose seeds came from the Paradise Tree in Eden. Thus it is The
True Cross, made from holy wood, wood that grew in the Divine realm.
The Cross is another Tree of Life in the most elemental form with its
vertical aspect, its trunk, connecting Heaven and Earth and its
horizontal aspect signifying the linear direction of time in the
material world. Christ is crucified on this intersection where the
mortal and immortal meet, where all mortals suffer to be reborn. The
Cross/Tree is the ladder to god. Some early representations of the
crucifixion actually show Christ hanging on a flowering tree.
Europe was once covered in Primeval Forest. The peoples
of pre-Roman times lived on the bounty of that forest.
These tribes built settlements around central Mother
Towns which had a designated Mother Tree as center point.
The original association of trees with a Mother Goddess
later shifted toward masculine gods and their death and
resurrection. The oak was regarded as holy and potent.
Mistletoe that grows on it remains green all winter,
bearing white berries, seen as its spirit that remained
alive even in winter and people used it as a fertility token.
There were groves of trees in every region regarded as sacred and not
to be cut down or used for everyday purposes. They were often regarded
as natural temples to the feminine divinity, of the Goddess.
Evergreens and Immortality
The "Ever-Green" is a "Natural" symbol of
the life that flows from one year, one cycle
of ending and beginning, to another. In some
tales, the Evergreen was one of the trees in
the Garden of Eden, even that one from
which Eve picked the Fruit of Knowledge. So
"ravaged," the tree's leaves shriveled into
narrow needles and will only fruit again
after Judgement Day. Many cultures
regarded the Evergreen as special and some
regarded its cones as sacred fruits
Evergreen plants regarded as special include
pines, firs, yew, holly, mistletoe, ivy, and
rosemary (herb of the sun). The cult of
Attis in Roman times symbolized his annual
rebirth by cutting down a fir or pine tree,
wrapping it in white clothe as if it was a
corpse, laying it in a tomb then
resurrecting it three days later.
The word for holly in Irish, tinne, is close to the Cornish word
glas-tin, meaning Sacred Tree. The prickly holly tree which fruits
with red berries in winter is the tree of the Holly King in
Pagan Europe, the death aspect of god that also brings new life.
Greenery is a prominent element of many religious festivals and
offerings. Christ was welcomed with green Palm fronds.
Evergreens and lights are associated in many Winter Solstice
festivals. Light, stars, candles and fires are used to represent the
Sun, purification and spirit. Thus it is important in mid-winter
ceremonies. A special Yule Log was burned on Christmas Eve throughout
the cultures of Old Europe. There are various Festivals of Lights.
Candles were lit and offerings were once put out in Sacred Groves at
Yuletide. During Advent in the Christian holy calender a crown of
candles is used, one being lit on each succeeding Sunday approaching
Christmas till all are alight. The Jewish Menorah, with its sequential
lighting of candles, is another relation of light and spirit -
- as is the modern Christmas tree.
The Christmas/Yule Tree
Miracle or Paradise plays were performed in Medieval Europe on the day
before Christmas, which was Adam and Eve Day. An evergreen tree
hung with apples was the principle prop for these performances. In
some cases there were two trees, The Tree of Life and The Tree of
Knowledge, at others only one representing both: The Paradise Tree.
When the plays were performed inside the church the tree was
surrounded by candles and the action took place inside the ring of
light. The characters in the play were Adam, Eve and the Serpent.
A Yule Tree in other traditions was a living tree, planted in a tub,
and brought indoors during the Yuletide celebrations. This living
Yule Tree was not necessarily decorated, being in itself a symbol of
eternal life in winter at the end of the year's cycle. The German name
for the Christmas/Yule tree is Tannenbaum, meaning holy tree, tannen
being derived from terms for the oak tree.
Eventually the various traditions of using trees around the solstice
blended to become the Christmas tree of the last 1 50 years. An early
record of a decorated Christmas tree resembling the contemporary one
comes from Latvia. An Evergreen decked out in artificial flowers was
taken to the market place, danced around and then burned in 1 510.
This could be a combination of the Paradise Tree and the Yule Log
traditions.
Tree Ornaments
In 2000 B.C.E. branches decorated with ribbons were
carried in processions honoring gods and goddesses of
fertility and life in Mesopotamia. Romans decorated trees
with masks and artificial flowers in honor of Bacchus. The
apples that adorned the evergreen in the Adam and Eve
plays have evolved into a myriad of "fruits" on the
Solstice Evergreen. Birds, angels, flowers of spring,
colorful spheres and stars (originally made of paper, wax
and pastry) came to hang on the Winter's Life Tree. Since
the Victorian era ornaments have taken forms from nature,
imagination and even the industrial world. The
Christmas/Yule tree is a veritable cornucopia of life
placed in the center of domestic and public places. It
presides over a wealth of gifts which symbolize the
opening, generous character of these Holy Days.
The Yuletide Wreath is another ancient symbol of the
Wheel of the Year. The wreath is often made of various
evergreen boughs and leaves, accented with winter
berries, red ribbons and birds. Traditionally hung on or
over a door it assures the visitor of hospitality. The wreath
is a portal, passage way into the non-ordinary time of the
Other World of these festivals.
Some Yuletide and Christmas Rituals
Christmas, like other Solstice celebrations, is sometimes experienced
as a memory of a Golden Age, of Paradise, or a brief return to it. In
Serbia it was thought that the world was grafted on to Paradise at
midnight on Christmas Eve. In Breton, people felt that animals could
speak on Christmas. Many rituals and ceremonies associated with
Yuletide serve the practical purpose of assuring good productivity of
the land, plants and animals in the coming year.
Wassailing was a ritual of anointing apple trees in apple cider while
Morris Troupes, who performed during this season, mimed the growth of
apples to encourage the trees.
Santa Claus. "Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the
house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse . . . " What
could bring on such a spell that stills the entire house/world? The
coming of Sacred Time or event overwhelms all normal, daily life.
There is a re-connection with the Golden Era and visits of Spirit
Beings with gifts from the "Other Realm." Santa Claus is a figure with
roots in many cultures. He associates with the flying messengers from
the northern spirit world in Shamanic traditions, and the Greek god
Kronos, lord of time and king of the world in the Golden Age who lived
at the North Pole and also the Turkish St. Nicholas who was remembered
for his generosity. There was the Dutch Sinter Klaas, the German
Knecht Ruprecht who gave children that knew their prayers sweets,
Kriss Kringle, Old Nick -- which is a name for Woton, an Anglo/Saxon
god similar to the Celtic Holly King. This figure comes in different
clothes and colors in different countries, but Santa Claus is always
an old man with the long white beard of age and wisdom, often with
holly in his hair and mysterious powers -- putting his finger to his
nose he can magically give gifts as he flies above us in a sleigh like
the solar chariot of the Sun God, pulled by reindeer which suggest the
Horned God. He is a messenger from The Other World, dropping down the
chimney as no mortal could, visiting without ever being seen, knowing
our inner hearts and secret deeds. Not even the mouse knows when he
comes.
St. Nichols Eve/Daywas a day of giving gifts to children. originally
fixed on December 6. Those who were good received sweets or biscuits
while those bad kids got a smack with a bunch of birch twigs. The day
is still observed in Holland where presents are made, not bought, and
delivered anonymously with a personalized riddle. The gift giving of
St. Nichols Eve has generally become associated with Christmas Day.
Fires and Lights are involved in nearly all Solstice celebrations.
There are traditions involving bonfires and dancing, the progressive
lighting of candles over a sequence of days, the striking of
one flame from flint in a darkened church, then the spread of the
flame from candle to candle till a sea of lights burns. The Yule Log
traditions are echoed in a common Christmas carol, Deck the
Halls with Boughs of Holly: "See the blazing Yule before us / Fa Ia Ia
Ia la/ Fast away the old year passes. .
The 1 2 Days of Christmas or Yule Feast was commenced on the night of
the Solstice and ended on January 1 when the Sun was said to first
appear to move northward along the horizon and the daylight hours to
lengthen. The Yule Log was once a hard chunk of oak or ash root that
could burn continuously for 1 2 days. Special foods and feasting are
pervasive elements to these festivities.
Boxing Day/St. Stephan's Day was once celebrated by
catching a Cutty Wren and showing the bird off to
neighbors to gain treats. It was also a time for tipping
those who provide services. The name boxing comes from
filling alms boxes and the boxes used to give away old
clothes to the needy.
Mumming Plays were playful, funny, slapstick
performances depicting such as the battler between Life
and Death, the Goodies and the Baddies. They often included
Father Christmas, white bearded with a holly crown. A
Lord of Misrule was elected in some places as a
representation of the reversal of social order.
The New Year
Celebrations and invocations of the New Year often closed the Solstice
rites. The Old Year was seen exiting as an Old Man with the scythe of
death in his hands .
Ceremonies and Rituals tor Our Times
Engaging Rituals
We live in an era where tradition, ritual and mythology are often seen
as out-dated and meaningless, offering no positive experience. Myths
are fictions, false-hoods, silly stories. Rituals seem tedious
remnants of more formal, restricted social orders. Religion is
superstition, cultism, denial of reality. Ceremonies seem forced and
require collective cooperations that threaten to stifle individual
expression. Yet every culture has its myths, its stories that Tell the
Truth -- even if that "Truth" is that "we have no myths," that we are
Rational Realists. The way we live, the values implicit in our
actions, always express a cosmology, a meaningful conception of the
world around us, our individual and collective places in The Scheme of
Things. Oddly, we have become largely unaware of what our meaning-
embodying behaviors and rituals are -- often seeming to believe "we
simply don't do that sort of thing."
All rituals "wear out" eventually. They cease to stimulate imagination
and feeling. It is common, and frustrating, to loose connection with
the rituals and holidays of one's family and community as we grow
older and mature. They become social control mechanisms performed for
the sake of following the rules or gaining something in the material
world. UBut what matters most in the ritual actions and ceremonies
which are supposed to express emotional, intuitive sense of Spiritual
Place in the World is the personal feelings they foster in us. They
must resonate with our desires and fears and experiences to enrich our
sense of being. They must engage our imaginations and personal values.
Ethnic and traditional societies tend to resist assimilation into
other cultures because their identities and confidence are based in
their concept of Where They Are in the Universe. Cultural behaviors
and values have always mixed and matched. But in our time of Mass
Media and Mass Produced Consumer Imagery we are threatened with
homogenization. People now speak of Multi-culturalism: how to preserve
ethnic identities yet be respectful and connected without
becoming the same. Yet for most of us, whether "believers" or not,
rituals and celebrations can powerfully re-present our feelings and
experiences. Holidays/Holy Days allow us to step out of our daily
preoccupations with the material world and linear time. Rituals and
ceremonies can give significance to heart and soul feelings if they
represent our deep experience. They can even inspire potent impulses
toward increased awareness and change in our lives. But the ``meaning
in these actions is derived from those involved, not dictated by
authorities. Meaning, like Faith, is not given but generated
internally. Identifying what a ritual or myth means has become a
highly individualized response -- like responding to a work of art.
It can be said we are moving from Myth Directed LIfe Styles of the
past toward Life Style Directed Myth. We are developing our own
personal and community traditions, rituals and mythology in the way we
live, not inheriting it from institutions. We are choosing in our
personal lives and intimate relationships to shape and embody our own
feelings and beliefs, not simply accept the explanations and practices
of a social majority. We are becoming our own priests. In an
international mass-media culture, the importance of identifying and
expressing our personal awareness and response becomes increasingly
important lest we be swallowed up my the comsumerist culture, taking
the ideas and feelings of others, of advertising, for our own.
Much ritual and ceremony that is focused on the present moment can be
seen as "Attending" to events and feelings out side and inside our
selves, our groups. We are attending the Seasons, the Earth, Unknown,
the Divine, the Mysterious -- in our own unconsciousness and in the
universe's. These are not practical concerns in the world of money and
things, but essential none the less. It is possible to live in
connection with both.
There is a great difference between practicing ritual habitually
without reflection and doing so while attending our inner feelings and
the unknown, the unexpected -- our imaginations. To avoid simply going
through the motions in the same ego-centric frame of mind we manage
our daily lives with, we must put our selves at risk, attempt to feel
and experience the values and events represented in rites, rituals and
celebrations. There is only as much meaning to them as we feel. Only
as much importance as we give, and take. But it is essential that we
"give" meaning rather than just receive it.
Rituals, ceremonies, celebrations have meanings for us even if we are
not conscious of them. They only remain alive if they continue to
evolve, to change according to the feelings of the present time, of
the individuals participating. If we consciously consider what of our
actions are ritual and ceremonial gestures toward our beliefs and
values, not just practical daily actions, if we seek to know what they
mean to ourselves and others, and how these meanings grow and change,
we can better express our values.
Adapting Old Rites, Images and Ceremonies -- Evolving New
Many rituals, meanings and images from the various historical
traditions that are a part of the Christmas / Yule holidays can be
brought back to life in our celebrations. It is important to remember
that these personal and cultural expressions are continually evolving.
There is no one pure form or interpretation of a myth or story, a
ritual action or celebration. Even when a ceremony retains the same
procedures, the meanings associated with it can change, it can loose
vitality and gain it back when experienced in different perspectives..
It is inspiring to read about the many ways rituals have been
performed in the past or in other cultures than our own.
But is essential we continue to create and enact our own. This is the
essential challenge of our cultural time.
We make our festivals, images and meanings -- they do not happen. The
past offers us options and inspirations. Either as individuals or
groups, we can create our own ceremonies, light hearted or serious. If
we do not, others will do it for us and we may loose our sense of our
own meanings. We will be watching television rather than creating and
embodying our own experience. Ceremonies and rituals are not
necessarily dead forms from the past. They are not inherently
restrictive. They can break the domination of our everyday material
concerns and allow us to attend the Great Mystery in the Universe
around us as well as within our unknown Inner Reaches. It is
appropriate, even essential that we each have some entirely personal
rituals and ceremonies that consciously express our sense of meaning
in our context and experiences. It is equally important that this
occurs in families and groups. The conscious, deliberate enactment of
our meaning in ritual and ceremonial actions is far more potent than
the habitual repetition of rituals we do not even know the origins of
or what they actually mean to us individually. Much can be done on one
5 own, alone with oneself and the world. What ever the actions taken,
these should feel right to you, you do not need to know them in
advance, they want to come from yourself, to be products of your
imagination. Finding forms and images for expressing meaning can be
approached by re-considering the objects and practices already
heald to be symbolic, by asking questions.
What are the habits in one's life that give the illusion of security,
of independence from Nature and Others? How can you alter them, your
schedule, where you concentrate your thoughts during the day, so that
you experience what is normally passed over or around? When have you
last deliberately observed Dawn or Sunset.? Do you remember the
silence in natural or wild settings? When did you last visit a place
considered sacred by a culture or yourself? What is the experience
aloneness like when you seek it out? How could you "be" with friends
or family that would expose neglected feelings?
Holidays are not so much opportunities to forget about ordinary life
as to focus on the mysterious, mostly concealed feelings and desires
that swell and roll beneath our seemingly calm, controlled, confident
surfaces. Exploring neglected values and meanings requires non-
ordinary stimulus. It needs the language of gestures and images and
sounds that are not definable in logical language. The Yule tree
speaks not with words or ideas but suggestive imagery enriched with
thousands of years of symbolism which we minimise by not becoming
familiar with it, by not expanding our own sense of its meanings. It
speaks poetically and we can respond in turn. After all, poetry is not
only in "Poets" and the invoking of special or divine forces is
not only for priests. We are all poets and priests. The ecstasy of
feeling one's place in the web of life is not only for the naive and
fanatics. A symbolic image like the Yule tree suggests many
meanings for may people. Knowing the meaning others attach to it can
help one identify one's own.
Attending the Solstice and the New Year
The Solstice, Summer or Winter, as well as the Equinoxes, are
occasions to attend the cycles of Nature and Life. Breaking one's
normal habits on such days, deliberately seeking a non-ordinary
experience of time and place creates openings for new and neglected
feelings. There are many external actions that can stimulate inner
senses of meaning. Go without electricity, appliances or heat for a
day, using only candles for light. Observe wild animals in their
natural habitats. Think of rekindling your Personal Light as the Wheel
of The Year turns. Deliberately welcome and appreciate Darkness on the
longest night of the year -- walk in it, ponder its values, your fears
of it. Honor Darkness as the region of the unknown, the unconscious,
the ultimate source. Create and perform gestures around such ideas,
give prayers or offerings of food, possessions, words or music to what
ever Powers you feel are the consciousness of the Universe. Or simply
expose your self to the Inner Elements an allow your imagination to
speak to you.
What matters most is taking a risk, breaking away from our habitual
patterns of though, perception and feeling. There is no formula.
Celebrating with other people as well as oneself is important
also.Drumming, singing, dancing and playing cooperative games can
break our habitual attitudes of restraint, competition, and anxiety
over wealth, health and safety. Reading favorite poetry or writers on
myths, traditions and rituals often enriches gatherings.
Connections with others can be intensified in a circle holding hands
or when dancing or singing.
A fire out doors can be. Remember that fire and light are considered
purifying, spiritual, a protection against negative energies. Items
that represent the passing year or issues you wish to lay to rest can
be buried, burned, sent of in paper boats with candles on them. . The
ashes can be placed in your garden or a lake or river. But there is no
formula and engaging your own imagination is essential, whether
adapting existing traditions or creating ones for your specific
feelings, desires, needs.
Your Yule/Christmas tree is a potent, ancient, many layered symbol. It
can be a potent catalyst to our feelings. Appreciate it in all its
historical meanings. You can consecrate it to the enhancement of your
feelings then the time comes to take it out of the house, burn it as
token of transition on the New Year.
Gatherings and dinners on the Solstice eve or day. Choose a particular
activity or subject to focus on during each of the Twelve Days
Christmas Feast. Whatever you do, feel your way along in it,
experiment. Do not be afraid of your feelings or how they may seem to
differ from those of others, just allow them some embodiment.
Sources and Acknowledgments
This brief digest and sampling of Solstice Festival history comes from
the books listed in the following bibliography. Illustrations used
here are also found in some of those books. You are urged to pursue
this information by reading them. There has been an amazing rise in
the number and quality of books published on the subject of ritual,
myth and meaning (or lack of ) in modern life. These authors and
others uncover and explain the old cultures and customs in ways that
can help us enrich our contemporary lives..
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Solstice Evergreen:The History, Folklore and Origins ot the
Christmas Tree. Sheryl Ann Karas. AsIan. Boulder Creek, CO. 1991
Celebrate the Solstice Richard Heinberg. Quest Books, Theosophical
Society: Wheaton, 1993.
Wheel ot the Year. Pauline Campanelli. Llewellyn: St. Paul, 1 990.
A Calender ot Festivals: Marian Green. Element: Rockport, Ma. 1 990.
OTHER READING
Christmass Customs and Traditions: Their History and Signiticance .
Clement Miles, New York: Dover.1 976
Sacred Land, Sacred Sex -- Rapture ot the Deep . Dolores LaChapelle.
Durango, CO: Kikavi, 1988. 2nd Printing 1992.
Earth Festivals. Dolores LaChapelle. Silverton, CO.: Fin Hill Arts, 1
976.
Earth Wisdom . Dolores Chapelle. Silverton, CO.: Fin Hill Arts, 1978.
Origins ot the Sacred: The Spiritual Journey in Western Tradition.
Anne Bancroft. London:Arkana, 1987.
Rituals for Our Times: Celebrating, Healing, and Changing Our Lives
and Our Relationships. Evan Imber-Black and Janine Roberts. New York:
HarperCollins, 1 992.
Everybody Wins: 393 Non-Competitive Games tor Young Children. Jeffrey
Sobel. New York: Walker, 1983.
Ceremonies tor Change:Creating Personal Ritual to Heal Lite's Hurts.
Lynda Paladin. Walpole, NH: Stillpoint, 1991.
When God Was a Woman. Merlin Stone. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1 976.
Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Signiticance.
Clement A. Miles. New York: Dover, 1976.
New Year: Its History, Customs and Superstitions. Theodor H. Gaster.
New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1955
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