You-le

week 49

The Guardian newspaper. Image by Ben Birchall (c)

Winter Solstice is fast approaching. It's minutes into the 1st of December as I type this and it's only 20 days until the solstice.  The sun is already almost at the lowest it will get on the horizon and after the solstice, will start to climb a little higher each day, thus our days will become longer. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and falls on the 21st-23rd of December.

Actually it's 6 days until the solstice, I've done it again, I've not blogged on time! Dammit... actually it's well past the solstice now and new years eve day.... I'm so pants!

I had planned to attend the solstice celebrations at Stonehenge this year but alas, finances will not permit it.  I'm not sure what I am going to do instead. I don't really 'celebrate' the festivals, I give them the nod and observe the change of seasons as the next stage of life/death unfolds.

That's what the festivals are for, to give thanks for the changing season and to ask for the harvest to grow; to give thanks for the harvest; to feast the birth and death of the sun.  According to Prof Ron Hutton in his book The Staions of the Sun, the Roman church decided in about 400AD that there was too many festivals in December, 27 I think and that it needed to be whittled in to one - Christmas. Jesus wasn't born in December, that is just the date the church decided on. It is said he was born in March time, make sense that he'd be a Pisces, they are the best healers ;)

There are all kinds of traditions associated with Yule.  Each region will have a variation of these traditions.  In Brighton, they 'burn the clocks' a new festival started 20 years ago for all faiths to celebrate the solstice. This is a decent site with some traditions on. There is this article on the BBC website, although I think it's inaccurate. I'm fairly sure the druids didn't start the yule log tradition and mistletoe rarely grows on oaks, it's found on many other trees but when it's found on oak, it's very special indeed.

Here's what happened at Stonehenge for the winter solstice this year, the weather was a lot better than last year and there was less complaints about staff attitude and being harassed to be in and out within an hour and a half.  The Round Table talks and many complaints, improved matters greatly.

The Guardian reported this article
The Daily Fail did they usual level of accurate reporting and wrote this article
BBC article
National Geographic article

It is believed that most stone circles/monuments are aligned for the winter solstice, which is a theory I believe in.  Orkney article . Newgrange article (and check out Paul Deveruax's books on this)

So why did I call this blog you-le.... well it's a play on words of course. What YOU do to celebrate yule/solstice is up to YOU. You create your own traditions and you don't have to subscribe to any one elses version of ancient ways.  Hell, you can even create your own... and why not. Burning the clocks looks like a good craic and it brings all together.

I don't celebrate New Year really, nor have resolutions for improvement. For ME the new year is Samhain.  I strive to be a better person every day and not just some empty gesture once a year. Whatever YOU do, I hope you have a wonderful year ahead.

Be yourself, be well, be happy /|\