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Showing posts from December, 2019

My First Yule

Merry Yule! Here in the northern hemisphere, the snow is falling, houses are decorated with evergreen and candles, and I’m anticipating exchanging gifts with loved ones. Although our mainstream culture associates this festive atmosphere with Christmas, it all makes sense in a Pagan context too: we’re brightening up the darkness as we remind ourselves that even though it’s still the middle of winter, the days are getting longer. Can you believe it’s happening already? Yule is the winter solstice, which happens around December 21 in the northern hemisphere. (For an explanation of how solstices work, see my post on Litha .) The winter solstice has been and continues to be an important day in many cultures around the world. Many traditional celebrations focus on the sun: the winter solstice marks the turning point when the sun’s power grows as the days once again begin to lengthen. Yule as we know it originates with Germanic peoples, and like the summer solstice, it might have or