The Winter Solstice and mayhaps the date of birth of Andronicus and his twin brother, John.
It is also the wedding anniversary of my parents…and my brother and his glorious, gorgeous wife – who was born on the 21st of December.
Tomorrow is the shortest day and the longest night here in the UK.
It is also YULE.
At Samhain we honour, celebrate and welcome the descent into, and return of, the dark – the beginning of the New Year, acknowledging that all beginnings emerge from darkness. At the Winter Solstice we reach the depth of that darkness with the longest night of the year. Darkness has reached its peak.
“Now we start to wonder: will this continue? Will the Earth grow darker and colder as the Sun disappears into the south until only darkness is left? But at Yule a wonderful thing happens. The Sun stops its decline and for a few days it rises in about the same place. This is the crucial time, the cusp between events. The Sun stands still, and everyone waits for the turning.
In our heads we know the light will return. But in the darkness of Winter, can we be sure? do our hearts believe what our heads tell us? Will the light keep its promises? We all have moments of darkness, when we don’t know how much deeper we will go before the light starts to return (or even if it will). The world has moments too; it understands us, and lives as we do.
The Sun does start north again and the light comes back. In the world, in our lives, the light comes back. This is indeed something worth celebrating, and it has been celebrated throughout the Northern Hemisphere in remarkably similar ways.” (quote from The Pagan Family by Ceisiwr Serith)
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OUT. Out brief candle.
Jeez. Shakespeare – whomever he was – knew more than we will ever understand!
Bear with me and my ongoing lust for … Shakespeare :o)
Quote – She WILL out Shakespeare you – Unquote