|
|
|
Menu |
Merry Meet and Welcome to The Paganus Website |
|
�Home |
Other Names: Midwinter, the Winter Solstice, Hweolor-tid (the Turning Time) Information: Yule is the shortest day and longest night of the year. The Virgin gives birth to the God, which is seen in the sun getting warmer after this night. It is sometimes seen as the New Year because from some nearby countries Yule is the time when the sun is lowest on the horizon, whereas for the UK that is at Samhain. Many rituals are supposed to have been done to convince the sun to come back and warm the Earth up again so plants and animals could grow. This idea is shown as a play about the Holly King and the Oak King. The Holly rules the dark part of the year and the Oak the light half. At Yule the Oak King beats the Holly and takes over the Earth. The turning of the wheel means goddesses of spinning wheels like Cailleach are honoured, and especially Frau Holle. It is said that when she shakes out her feather bed the snow falls, and when she brushes her hair the sun shines. Some people like to get up and ring bells at the dawn or burn herbs as incense on the fire at Yule to welcome the sun back. Wreaths are made to show the turning wheel of the year, and pine trees are decorated to show that nature is waking up again. Presents are given as tokens of friendship. A feast is traditional and music and story telling are popular because they make people happy in the middle of the miserable winter. Yule Story � By Dragonfly At Yule a faerie travels round the houses and leaves gifts for children all over the world. As she flew over each house she would leave a sprinkling of faerie dust to bless the house and the people in it. One night, when she only had a few presents left to give, she crashed into a tiny old cottage and broke her wings. Inside the cottage lived an old lady called Kate and her grandchild Julia, and when they heard the faerie fly into the house they came outside to see what all the noise was. She was sitting on the ground crying, because she wouldn�t be able to give her last few presents away. Luckily, by some bizarre coincidence =) Kate was a Witch, and she promised to heal the faeries wings. Julia carried the faerie and her bag of presents inside. As the old lady made her potion, the faerie noticed Julia looking greedily into the sack of presents. �Julia� said the faerie, �Don�t open the presents before Yule, or they will all disappear!� Julia didn�t want that, so she left the sack alone. Later, when the faerie was better, she had to fly away very fast to give all the presents away. She left a little present behind her, but Julia was surprised at how small it was after all they had done for the faerie. When she opened it, all that fell out was a piece of paper and a plain black ring. By now Julia was very disappointed. But, written on the paper in tiny faerie handwriting, it said, �Put on the ring�. Julia put it on, and immediately the whole cottage was magically sent to Faerieland, where the Julia and her grandma lived happily ever after with the faerie folk. Books on the Sabbats: Sabbats - by Edain McCoy The wheel of the Wiccan yea- by Gail Duff The encyclopedia of superstitions - by Christina Hole A Witches' Bible - by the Farrars Contributed by Dragonfly |