YULE Winter solstice Gwyl Canol Gaeaf /|\

Gwyl Canol Gaeaf (Winter Solstice) Yule Druid ar Môn 22nd DEC 2007 Holly King / Santa Claus: There are as many theories of a “historical“ Santa Clause (or “Saint Nicholas“) as there are ethnic cultures. As an Keltic folk archetype however, the old man wreathed in holly is the Holly King. He represents the “waning year“, the “old year“, or the “dark half“ of the year. At winter solstice the Oak King (or the Sun, or the New Year) is born, and the Holly King’s reign is over. Mistletoe: The mistletoe was sacred to the Druids. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe may derive from the custom of enemies refraining from killing each other if they should happen to meet under its sacred branches. Presumably the custom became friendlier and friendlier with time. Other scholars say that the lusty connotations of the plant derive from the belief that the clusters of white translucent berries were drops of the God’s (or the Oak King’s) semen. The Oak King takes the place of the Holly King, and rules the waxing year, or the “New Year Candles: The extinguishing of candles at winter solstice rituals (including Amaltheia’s) represents the deep darkness of the longest night. Their relighting shows us that the light will return to us. In the moments of total darkness, we are “between the worlds“: between the old year’s death and the new year’s conception. Yule Log: The word “yule“ is from the Saxon word for “wheel“. The Yule Log,O.E. geol, geola “Christmas Day, Christmastide,“ from O.N. jol (pl.), a heathen feast, later taken over by Christianity, of unknown origin. The O.E. (Anglian) cognate giuli was the Anglo-Saxons’ name for a two-month midwinter season corresponding to Roman December and January, a time of important feasts but not itself a festival. Burned at Midwinter, is a magical bridge between one year and the next. The fire under the Yule log is lit with a piece of last year’s Yule Log, symbolizing the continuity of the cycles of life. The ashes of the Yule log were scattered on the fields to ensure fertility WEB PAGE TO KATE LINK TO LISTEN TO Emma Restall Orr, Joint Chief Druid of the British Druid Order; Kate West, a Wiccan High Priest of the Hearth of Hecate and Richard Thomas, an Anglican priest discuss modern Paganism. PAGAN WICCA LINKS FROM THE BBC YEAR CHART YOU CAN PRINT The Pagan seasonal cycle is often called the Wheel of the Year. Almost all Pagans celebrate a cycle of eight festivals, which are spaced every six or seven weeks through the year and divide the wheel into eight segments.