Winter Solstice
Brightly burns our fire tonight.
Magic dances with candlelight.
Hold my hand and join in song.
Raise the Sun King bright and strong!
Dark is giving way to light.
Brightly burns the fire tonight.
Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. It falls around December 21st of each year. It is a festival day in many cultures often calling for bright lights and fires, freshly cut evergreens, feasting with loved ones and singing and dancing. These festivities serve to rekindle the human spirit in the heart of winter.
In many modern Pagan traditions, Winter Solstice, is a celebration of the rebirth of the sun. Many still hold vigils awaiting the dawn, heralding the sun as the God reborn from the sacred womb of the Goddess. In other traditions a great battle is waged between the Oak King and Holly King where the Oak King triumphs returning to the world to longer warmer days.
It is a near certainty that Winter Solstice was of significant importance to ancient people, especially Proto-Celtic tribes. The evidence of this is obvious in the layouts of the stone monuments of New Grange in Ireland and Stonehenge in Britain. Each of these sites was carefully built to line up with the solstice sunrise. It can be suggested that the marking of midwinter was important for ancient communities because the people needed an approximate idea of how long their stored provisions had to last.
The most common alternate name for Winter Solstice is Yule a term originating from ancient Norse and Germanic tribes. It began as a celebration marking a 60 day time beginning at the lunar midwinter, but by the late Viking Age, it had become a great solstitial midwinter festival that amalgamated the traditions of various midwinter celebrations across Europe. On the the eve of Yule a huge log was lit in honor Thor, god of thunder, and feasting would continue until it burned out, which could be up to twelve days! A portion of the log was saved to be used in the lighting of the next year’s log.
Winter Solstice, as with many sabbats, has been incorporated into other religious celebrations. Most notably, it shares it’s place in the wheel of the year with the Christian religious observance of Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. Many of the traditions common throughout the Christian season correlate to ancient Pagan traditions. There is nothing wrong with this mixing of traditions of course, if anything it reflects how interrelated belief systems can be. Many of the most prevalent traditions celebrated by modern western culture today are echoes of ancient practices.
Santa is an example of a mix of new and old. Many parallels can be seen between Santa and the Germanic god Odin. There are legends that tell of Odin leading a hunting party through the sky on the solstice. He rode upon an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir who could leap great distances, which can be compared to Santa’s reindeer flying through the night. On the eve of the solstice, children would place their boots by the chimney filled with offerings for Sliepnir (carrots, straw or sugar.) In thanks Odin would leave them candy and small gifts.
The tradition of leaving out boots on Yule survived the Christianization of Germanic culture and Odin’s deeds might have become mixed with the legend of Saint Nicholas. Over time These men became Santa and those boots by the chimney became the stockings hanging from the mantle. I have heard that the Goddess Freya rose through the sky in a chariot pulled by stags and gave gifts for the 12 days after the solstice, but I have not been able to find too much information about this. If it is true though, it explains the sleigh with reindeer!
Since a large part of my spiritual practice involves honoring the ancestors I like to take a few moments on the solstice to remember what it must have been like for them. Winter was the season of death, a time for the earth to rest, renewing itself for the birth of Spring. Being in tune with the rhythms of the land, our ancestors would have known that despite the darkness, soon the light would return to the earth, bringing with it life. I can see why the Winter Solstice was so important. It welcomed back the much needed Sun.
To me, Winter Solstice heralds the returning sun as an eternal spirit and light brining. The returning sun reminds us to love our life passionately and to to reawakening our goals that may have been dampened by the long nights. It is a reminder that we too can be light bringers.
Winter Solstice calls us to come together on this longest night and bring with us light in the form of love, peace and joy. This is a light that we can share with each other and send out into the world. The choices that we make every day, as humans, as multi-faceted beings of this universe, should come from open minds and hearts. With this kind of devotion to the betterment of ourselves and each other, I believe we can accomplish anything.
Winter Solstice: in our home
(This is from a page in my BoS where I list family activities, crafts, home and altar decorations and other miscellaneous ideas.)
Activities:
- Cookie Plates for Friends
- Dawn Vigil Ritual
- Decorating Tree
- Gift Exchange
- Holiday Light Drive
Crafts:
- Bread Making
- Cookies
- Gingerbread Houses
- Natural Ornaments
- Paper Snowflakes (flat and 3D)
- Pomanders
- Popcorn garlands
Decorations:
- Bells
- Evergreen
- Lights
- Mistletoe
- Seasonal flowers and foods
- Stockings
- Suns
- Winter Solstice Candles
- Yule Tree
Winter Solstice: the feast
We have a larger gathering at our home every year. Sometimes we have a group ritual, sometimes not, but we always have much fun and laughter. I always make a pot roast, but this year I also made the Layered Vegetarian Casserole that I make at Autumn Equinox for our vegetarian friends. I always try to focus on making my meals as local as possible, as to best honor Old Wild Mama Earth. Sometimes I make more side dishes, sometimes our guests bring them to add to the table. (My friend Andrea helped me with quite a lot of tips, as well as a gravy lesson in this kitchen with year. Thank you!) This year’s meal prayer is a bit of a combination of several wonderful ones I have come across recently.
Tonight is the night of the Solstice,
the longest night of the year.
The Wheel turns and the days will brighten
Bringing renewed life to the Earth.May hands will work for peace and justice,
May hands will work to heal the land.For the food that stays our hunger,
For the rest that brings us ease,
For friends and memories that linger,
We give our thanks for these.
BREAD: Snowflake Pretzels
–
DRINKS
- Egg Nog: I buy this.
- Mulled Cider: To make this, I pour a gallon or two of cider in a big enamel pot on the morning of our gathering. I sprinkle in a healthy amount of spices (I use a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves) and set the pot on the stove, cover it and and turn the stove on low and just leave it. It makes the house smell sooooo nice all day. You can also add cranberry juice to change things up a bit or make it in the crockpot.
- Wine: We buy ours locally in Greenbluff, we can also get hard cider this time of year. This year we got a white wine infused with cranberry and spices.
–
MAIN DISH: Pot Roast
- 5lb chuck roast (this fed about 9 people with a little leftover)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Italian Seasoning (I make my own mix.)
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp pepper (I love pepper.)
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
Heat a cast iron skilled on medium high. Mix together oil, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Rub all over chuck roast. Sear the roast on all sides. Put in 5-6 quart crockpot. (You could put potatoes, carrots or onions under it if you like, I prefer to roast them seperately.) Pour cider and Worcestershire sauce in.
Cover crockpot and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 5 to 6 hours, until beef is tender. (My current crockpot seems to get warmer and cook faster then my last one, so give yourself some extra time.)
To make gravy: Put some of the broth from the crockpot to a small saucepan over medium heat. In another small bowl whisk together cornstarch with a little broth to get out the lumps. Add to saucepan and whisk until mixture begins to thicken. (I think I remembered how to do that properly…)
Serves 8-10.
–
SIDE DISH: Maple Yams
(Yams are not local, they are the tuber of a tropical vine. Did you know they can grow 7 feet long?! But, well, I adore yams…)
- 5 sweet potatoes (I used yams, not local, but I adore yams…)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 or 3 tbsp butter
Preheat oven to 400F.
Poke some holes in the yams and place them in a shallow roast pan (or lipped cookie sheet.) Roast them until they are very soft (and hour or two.) Yams tend to get really stick when they cook, so line your pan with aluminium foil, it makes cleanup way easier.
When your yams are cool enough to handle you can just peel the skins off with your hands. Put in a dish with butter and maple syrup. Mash together (with a potato masher, or fork, or hands, or mixer, or whatever makes you happy.)
Serves 8-10.
–
DESSERT: Pumpkin Roll
You can totally do this with homemade pumpkin puree.
It is winter.
It is night.
We await the sun.
We await the light.
In this darkness.
In this night.
We await the warmth.
We await the light.
And the Sun, he rises.
Yup, you got it right with the gravy
You’ll want to use about 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch per 2 cups of pan drippings.
Hey there Jaspenelle, happy solstice.
You can also use flour, instead of corn starch, to make gravy.
Yes you can, if it hadn’t of been for my gluten intolerant friends I wouldn’t have even had cornstarch around!
Joyous Yule to you and yours hun. Your feast sounds just incredible!! Especially those maple yams.
Hey!
Hope you had a good solstice. I celebrated it with a Midwinter blót with my Heathen kindred. Good times all around!
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