Our BetterMost Community > The Holiday Forum
Celebrating the Winter Solstice
Front-Ranger:
Maybe you fell off your broomstick in another life, Kerry!! Oh, well, fly on BetterMost then...I'm glad your found the book and I look forward to discussing it with you.
Songs for the Solstice are found here, as well as a discussion of The Mists of Avalon:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,6864.0/all.html
Kd5000:
The Ancient Romans used to have a large festival around the winter solstice called The Saturnalia. It was actually celebrated on December 17 which is tomorrow. So it wasn't exactly on the date of the Winter Solstice.
I had a Saturnalia party theme as I was tired of the same old Christmas thing. Instead of evergreen, I decorated the place with some laurel leaves, gilded a few wreaths, stuff like that.
I had read previously that the early Christians had co-opted the Saturnalia for Christmas. It now seems that idea is disputed per the article in wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia
So Happy Saturnalia! :)
Kerry:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 16, 2007, 10:03:37 am ---Maybe you fell off your broomstick in another life, Kerry!! Oh, well, fly on BetterMost then...I'm glad your found the book and I look forward to discussing it with you.
Songs for the Solstice are found here, as well as a discussion of The Mists of Avalon:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,6864.0/all.html
--- End quote ---
:laugh: That has actually occurred to me, Lee! ;) :laugh:
Front-Ranger:
Here is what I learned from reading Gay Magick about the origins of the winter solstice celebration, and those who are more knowledgeable, please make corrections and additions.
The winter solstice celebration is called the Yule, an ancient word meaning wheel. It refers to the cycle of life, and the ancients explained it this way. On the winter solstice, the Goddess gives birth to the sun, and from then on until midsummer, the sun grows stronger each day. At midsummer, the sun becomes her lover and the forces of dark and light are at equal strength. Then, at the fall harvest, the sun is cut down or "reaped" and begins growing weaker as the dark, watery feminine elements grow stronger. The whole process is repeated in the cycle of the seasons each year. This story was co-opted by the Greeks in the story of Hades and Persephone and by the early Christians in the story of Jesus. When they adopted the story, the Christians made the feminine role in this cycle taboo.
Jeff Wrangler:
What impresses me is that whether one celebrates Yule, or the birth of the Invincible Sun, or the birth of the Son/Sun of Righteousness, apparently the urge to celebrate at the time of year when darkness reaches its greatest extent and slowly the amount of daily light begins to grow is a very ancient impulse in human beings.
Thinking this makes me feel very connected to the very ancient, distant past, and the--what?--thousand generations of human beings whose DNA I bear? :)
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