Yule
Yule
Our ancestors would celebrate this night as they waited for the rebirth of the Oak King who was born of the earth itself that had started warming again after the winters coldness. Bonfires were often lit in the fields and crops and trees were “wassailed” by toasting them with apple cider.
Children were often escorted from home to home and they would give out gifts of clove spiked apples and oranges which were placed in baskets along with boughs of evergreens and wheat stalks dusted with flour. The apples and oranges represented the sun, the evergreen boughs immortality; the wheat stalks portrayed the harvest and the flour represented triumph, light and life.
Holly and evergreen not only decorated the outsides of their homes but was also brought inside in hopes of inviting the Nature Sprites to come and enjoy the celebrations and a sprig of holly was kept by the door all year long as a constant invitation of good fortune to come into the families lives.
The highlight of the Yule festival came with the lighting of the Yule log. This was a log that either had to have been harvested on the households land or must have been given as a gift, it could not be purchased. Once it was taken into the house it was decorated with evergreen, apple cider or ale would be poured over it followed with flour and set on fire with a peice of last years Yule log that had been set aside for this exact reason. The log would burn through the night and be left to smolder for the next 12 days before it would be put out. Ash was traditionally the Yule log of choice as it was the sacred tree of the Teutons. Ash was thought to bring light in to the hearth at Solstice.
As Modern day practitioners of the old celebrations one might go looking for a piece of wood such as oak or pine that was flat on one side to be used as base and large enough to drill 3 holes into so that it will hold 3 candles (red, green and white for the seasons; green, gold and black to represent the Sun God; or white, red and black to represent the Great Goddess). Then continue to decorate with greenery, red and gold bows, rosebuds, cloves and dust with flour.
The deities of Yule are all the Newborn Gods, Sun Gods, Mother Goddesses and Triple Goddesses; of them might be the Dagda, and Brighid (daughter of Dagda). Brighid taught the smiths how to tend fire and how to shape metal. Brighid’s flame shines like the flame of a new light and it pierces the darkness and shines into our spirits while Dagdas cauldron which is always full assures that Nature will always have abundance for its children.
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