I must first apologize for my tardiness it has been a very busy week with people in the hospital and being sick. As you can guess extra time is simply unavalable. A day late is better then not at all.
At one time the festival of Yule was a 13-day celebration where no work got done during the festival season. I’m sure you are saying there are only twelve days of Yule / Christmas and that is true. Yule starts on the winter solstices and ends on Jan 1st which is twelve days. The only way this would be different is if the solstice is on another day than the 21st.
We are actually more interested in the Christian Yule. You see, everyone believes that it starts on Christmas day, and it does not. It starts on the 26th and runs to Epiphany on January 6th. Something that is also wonderfully interesting and cool Orthodox (Russian) Christmas Eve is also the 6th of January, which makes the 7th Orthodox Christmas day.
Back to the Roman Catholic, the time to return to work was celebrated by St. Distaff’s Day an unofficial saint that heralded the starting of the spinning season for the new year. A fun day of boys lighting flax on fire while the girls through a bucket of water on the fir and the boys.
We live in a time where there is no real need to return to spinning that doesn’t mean we can’t return to our back to normal routine for preparing and getting ready for spring. A fun year-long project you may wish to do is keep a weather journal. Every day you record not just the daily weather but also if you see critters coming in to say hello and any other odd weather occurrences. As the year progresses the return and leaving of migratory birds, the appearance of insects, and so on and so forth. Over time if you continue to do this in the subsequent years you will start to see trends, patterns, and possible warning signs of trouble. This can be a fun way to connect to nature and learn her rhythms in your area.
Until next time may every day be filled with wonder and magick.
