Major holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are the ones that I heard about quite frequently growing up in the Midwestern United States. They are the ones that I had been 'exposed' to, the ones practiced in the surrounding areas where I lived. I did not learn about many others until I grew up, and, frankly, much of what I now know I learned from HEXians on this very site. That's not to say that I never experienced other traditions that weren't 'American', as I lived in a very diverse neighborhood as a child. This is solely about December and what was practiced around me in the 'steel town' where I grew up.
Enough about me, for now, as I wanted to share with you two poems that I truly love that tie into our theme of Yule, though not about food, lol. The first one was written by Robert Frost.
An Old Man's Winter Night
Robert Frost
All out-of-doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him—at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off-and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon-such as she was,
So late-arising-to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man-one man-can't keep a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It's thus he does it of a winter night.
The Shortest Day
Susan Cooper
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us-Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
I hope that you enjoyed these as much as I have. I'd love it if y'all would leave some of your favorites over in our SOUP thread in the Common Room -there's always more room for recommendations of recipes, music, and poetry!