WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? I'm so sheltered, I swear. Don't tell my parents I said that... or better yet -my grandfather, Jan, or his ghost anyhow. Moving on. After a recent poll decided upon our newest theme for SOUP, I learned about a new holiday, Yule. Being a pureblood witch one would think I'd have heard of something like this before... nope. Or well, maybe I might have as a young child before Jan passed on, but I was the rebellious one who didn't pay attention in etiquette classes or family traditions. I was so sure that what they were doing and saying was wrong that I did the Muggle trick of stuffing cotton in my ears once or twice.
But Merlin's beard do some parts of Yule celebrations sound AMAZING. For starters, ancient writings have mentioned that ancient customs of Juul, or Yule, began as a way to celebrate the 'rebirth of the sun'.¹ Considering Yule always begins with the Winter Solstice, it makes sense, yeah? We get the shortest day of the year at that time, and I don't know about you but it tends to bring me down. I like light, and warmth... which we admittedly don't get much of while living in the Slytherin dungeons.
Or, in some Wiccan or Pagan traditions, this celebration was all about an epic battle between the young Oak king and the Holly king.¹ It was said that the Oak king represented the light of the new year whilst the Holly king was old and represented darkness. So our young Oak would go on to battle the old Holly so that light could overcome darkness. Side note, what is with several societies calling everything light and dark? Why is light always good and dark bad?
What I think I may love most about these celebrations is the massive use of candles and more importantly BONFIRES. Who doesn't love a good bonfire... and s'mores? *cough* I mean, uh, people decorate altars to celebrate and honor goddesses using candles and incense among other things. The tradition of burning a Yule log has its roots in Norway.² Several different European countries do this just a little differently, so if you want to read a bit more about each one, follow the second citation at the end of this article, I must say I was rather enchanted by the idea of the ashes from a burned Yule log being scattered about the house in order to somehow protect the family living there from hostile spirits.
While some of you that know me know that I love a good prank or joke, sometimes at the most inappropriate of times, I also love traditions that involve family and warmth and all things good. Do any of you have any recommended reading for me? I'd love to dive further into wintertime traditions of all sorts! Leave me some tidbits over in our SOUP thread in the Common Room and I'll be sure to pop on by and pick them up!
-Kalina
¹ https://www.learnreligions.com/history-of-yule-2562997
² https://www.learnreligions.com/family-yule-log-ceremony-2562988