Yule has always been my favorite Sabbat. It is celebrated in the cold crispness of the Winter Solstice. Although we have been embraced in the dark womb of winter for months on end, we have watched the sun slowly growing, day-by-day. Around December 21st, the Winter Solstice, the light has reached its weakest point and slowly begins to gain ground against the darkness. A new year is born in the Wiccan tradition. With each passing day, the hours of sunlight grow longer. It is a time of celebration, of sharing joy and gifts with our families and friends, and embracing the promise that life is born anew.
In the story of the Goddess and the God that is reflected in the solar year, we celebrate the birth of the God as Oak King to the Mother aspect of the Goddess on Winter Solstice. As the God is also associated with the Oak tree, the moon falling closest to the Winter Solstice is often called The Oak Moon and is the first moon of the year. As we celebrate the new year, many of us think of the elderly "old year" being replaced by the child "new year." The dualistic God experiences the Holly King dying of old age (the old year passing) even as the Oak King is reborn (the new year arriving). This reminds us once again of the sacred cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Yule celebrations are joyous affairs, filled with feasts and singing, with gift giving and laughter. We traditionally decorate a live evergreen tree (available at most nurseries) during this Sabbat and will plant it at Imbolc (if the weather is warm enough) or Ostara (if the Earth is still too cold for the new tree). On the rare occasions that we've had a pre-cut tree (we actually had someone buy one for us one year), we save the trunk for our first camping expedition of the new year and fashion tools and wands out of the remainder of the wood.
As with many of the traditions associated with modern holidays, Yule celebrations are drawn from a variety of sources. Gift giving can be traced to both the Romans and the Norse Peoples. The Evergreen tree has always been a symbol of life, even in the harshest parts of winter, so is especially appropriate for the birth of the God.
Rather than focusing on the cold winter months behind us (or those still ahead), we celebrate life at Yule and take comfort that though the God may die during each turning of the Wheel of the Year, he will be born again each Yule, reminding us that death is only a doorway, and that the life/death/rebirth cycle continues unbroken.
Yule
Winter Solstice (approximately December 21st)
Pronounced "yewl"
Divine Myth: The Oak King (the God of the waxing year) is born to the Goddess in her Mother aspect while the Holly King (the God of the waning year) dies of old age.
Keywords: Joy, Celebration, Newness