By Katherine Watson
Multifaith Ambassador, President of IWU Pagan Student Association
This post is part of our series written by our Multifaith Ambassadors. Check out more by following the "Multifaith Ambassador" tag.
December 21st is 2020's Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. This is the time where Pagans celebrate Yule. This is meant to be a time to celebrate the past year and appreciate the hardships we’ve been through. In history, this would have been a celebration of the fact that the days were getting longer and a somber acknowledgement that the worst of winter was still to come.
I love getting to celebrate with the people I love and listen to music, eat sweets, and decorate. Lots of modern winter traditions originated with Yule, such as caroling, decorating a tree, and kissing under mistletoe. And I think it’s important to place Yule in perspective of everything else in the world. To put it simply, it’s a time to feel happy even despite the overwhelming negativity around us.
In the past this would be a time to celebrate before a harsh winter, which many people would not survive. Now, it has a similar “calm before the storm” vibe. Many people struggle with seasonal depression, family troubles, anxiety, etc that can be amplified in the winter. As a Pagan whose entire family is Christian, winter is usually a time I start to feel isolated, with everyone around me celebrating Christmas, my parents asking me to attend church events, and being separated from my school friends. So I personally like to use Yule as a time to reflect and take care of myself.
It’s really easy to feel alone in winter, like you’re isolated in a major snow storm. So to counteract this, I go back to Yule’s roots. Yule is a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is always a source of light. The shortest day of the year can be used to remember that days will get longer and the light will return. And like the nights slowly begin to fade, so do the things that burden us. And that alone is a reason to celebrate. Not to mention, Yule was a means of gathering people together. And this year it’s especially important to focus on connecting with people and remembering that even if we have to distance ourselves physically we can still connect with each other socially.
Even though this year may seem a little different than what we’re used to, we can still keep our holiday spirits alive. I use Yule as a reason to tell people how much I care about them. As I mentioned before, when Yule originated survival was not a guarantee. So while I celebrate, I like to keep this less fun side of Yule in mind, not as a means of further upsetting myself, but rather as a reminder of how lucky I am to be here, and that I have people in my life who will weather the storm that is life with me. And sure, the dark and the cold are still very much there, but alongside fear and worries is a certain comfort in knowing that things always get better.
Commentaires