The True Meaning of Yule

Some people think that the Yuletide Season is all about getting and giving gifts, spending money, decorating, and sending cards, blah, blah, blah.

Every year after Thanksgiving (in the USA) but in any christianized nation, we face the end of the year with both joy and trepidation. Our thoughts are, 'Can I make it through another holiday season with its shopping and chores and into the New Year with that lay ahead ?'   But this type of thinking is a metaphor for something larger.

We spend the year on projects, paying bills, raising children.  Farmers plant vegtables and raise livestock.  We toil and sweat and worry about outcomes and current conditions.  We form bonds with new people and lose some others.  We make decisions that will either make us, break us, or become neutral.  Through our experiences we grow hopefully stronger, wiser, older and often a bit bruised along the way.  

Yule is a time to be reborn, to reflect, to say to ourselves you did it -- you made it !   We acknowledge the experiences of others and the bonds we have formed throughout the year.  We look to both the past, present, and future for guidance.  We become a year older.

So love of life, love of others, love of rebirth and celebration are all in order at Yule.  It's a time of reflection and stock taking.  It's a time to acknowledge those who took this last journey around the sun with us, and a time to embrace new beginnings that lie ahead.

At Yule we come full circle.  This is why we have the symbol of the wreath on our doors this time of year.  It's a pagan symbol that represents the wheel of the year.  Now it is done and we decorate it in honor of the occasion.  The ancient Norseman would light a wreath on fire and roll it down a hill as part of the Yule celebration as a way of sending the old year away to make way for the new one.
Notice 'wreath' has the R Rune sound, which means to 'journey.'  As in a journey through a year.

Be well this Yule Season.  Toil and growth on planet earth is a hard job so may you find peace and strength during this season of rebirth.