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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in Yule and Christmas

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 

It happens to me every year, the morning of Midwinter's Day.

The previous night, we've sung the Sun down from the highest hill in the city.

As the Sun sets, we light the Fire. All night, we keep the Fire burning, with singing, dancing, feasting.

Now we've sung the Sun up out of the Mississippi Valley, and had our festive Sunrise brunch.

Exhilarated, ready for a nap, I'm driving home, marveling at all the traffic.

What are all these people still running around for? I find myself thinking.

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

In Praise of Seasonal Pragmatism

 

According to the borborygmic rumblings of Evangelical paranoia, the greeting “Happy Holidays” is a foisted Deep State plot to elbow Christmas out of its rightful (and deserved) first-class civic preeminence.

Well. After the November election just passed, I guess they sure showed us.

Or maybe they just need to get out more.

Me, I know people who celebrate—or at least acknowledge—all sorts of holidays at this time of year, including (in roughly numerical order):

  • Yule
  • Christmas (religious)
  • Christmas (secular)
  • Hanuka
  • Solstice (secular)
  • Nativity
  • Saturnalia
  • Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
  • Chaumós
  • Pancha Ganapati
  • Hogswatch
  • Lurlinemas

Not to mention Thanksgiving and New Year's.

I don't personally know anyone who celebrates Kwanzaa—which friends tell me is largely a top-down affair anyway, more officially- than privately-observed—though no doubt that's only a matter of time.

(Festivus, of course, is a NY in-joke, not a holiday.)

Last modified on

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

 taking blood without using blood work needles: new age blood sampling

 

“So, are you ready for Christmas?”

Och, other people's holidays. The question comes at me from out of left field: I'm sitting on the table in an exam room, having my blood drawn.

In past years, I might have answered defensively.

“I don't celebrate Christmas!”

“Sorry, not my holiday.”

More recently, my response would likely have been more conciliatory.

“Actually, we're Solstice people.”

“Where I come from, we still call it Yule.”

Maybe I've lost my fire. Maybe I've mellowed with age. This isn't spiritual imperialism, or proselytizing. The nurse is just being friendly in a thoughtless kind of way; her question has no more meaning than “How are you?” or “Cold enough for you?” Yes, there are assumptions going on here, but really, what matter does it make?

Where I come from, we call it the Yule-frith: the peace of Yule. In the old days, it meant that you could safely travel unfriendly territory.

Last modified on

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