A recent debate has come to light in the past few years. How to extend holiday wishes to others. Some want, nay demand! Merry Christmas! Others want to hear Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings. Me? Haha, I am happy to extend to you the greeting you desire. I find it easier to respond in kind when someone extends me holiday greetings. If someone says "Merry Christmas" I say it back to them.
It makes people happy and avoids holiday discord. I mean, really? Does it matter? Truly? I'm just happy to receive a smile and a greeting from another person. If they say Happy Holidays, I'll say it back. Some people say, it was always Christmas, so Christmas it remains. Well . . . to be historically accurate . . . it was originally Yule or Yuletide.
You see the Ancients celebrated the middle of winter, Yule, (The winter solstice December 20-24th) by bringing into the house evergreens, which spoke of life during the cold, bitter, snowy 'death' of winter. The reds and greens were colors favored by the Celts. There was a feast day, as is customary for a Sabbat, and gift giving became popular over the centuries as people remembered one another during this festive time.
The May pole decorated during the May Day festival became the Yule Log which was burned in the village center to bring in the light, during this dark time of the year. The darkest, as the winter solstice marks the longest night, shortest day of the year. Right after the solstice, the days start to become just a little bit longer, although imperceptibly so to begin with. Traditionally a bit of unburned Yule log is saved from the previous year to light the fire for this year's Yule log. This is done year after year, magickally keeping the energies of the Yuletide celebrations ongoing.
A witch celebrates this holiday much as everyone else does. We have Yule trees and wreaths. We bake cookies and cakes. We have feasts or dinners with everyone's favorite foods. It's a form of sympathetic magick to have a table full of abundance. Fancy foods, sweets, delicacies which then represent the abundance to be had during the coming year.
It's a good thing to clean your house before the holiday, get rid of accumulated trash and unwanted items, bringing in fresh foods, new items and a show of abundance with presents under the tree and plenty of special items. Sweets, delicacies and special items you normally wouldn't have, bring in during the holiday. It will reflect back on you during the year with abundance and plenty coming your way.
I wish you a beautiful holiday season! Ms. Faith
© 2010-2014 Faith M. McCann. Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.
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