Confront darkness at winter solstice
This originally appeared in The Inquirer, Issue 8001
https://www.inquirer.org.uk/pages/
The winter solstice, a celebration of the shortest day, when the suns seems to be standing still over the Tropic of Capricorn before turning to push its light and warmth back towards the north. It was a time for lighting fires to encourage the sun to begin its return journey. Yule is a celebration of light and the evergreens. The Norse goddess Frigda was said to weave the fates of a person’s life into a ring and from that we have the tradition of the wreath placed on the door of the house. Holly and Ivy were also brought into the house, so too was a young tree, as a place for the forest sprite to stay. The exchange of gifts came from the Roman feast of Saturnalia. Not only were gifts exchanged, so too were places. The master waited on the servant. The slave became the master. People dressed up as the opposite
sex. This lives on in the tradition of the pantomime, a fairy tale story where the Principal Boy is played by a girl and the female villain by a man.
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