The Wheel of the Year


Lá an Dreoilín, Wren day (Celtic, Irish, Welsh, Manx)



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Lá an Dreoilín, Wren day (Celtic, Irish, Welsh, Manx)

For an unknown period, Lá an Dreoilín or Wren day has been celebrated in Ireland, the Isle of Man and Wales on December 26. Crowds of people, called wren boys, take to the roads in various parts of Ireland, dressed in motley clothing, wearing masks or straw suits and accompanied by musicians. Previously the practice involved the killing of a wren, and singing songs while carrying the bird from house to house, stopping in for food and merriment.



Mummer's Day, Montol (Celtic, Cornish people)

Mummer's Day referencing the animist garbs, or Darkie Day referencing the soot facing ritual, is an ancient Cornish midwinter celebration that occurs every year on December 26 and New Year's Day in Padstow, Cornwall. It was originally part of the pagan heritage of midwinter celebrations that were regularly celebrated all over Cornwall where people would guise dance and disguise themselves by blackening up their faces or wearing masks. In Penzance the festival has been given the name Montol believing it to be the Celtic Cornish word for Winter solstice.

Yule (Germanic peoples)

Yule or Yuletide ("Yule-time") is a winter festival that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic people as a pagan religious festival. The festival was originally celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule.

Winter Solstice Revival

  • Some contemporary Pagan groups, not necessarily Celtic in nature, honor the forthcoming "Sun Child" at this time of year by burning an oak Yule log. They also honor the Goddess in her many Mother aspects; and the Father God as Santa Claus in his Old Sky God, Father Time, and Holly King forms.

  • Create a Kissing-Bough - Hang a garland of greenery, shaped like a double hooped May-garland or crown from the middle of the ceiling in the main room (or dining room). Adorn the Kissing-Bough with candles, red apples, rosettes of colored paper and bunches of mistletoe hung in the center of the hoop.

  • Create a Pagan Winter Solstice framework for the entire holiday season - understand that Christmas Eve and Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day have their origins in Winter Solstice celebrations of a variety of Pagan cultures through the ages.

  • Decorate your home with sacred plants connected with Winter Solstice: evergreen wreaths & boughs, mistletoe, holly, and ivy. Learn about the Pagan symbolism of each.

  • Adorn the home with sacred herbs and colors. Decorate your home in Druidic holiday colors red, green, and white. Place holly, ivy, evergreen boughs, and pine cones around your home, especially in areas where socializing takes place. Include holiday herbs in an evergreen wreath and then place it on your front door to symbolize the continuity of life and the wheel of the year.

  • Harvest a Yule tree in a sacred way from a tree farm that practices sustainable agriculture. Set up the Yule tree in your home and decorate it with lights, sun symbols, and other Winter Solstice images. Reflect on blessings of joy, renewal, and well-wishes as you decorate the tree.

  • Kindle lights to represent the Sun. Decorate with electric lights and candles. On one of the nights of Solstice, turn off all lights, experience the longest night, reflect on renewal and peace, and turn the lights back on to symbolize the birth of the New Solar Year.

  • Learn about holiday foods, symbols, customs, and/or lore from an ancestral ethnicity and incorporate something you have learned into your celebration of Yuletide.

  • Burn a Yule Log in a hearth, in a bonfire, or by burning candles on, in, or near a log of Oak on an altar.


Imbolc

Pronounced em-bowl’g. Also known as St Brighid’s Day, Irish: Lá Fhéile Bríde, Scottish Gaelic: Là Fhèill Brìghde, Christian: Candlemas.



History of Imbolc

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