[Bobvfr]

So today is the shortest day of the year, and that means it's YULE so happy Yule to all you pagan's

And for the rest of you, here is an explanation:

Yule is the 12 days between the shortest day of the year and the first day that the sun actually rises earlier than this day (It starts getting lighter in the evenings for those 12 days but actually the sun rises later for another few days).

The Earth not only wobbles on it's axis causing winter and summer, but does a few other wobbles as well, and the one that happens at this time of year was easily noticed by people who live in the far north, I noticed it living up in Orkney (A group of islands to the north of the UK) many years ago and looked it up, its was well known to the builders of Stonehenge, the Viking's (Hence the Norse word Yule) but the ancient Egyptians and Greeks were also aware of it.

For the people of the north it was a very dark time of year so they would have a 12 day holiday to await the return of the sun in the morning and the beginning of a NEW YEAR, they would head off for the chiefs hall with all their spare food, they would take cut down evergreen trees, evergreen Holly and Ivy, all their spare beer (Well a lot of it), mistletoe and I suppose any musical instruments and if they had special favourites some presents for them. Maybe the chief in all his best clothes would hand them out.

They would have a 12 day party with lots of Wassailing (Old English word for CHEERS) as they downed their ale.

If any of you Christians are noticing a trend here, maybe along the lines of "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" you could be right, 90% of the traditions we now call Christmas are based on the pagan "Yule" celebrations.

So for all you non Christians there is a very good reason to join in with the celebrations even if you aren't religious or support a different one and have a Happy Yuletide, I know I will

[aximtreo]

Happy Yule to each and everyone.

[multo]

Happy yuletide