Pagans, what are your Yule Traditions?

Question

Do you (does your group) enact the Oak King v. Holly King drama?

Do you have a Yule log?

Do you call the sun back?

Do you observe the "dark days" before and after Yule?

Let's share some traditions and rituals; I love to hear about others' celebrations.

I know this is an open forum, but I'd prefer (please?) that only actual Pagans answer. Thank you kindly.

Since this is an information-seeking question, there really cannot be a "Best Answer", although there WAS a *worst*.

Thanks to each of you who answered this seriously.

Answer 1

my family and some friends get together and have a bonfire. we all light candles in each room. we read tarot cards. we have a pot-like type feast. then we open gifts together. we observe the days that we have spent together the year and the bonds that we share. last year i think it was we went to a big ritual with a lot of people and sat around a fire and got gifts and called the sun back. it was a lot of fun.

Answer 2

Well, I don't do the King dramatisation- that is a post Christian notion with which i have no links through my tradition or my childhood- but it IS pretty cool.

I do call the sun back, in the way that my dad taught me. I don't know where he got it. We use green candles, and plenty of alcohol. I've been known to do this with a bonfire when it was practical, but I can so rarely get anyone to hang out outside with me in the middle of winter. I guess I understand- most of my pagan friends are Sumerians or Kemetics. I can't really blame them for not getting enthusiastic about snow.

The fact of the matter is, that ritual is stronger than mythology. Some of the traditions of Christmas are forever linked to the season, in my mind. So- my friends and I give gifts- but we do it on the 21st.

I no longer have a good place to do so, but i've been known to use a yule log and use it for divination practices which were popular in the middle ages. For me this is not a religious thing, but it IS a lot of fun.

In the Celtic mindset- the entire winter is the "Dark days", and it is a time for being creative, for telling stories, and for remembering traditional things. I have specific observances I do at different times throughout the winter.

Answer 3

well i realy do not know yet.

i have been a solitary Pagan for over 15 years. however within the last 2 years a grove has fromed. one person trusting me to teach them what i know at a time. and with a friend who was the priestess of aonther grove before she moved to maryland joining me to help balance the grove for female energy.

this will be our first yule as a grove. i have private traditions that i follow as a personell commitment to the gods. but these are not the traditions of the grove.

this year we will start our customs and traditions as many before us have done.

as my patron god is Cerunuuos there will definatly be something to honor the hunt.

and a yule log will be used, though it may be more of a yule candle. for ease of use while living in a city that frowns on fires in the back yard..even if they are in a B-B-Q grill.

I have 4 teenagers that i teach, so we will invite their families and
they will write their corner calls for a ritual of thanks.
i will do a meditation on the full moon this month to gain inspiration for the next month's ritual.

we will exchange gifts (hopefuly handmade and of a ritual nature)

and we will all make our entries into a community book of memories. this is an old family tradition that my parents taught me. on every holiday that we gather we all write something into a book that can be read by anyone in the family years later.

i liked this tradition because my parents book had entries from over 100 years ago. it is nice to see what your grandmother thought on christmas when she was 10 years old.

Answer 4

I usually get together with some friends for a potluck dinner, we try to think of foods that we think would entice the sun to return so it ends of being a lot of spicy or citruicy foods. If its not raining we do a drum circle on the beach with a bonfire. At home I read tarot cards by candlelight as I do on all holidays. I don't always celebrate on the actual day due to the fact that I work in retail and it is crazy. When I had my own place I decorated a tree with silver stars and gold deer ornaments.

Answer 5

I am a UU pagan, so i combine a few things...

I do have a Yule log and one of our favorite traditions is to turn all the lights off in the house, light a candle, acknowledge the longest night, then light the yule log and go through the house lighting EVERY light in the house and every candle. then we have a great feast and open a gift (one for each person). The lights stay on until we go to bed, and we leave a candle burning in a safe place to guide the sun back.

Answer 6

Depending on how many Yule Rituals we attend this year we may do all of the above mentioned.

I for one would love to be on one of the high points in the Angeles Forests to greet the rising sun with chanting.

Answer 7

I have a Yule Log and do a secular ritual with friends from all religions that I have over for a holiday party : )

We join hands in a circle and I say a few words.

Answer 8

Well, I'm Neo Hellenic, so Yule really doesn't fit in to my cosmology. However, my family is big on Christmas, so we get together and drink hot cocoa and exchange gifts. We decorate, put up the tree, etc. but it's really all secular and about the family more than the Gods.

Answer 9

We recognize the solstice as a time to mark the passing of the year but we really don't celebrate it religiously. Sorry---the beginning of our year was Samhain and our next holiday will be Imbolc.

Answer 10

I dance naked at Moon Rise in the forrest of green and slaughter the lamb of white. I call on the voodu spirit of the Watchtower and the Keeper Of Darnkness to attend ffering them turip soup whic h i smear over my body. I receite the lord's prayer backwards whilst standing in a pentangle made of ox blood and turnip extracts. I pary the winds of the west will smite my enemies and that the Vengeful One will rise and take my soul.