When I was a kid, there was a Peanuts t-shirt that had Snoopy with sunglasses and a Santa hat that said “have a cool Yule”. I like that, have a cool Yule. The sound of it is just…well, it just sings. I never knew what Yule was really about until much later. Then I had a few friends who were pagan and they observed Yule. As I studied, I learned about this celebration and suddenly the items and traditions of Christmas made sense.
Now, don’t turn this off because I said pagan above. It is true that most Christian holidays are coopted from pagan rites. There is a reason for this, which dates back to the spreading of the new Christianity across the world. Starting with Paul on Mars Hill, Christians have regularly addressed pagans by noting that they were right to worship where and what they worshipped. The difference is that they could access the Creator God/Deity (my pagan friends understand the reference) directly and most importantly, personally.
And, so it is with Yule. I have made a few cool Yule logs complete with candles and holly. The meaning is powerful and joyous. Haven’t you ever wondered about all of the lights? The evergreen trees? The traditional bonfires? And, most of all that Jesus was born in winter, when we know that it was actually spring time. The winter solstice is the darkest day of the year, the shortest one, and traditionally the pagan folk saw that a spark of life remained, one that would keep life going until spring and longer days began. Hence, the evergreens, the candles, the fires.
So, here we are in Yuletide, singing songs like the Holly and the Ivy and seeing the blazing yule before us. This is truly a holy time. For Christians, we borrowed the holiday to explain that the great Light of the world is soon to arrive. Just a little spark in a little town in an irrelevant little country. To poor parents with no place to stay. And for all persons, the tiny spark of hope that new life is right around the corner. Just a tiny spark, like the ashes going up from a bonfire into the night. Except, this spark is in every single one of us. You see, we are that spark of hope for the world. Every one of us are the hope of the world. What will you do this year to fan that spark into a roaring fire of light for the world to see?
TMM