2021 Life Logs, Day 355: Welcome, Yule!
Date: Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy; High Temp 43, Low Temp 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
In Pagan times, the winter solstice was known as Yule. British author Susan Cooper captures the magic of this day in her poem, The Shortest Day. I read the poem every year on this day and celebrated solstice this year by inviting the Goldstones to dinner. We had seared ahi tuna with a fennel salad and the ultimate winter comfort food, mac and cheese and made a toast to the shortest day and longest night. I delight in the fact that tomorrow and each winter day following will have a wee bit more daylight than the day before.
The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper
And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us—listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome, Yule!
