Yule-Tide

My wife and I have been together for 3 years, and got married this past August. This will be the first Christmas we spend together in it's entirety, and we will be spending it with her family. I'm very excited to experience her family traditions, and even more so to see her on Christmas morning. Usually we split to join our families on Christmas eve, and spend the night and morning with them, then meet up around noon. This year we spend Christmas eve day with my family, then spend the night and Christmas morning with her family.

 Anyway, it's got me thinking about tradition and the importance of the season. I celebrate Christmas. It's how I was raised, and it's how I connect with the season. However, while I identify with Jesus, I also have a deep respect and love for the pagan traditions. I feel as though they have survived for good reason, and that the majority of the magic of this time of year is best described by that language, those traditions and legends. After all, we know this isn't the actual birth date of Jesus. The time of year was chosen to be celebrated as Christmas by the church because Yule was already so immensely popular in northern Europe, and the winter solstice celebrated around the world. Why not jump on? Also, helps crush opposition, but I won't get into that now. 

In a year full of pagan celebrations and feasts, why choose Yule to be the time of the year when we celebrate Christ's birth? I think it's the feeling. Yule is the time of year when we celebrate hope, joy, and love. Instead of looking forward into the cold dark winter, the hard months ahead filled with ice, deep snow, and bitter cold, we look instead at the best part of ourselves. It's as much about having one last warm, joyous meal together before the ice and snow keeps us apart, as it is about taping into the pure magic that is naturally occurring this time of year. Whether it's an internal or external force that it pours forth from, or a bit of both, it can be overwhelming if you open yourself up to it. Exactly like Jesus. It can get caught up in being told how you're supposed to feel, following the rules to achieve the  perfect Christmas, or perfect christianity as dictated by society. Bigger and flashier, simply being more than those around you. Through presents and decorations, a better Christmas, a better christian. We do the same to our spirituality. We idealize it based on what society says is the best way to celebrate. But if we can cut through the massive amounts of distractions and break through to the pure feeling, the pure relationship with the quiet moments alone, and with loved ones, when we feel the earth and the spirit of God, that's Christ, and that's Christmas, and that's Yule.

My wife and I are truly blessed to have been raised by people who understand that, and I look forward to the day that we make our own Christmas together.