Winter Solstice

When I was a school librarian and read to groups of children every day, the second and third graders would race in the door with this beseeching question, "are you going to read us a folk tale? please!!!"

Together we explored the questions asked over the centuries by people all over the world. These stories are filled with drama, deceit, tricksters and kindness in full measure and overflowing. All are filled with truth about human nature. I have begun to see the workings of the natural world to be a kind of story. I feel connected to all those who have gone before us and who have noticed the shortening of days at this time of year. As the story goes, in the American Southwest, Coyote steals the sun. In South America, Papagayo, the parrot, takes big bites out of the moon until it disappears. In the Pacific Northwest, Raven is the culprit, carrying the sun away in a box.

Below is a poem written by Susan Cooper, a noted children's author. I took the above photos in Glover, Vermont- the home of Bread and Puppet Theater.

Light candles today! Tell stories to keep the dark away.

The Shortest Day

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 song,

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 so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

(posted by Barbara)