Merry Yuletide, Gamebanshee.

[werebeargoddess]

I'm so happy, because we got snow here yesterday, and we never get snow here, usually. Merry Christmas!!!!

[Moonbiter]

Fable wrote:

Quote:

Yule's the midwinter soslstice, an older, non-Christian term for the holiday of the Germanic tribes that settled in various areas of northwestern and central Europe. The gods and prophets of monotheistic religions typically have their calendar cycles just like others, and their holidays occur at exactly the same time--whether deliberately or otherwise, is a matter for debate.

Quite right. Yul or Yol, the exact script is also open for debate since it's taken from Runic script, also means Light or Brightness, signifying the "Midtvintersblot" which was celebrated by those very same Germanic tribes and, more important to me, the Vikings. It means the changing of the seasons from going dark to going light, of course to us meaning the turn of the sun. According to astronomers worldwide, this year it happened at exactly 13:48 PM GMT on December 21th up here on the reef. How they figured it out I don't know, but "Midtvintersblot" means Mid-Winters-Bloodletting, which is far less sinister and violent than it sounds. Every winter the norse tribes practically went into hibernation, locking themselves up with the best pieces of livestock they hadn't eaten, and allowing the animals to live inside alongside themselves.
At Yuletide, when the season changed, the clan chieftain/king/jarl/matriarch would ritually let his kinfolk butcher those animals, as the Gods had granted them another year of light where they could be replenished. The collecting of these animal's blood, which was a major part of the nourishment before spring broke and they could go hunting again, was called "Midtvintersblot."

Thus endeth the lesson in "Ole' Way Martha Stewart Styley" and she only went to prison.