Winter Solstice

And so the shortest day has slipped into the longest night.  For tomorrow - against all reason - the sun rises even later than today.  The pagan festival of Yule, the middest- of mid-winter, is truly with us.
I'm glad we squeezed in the evening ceremony just in time before the snow really started to come down, but it was close.  The traditional running off of Moon Gibbon Folks into the country was definitely cancelled this year, for reasons I may need to come to in a later bulletin.
The Solstice Midnight ceremony may have to be held indoors.  While we are still building the fire-proof Moot House, we will have to hold the Occasion in the dining room.  There's no way we're going out in this.
So maybe there's time for a brief few words.  The winter solstice - or Yule - is the critical time in the Beaker year.  Indeed, we believe that Stonehenge was aligned on the winter as much as - if not rather than - the summer one.  In the midst of darkness and devastation, as the year dies, the Beaker person looks to the west - the direction of the dead - with trembling.  And we look to the east with hope.  Will salvation come from the east?  Every year we look and long.  So far we have not been disappointed - although each year it slips away again.
In Husborne Crawley we have long enjoyed the beautiful Avenue, planted by my forebears on a north-easterly alignment and lining up with the alignment of the Moot House doors, at least it does when there actually is a Moot House.  This year, however, I suspect we shall instead be imagining what sunrise will look like from the Great House.  Still, the snow is the colour of the moon and brings a certain magic to the time of year.  We shall make the most of it and be spiritual and warm.  Could be worse.