Winter Solstice 2011

Tomorrow evening marks the start of the longest night - midwinter solstice.   I shall be doing my usual, which involves spending the night outdoors in contemplation; however this year I will be doing a little more than usual, as circumstances have converged and the timing is ideal.

Although solstice doesn't really mark a formal festival for me, I spend the solstices in contemplation of my ancestors lives. I do this at the solstices partly because there are megaliths which have been shown to be aligned with either the midwinter, or midsummer solstice, so the solstice must have held some significance, even if modern man is not sure what. Generally, Samhainn is considered the time of the ancestors but, as time passes, I feel this is not necessarily the best time for their particular veneration, given in the myths it seems a time of games, boasts of past achievements, feasting and general celebration, though I would agree that, as with Bealltainn, our world and the otherworld seem closer.

I enjoy winter, as with the longer evenings/nights, I find myself more productive, perhaps because I am more focussed on the internal, be it home or dialogue, and not allowing outside distractions allows me to spend time more wisely, even efficiently.  It doesn't matter why though, I just enjoy the season for a number of reasons, including snow.   Winter is definitely my season and I would probably celebrate its zenith, regardless of whether or not a festival had been associated with it - christmas, Eponalia, Saturnalia, Jul, Mother's Night - or the megaliths had no peculiar alignment to the sunrise/sunset at midwinter.

Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, or even if you don't, I should like to wish all readers of my sparsely populated blog, all the best for the holiday season, and a joyous and prosperous 2012.

Keeping up with the Christians?

As the Christmas season approaches, I've noticed a lot of discussions surrounding decorations and celebrations by various pagans and my curiousity has been peaked. I notice the same thing occuring around Easter and, best of all, people referring to Samhain as the Celtic New Year.

Why do so many pagans feel the need to find/invent a festival to co-incide with those of the Christian/secular calendar?

Is there something lacking in those provided by their own tradition?

Why do so many pagans feel the need to adopt the festivals from all the traditions?

Personally, I don't do Christmas or Easter and my new year is not at Samhain [whole other argument which falls outside the remit of this post]. I realise that the northern traditions have feast days such as Ostara and Yule, and the Romans celebrated Saturnalia on 17 December, but these are outside of my personal belief system, so I don't acknowledge them. I am happy with my four fire festivals and two solstices (which are acknowledged on a purely personal level) and don't feel the need to join in the celebrations of others. It feels complete to me.

So, why do so many feel these are not enough, incorporating the Christian and secular holidays in their year? Why try to blend the Christian/secular celebrations with a pagan one?

All this and then there are the rather confused local councils who go around changing things from Christmas to winter festivals so as to not offend non-Christians. As a non-Christian, I object to council's doing this. Why? Because I live in (what I thought was) a Christian country, so I expect to see people freely practising their religion and celebrating it. Seeing the councils change things actually makes me wary about the ability of the citizens to celebrate any religion openly, including paganism.

Anyways, back to the topic. If you are someone who incorporates an eclectic mix of festivals from various pagan faiths into your calendar, may I be so bold as to ask why?

This post is rather convaluted, but I find the whole idea rather confusing. So, forgive me if I come back and edit it at some point.