Yule is Good for New Beginnings

Hail to the New Year everyone! I thought this was an awesome time to start a blog about my passion, Wicca. This is my first Yule celebration and I'm very excited. I've strung popcorn and made Pine Cone Bird Feeder Ornaments and hung them on the tree outside, put up lots of lights, decorated a Christmas tree for my mom and a yule tree for myself, decorated my altar, and dressed my Yule log. I also plan on making Buttered Rum (Butter Beer) and I hang up my wish card on my Yule Tree. I'm also performing the 12 yule day devotionals, one for everyday leading up to Yule. I'll try to post pics of all this when I can.

Yule (Winter Solstice) is the celebration of the longest night of the year and the shortest day. This celebration, like almost all pagan traditions, predates Christianity and some of the traditions are still alive in all cultures. The christmas tree is actually the Yule tree that pagans would decorate with symbols of the sun and the star. The tree itself represents the tree of life. While converting pagans to Christians, the religion adapted many of the pagan traditions to make the transition easier for new followers. The star on top has nothing to do with Christianity, it's a pagan symbol, and Frankincense and Myrrh are incense used during the holiday. LOL, they brought baby Jesus pagan gifts XD. The Yule log is a tradition of enfusing the log with your wishes for the new year then burning it all night, releasing your wishes. Now-a-days its made out of chocolate and is eaten instead (yum!).
Now, if you're a wiccan in a christian family, like myself, don't fret about religion during the holiday, Yule and Christmas is essentially the same holiday. They both celebrate the Goddess (ie Mary) giving birth to the new year and light (Jesus). We both celebrate hope and good tidings and most of the christian tradistions are pagan, remember, so when celebrating this year know that if you are celebrating Yule on the inside then it doesn't matter what you do for the holidays. Happy Yule everyone.