Tags
cider, Dis, Mothers' Night, wassail, Wheel of the Year, Yule
“MonmouthfromKymin” by Hugh Colyer Hrcolyer – Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons
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Clear your mind of Christmas. This has nothing to do with tinsel, cards or the other paraphernalia of the commercial season. This is a very different midwinter festival.
I’m as much into the feeling of midwinter hygge as the next person. So I light candles. I have IKEA candle holders in the garden, hanging on hooks. If it isn’t raining, I’ll put lights in those over Yule. (And yes – I take 12 days, not the original pagan 3). I put tea lights in the votive holders on the shelves on my staircase. I light the pillar candles. I turn the main lights down. It’s as close to a fire as I can get.
OK, that’s the physical stuff. What about the emotional stuff? Well, I begin to light the candles on Mothers’ Night (Yule-eve). I remove some of the pictures on my altar to make a space for an image of the Mothers from Bath, in Somerset. The Roman Baths there sells tarted-up copies. I remember the Dis – the female ancestors, the luck of the clan and the goddesses. I pour an offering to Freyja, whose images are also around my altar.
The next day the OH and I will buy local cider, go to a high place, and make offerings to Odhin. this is the one time of the year I’ll talk to the Ferryman. It’s our contract: he gets this, once a year, and then leaves me and mine alone. In the past, he’s wanted perry from a particular farm, up-country. And for it to be offered at a particular site, on a high common overlooking the Black Mountains in south Wales and the English Malvern hills, off in the distance. This, for me, is his High Seat. But, for the last two years, I’ve shared this with the coven. Our covenstead has a stone dedicated to Odhin. So we have a sumble, make our toasts and pour perry from that farm on the stone.
Just as well, as, this year the rain will have made the entrance to the common impassable. So the OH and I went instead to Westons, a family firm that has been making cider in Herefordshire for over 100 years. They are very successful, supplying shops and pubs all over the UK. We bought a couple of bottles of their vintage English cider and went up to the Kymin, high above Monmouth. There’s a viewing area outside the building, overlooking the town. The view is wonderful.
Then we go somewhere to have coffee and cakes, and go home. Though i say I keep the 12 days, I don’t. for me, Yule doesn’t finish until Twelfth Night. The reason is the wassail takes place then. Although wassails are popular in various places, it’s serious business in Herefordshire. We make most of the UK’s cider, and even have a “cider route” around the farms, as well as a cider museum. we probably have more mistletoe than any other county of the UK, as well. 😉 So we take growing apples seriously. And the wassail. The farmers fight among themselves for the right to have the Leominster Morris wassail their orchard, this year.But it’s not just a matter of who wins that fight – to even have a chance, you have to own an orchard within a quarter of a mile of a Black & White village. Oh, we have a trail for that, as well! See here for a slide show of these lovely ancient houses.
The wassail is a great thing to take part in. Arrive early – to locate somewhere to park, and hope it’s within a mile fo the pub! Everyone assembles in the courtyard of the chosen pub, to drink hot mulled cider and wait for the Morris. Then we all troop to the field, bearing torches. after that it’s the ceremony, with singing to the tree, making a noise to frighten evil spirits, and lighting fires. You can read more – and see pictures – on the Leominster Morris website.
And all of that is without the coven activities. Present giving, of course! And I bring mulled cider from Westons. And no Yuletide celebration is complete without listening to “The Northern Shaman“. Though, sadly, the most complete copies have vanished from YouTube since last year. 😦 And we might wassail the trees in the orchard.
So, there you go. My Yule. And no tinsel in sight 😉
Leaves from a Book of Shadows 