Welcome, Yule!

I was reading this today. This poem is part of every Christmas Revels performance. It commemorates the Winter Solstice (and yes, I know the solstice was last week -- but, remember, I was on dial up! :) This year, it was performed by a member of the Karelian Folk Music Ensemble named Arto...which isn't important, exactly, but noteworthy...in particular because he gave an utterly charming, English-is-so-not-my-first-language delivery. And the whole audience chimed in with the enthusiastic shouting of the last line...

Anyway, I generally don't quote-post, but it's a lovely sentiment...and worth noting as the countdown to a new year commences... Some things, I just can't say better...

***

The Shortest Day

So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the
Snow-white world,
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen.
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can year them
Echoing, behind us--listen!

All the long echoes sing the same delight
This shortest day
As promise wakens in the sleeping land.

They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, and hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year, and every year.

Welcome, Yule!


~by Susan Cooper, 1977
http://www.thelostland.com/biography.htm
~written for The Christmas Revels
http://www.revels.org/