The Yuletide Season

Ah Mercury retrograde. I had this very near posting right on time for Yule, and then it vanished from my computer. So I started from scratch and I’m running a bit late. It’s still within the Yuletide season, however.

The Yuletide Season has begun. The Yuletide Season typically goes from Yule, the Winter Solstice to Epiphany, All King’s Day. However, in our commercial world, we start celebrating/spending for the holiday on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. If you follow high church practices in Christianity you can say the season starts on Advent, a four week period that prepares you for Jesus’s birth. The last day of Advent is always December 25^th.

Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus as Christmas. The pagan world celebrates the Winter Solstice, Yule, as the longest night of the year. Days get longer from now until the Summer Solstice in June. The Jewish faith celebrates Hanukkah, a week long festival of lights. Kwanzaa is a week long celebration of African-American culture. The 26^th in the English world is Boxing Day. Christmas you spend with your family, but the day after you visit friends and exchange gifts with them.

Secular New Year is also part of the Yuletide Season. January 1^st begins a new cycle on the calendar. Next up is Epiphany, January 6th. Epiphany is the celebration of when the three kings arrived to view the baby Jesus while he and his family were still in Bethlehem. It marks the end of the Yuletide Season and the beginning of the Mardi Gras Season.

The Yuletide Season is short, but it is jam-packed with celebrations. Whichever one gives you joy, go out and celebrate the growing Sun in the sky. It is Winter now, but Spring is coming.

How they fall in 2023-2024:

Advent – December 3-December 25

Hanukkah – December 7-December 15

Yule – December 21

Christmas – December 25

Boxing Day, – December 26

Kwanzaa – December 26-January 1

secular New Year – January 1

Epiphany – January 6