Joyous Yule
By Faye
@FayeHazel (40248)
United States
December 21, 2021 8:33pm CST
Happy Winter Solstice all!
At one time Solstice was celebrated widely in Britain as well as other cultures and celebrated the shortest day of the year and the return of the sun. Considered a day for reflection and planning for the coming spring. A few themes you may recognize as carrying over into today's celebrating.
Bringing evergreen boughs into the home was thought to symbolize life in the midst of winter. These boughs and trees were decorated with various items to symbolize what the home occupants wanted more of in the next year - so items signifying wealth, riches, and the like were popular.
Decorations of lights celebrated the returning of the light of the solar sun.
This was a pre-Christian celebration.
Photo: Pixabay
12 people like this
13 responses
@JimBo452020 (42629)
• United Kingdom
22 Dec 21
Happy Winter Solstice to you too.
May your days be shorter and bright
And may all your (winter) solstice,s be white
Not really sure about the plural of solstice.
Like might it be solsticae
Quite joyous in song am I.
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
Nice song! Thanks Jim, happy holidays to you
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
@JimBo452020 Ok, I celebrate both Yule and Christmas. I wish people happy holidays for 2 main reasons - 1) it includes the New Year and 2) with the numerous different celebrations at this time of year I think it's just a thoughtful thing to do, instead of assuming that everyone celebrates the same as me.
I don't mind if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Joyful Yule, Fantastic Kwanzaa or whatever else. Someone said something nice to me and that's nice. I will likely reply with Happy Holidays.
I do start having a problem when people instruct with the exact words they want me to say in return.
That would be like if I told you that since I celebrate Yule as well, that you are to return my "Joyous Yule" greeting to me. You are to accept the holiday of my choosing and reply to me in kind. See the problem? Wouldn't be very nice of me.
So Happy Holidays ... I do hope your season is nice. :-)
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@JimBo452020 (42629)
• United Kingdom
27 Dec 21
@FayeHazel
I'm not into the whole happy holiday thing.
We Jedi recognise and celebrate where possible all the religious festivals where food is involved and participate with everyone else.
We even send Christmas cards and I can sing the Christmas Corals.
We tried to do a Nativity
Couldn't find a virgin to play Mary or 3 wise men though
Merry Christmas.
Every single person to whom a Merry Xmas is wished should accept the greeting, and return it.
Nothing else needed
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@AmbiePam (85489)
• United States
27 Dec 21
@FayeHazel Send some my way, please!
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
28 Dec 21
@AmbiePam I wish I could, I would gladly :-)
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@xander6464 (40873)
• Wapello, Iowa
22 Dec 21
Joyous Yule!
I'm supposed to decorate the tree with things that symbolize what I want I want? That gives me some good ideas. I can't talk about them here, so you'll just have to trust me when I say they're good.
1 person likes this
@xander6464 (40873)
• Wapello, Iowa
27 Dec 21
@FayeHazel You have aroused my curiosity. I am going to look for fun and interesting ornaments.
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
Thank you :-)
Ha ha it's funny you mention that because there are some rather... interesting...ornaments out there
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
@xander6464 Ah yes the ones I found Santa was bad boy
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@DaddyEvil (137145)
• United States
22 Dec 21
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
2 people like this
@sharonelton (24987)
• Lichfield, England
22 Dec 21
Thank you very much. You have a great one too.
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@sharonelton (24987)
• Lichfield, England
27 Dec 21
@FayeHazel My pleasure and thank you. 
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@jefferson126 (3051)
• Shenzhen, China
22 Dec 21
Nice picture,i like scene in the picture,it's wonderful.
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
Thanks! I thought about printing it out and coloring it. I found it on Pixabay
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@dpk262006 (58675)
• Delhi, India
22 Dec 21
Happy Winter Solstice to you too.
We know that it is a special day but we do not celebrate it as such.
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@ptrikha_2 (45472)
• India
22 Dec 21
That is a wonderful image!
Happy Solstice and Christmas celebrations!
Christmas indeed is a festival that takes away some of the winter dullness and brings joy.
1 person likes this
@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
Isn't that great? I found it on Pixabay. I thought on printing it out and coloring it lol
Thanks! Many wishes for happy holidays. You;re right it's nice to have something pretty and colorful in winter
@BelleStarr (61047)
• United States
23 Dec 21
Yes many Christian customs were borrowed from pagan customs . Happy solstice
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
Too true, I think to make Christianity more comfortable for those that were new to it in the way back
@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
29 Dec 21
True, it's interesting the things that carried over
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
Yay for that! Thanks and happy holidays to you :-)
1 person likes this
@Ronrybs (17849)
• London, England
27 Dec 21
@FayeHazel Not so much sleep then, best stock up now!
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@FayeHazel (40248)
• United States
27 Dec 21
Yes and the longest day of the year :-)
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