Yuletide Blessings from the the Southern Hemisphere!
I have lived most of my life in sunny Queensland, Australia, where the Yule occurs in mid-June.
Yule is the Midwinter Solstice, when the sun again appears to stand still, as it did at midsummer, but the season is poised to return to light.
In Australia, many people celebrate ‘Christmas in July’. I didn’t realise this was a uniquely Australian celebration until I lived abroad in the northern hemisphere. It is our attempt to experience a ‘real’ winter, when the weather has cooled significantly from the heat that we endure for so many months of the year. Some people go all out, putting up a tree with decorations, gathering friends and family together for a traditional roast meal (because it’s too hot to eat roasts in December!) and lighting a fire.
The iconic evergreen is a powerful symbol of the enduring life of nature. Yule is a fairy festival, and at this time the Fair Folk rejoice in the sun’s rebirth. Decorations can be considered fairy charms. Every member of the family should hang at least one special charm of their own, to enable a wish to come true. Don’t forget the fairy on top!
Father Christmas
By far the best-known and most powerful fairy at Yule is Father Christmas. He is recognised all over the world, as Kris Kringle in Germany and Père Noël in France. In Brazil, he is Papa Noël, and Dan Che Loa in China.
Today we know him by his robes of red and white, but in the past he was known to wear green and other colours. Red is the colour of life and death, and many fairies wear red caps. The red that Father Christmas often wears is a sign that he is an Otherworld being, very much alive, but not of this earth. He is the essence of Yuletide mystery, joy and renewal, and, like many traditional fairies, comes in and out via the hearth.
Jack Frost
Jack Frost is an active fairy in the cold weather, painting windows with intricate lacework. In Russia he is called Father Frost, the soul of winter, covering trees with ice. Do not shy away from the frost fairy- go out and wonder at his works.
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