An Altar for Winter Solstice

Yule season is upon us! It all begins with the Winter Solstice, which is celebrated by people all around the world and marks the longest night of the year. Yule celebrates the return of the sun. This ancient holiday honors themes of rebirth, hope, intention-setting, and light.

This year the Winter Solstice falls on Monday, December 21st. And this year’s celebration also happens to coincide with a spectacular astronomical event: Jupiter and Saturn will align so closely in the night sky on December 21st, that they'll almost appear to collide from our vantage point here on Earth, forming what looks like a single super star.

Yule can be traced back thousands of years to Germany and Scandinavia. No one knows exactly how long it was celebrated but early manuscripts mention Yule as early as the 4th century. But as with most historical “mentions”, we know that it was practiced well before the 4th century (obviously).

Solstice brought us the shortest night of the year and the sun began its slow waxing descent. Now on the Winter Solstice we reach the depth of the darkest part of the year. Here in Eastern Oregon, the solstice sun will rise at 7:23am and set at 4:10pm.

We all have moments of darkness, when we don't know how much deeper we will go before the light starts to return (or even if it will). The world has moments like that too — it understands us. But on Yule, the sun stops its decline and for a few days it seems to rise in the same location. This is a crucial time, the liminal moment between descent and ascent.

This year, my Yule altar is decorated with a variety of pinecones (symbolizing the spiral dance of life), white candles (honoring the return of the sun), and a bouquet of dried desert sage collected during Samhain (for letting go of the old and welcoming the new). I also have a jar of full moon water that I made during the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. Quartz crystals are tucked here and there and a brass wire sun serves as a backdrop for the altar ingredients.