AN: I don't own any of the hobbit characters I am just taking them out of Tolkien's toy box and playing with them.
Yule can be celebrated at any time from 20th to 23rd of December, depending on the precise movements of the sun. For 2014 the Winter Solstice falls on the 21st December and the Astrological date is the 22nd.
'Yule' has both Norse and Saxon origins. Lul is Norse for 'wheel', and Hweolor-tid is Saxon for 'turning time.'
No offense is meant to those who celebrate the festival of Yule in this chapter.
New Collection of short stories for the advent season.
Yule – Day 1.
I Bilbo Baggins hereby swear on all I hold dear to me that what follows is a true and exact explanation of the Shire festival of Yule. Due to the badgering and incessant questioning by several (read all) members of the Company of Thorin Oakenshield (King Under the Mountain himself), I have had written this document to stay in the library of Erebor. I also offer prayers to Yvanna that my kin never find out I have put my people's practices and religion onto parchment.
Yule is one of the most joyful of the Pagan festivals because, in the middle of the dark ad cold, it gives us a glimpse of longer days and the promise of spring and new beginnings. The celebration of Yule marks the turning from the waning to the waxing year. It marks the Winter Solstice, when, after the shortest day and longest night, the sun returns to earth. Without the sun, crops cannot grow and life on Arda would be impossible, we could not live without its light.
We use the time over Yule to contemplate our hopes and aspirations for the coming year and consider how our natural gifts and talents can be used for good. We also light candles, decorate a tree, bring in boughs of evergreens, burn a Yule log, give presents, sing, dance, perform a piece of ritual drama and have a party.
For my folk the dark days leading up to Yule should be a time of quiet contemplation. We think on not only what has happened to us over the past year, but of the projects we would like to see happen and the personal goals that we might want to achieve in the coming months. We set aside our normal routines for a few days while we celebrate, see friends and rest.
Yule is by its own description a festival of contrasts. The days before are noticeably darker, cold and often very still. It is as if the earth is holding its breath and waiting for something to happen. Then in the middle of winter, in the very darkest days of the year, we celebrate the returning light. By the Twelfth Night the mornings and evenings are becoming noticeably lighter. Our rituals often begin with quiet contemplation in semi-darkness and end with bright candles, gifts and celebrations.
The gifts we give each other at Yule are not like our normal mathoms, they are rather tokens of our love and friendship. We often have an elder dressed in a green cloak and carrying a sack of presents, the kits wait impatiently for Father Yule, and he is always greeted with happy smiles by the young ones and a warm drink and a snack by the adults.
Each of our major boroughs have a large bonfire that is lit on the eve of the solstice. Each household donates wood towards the fire and more often than not the solstice parties all start around these fires, which are kept lit until the new dawn breaks on the horizon.
During Yule we also decorate our homes with evergreen, they symbolise the hope for the new leaves and shoots and leaves that appear in the spring. Holly, Ivy, Yew, Bay and Rosemary are all used regularly. Holly is used for luck and as a guardian against the evil spirits that may try and seek shelter from the cold weather, its red berries are merely a plus in the decoration. Ivy is used to bind the old year to the new and is said to foretell the future year to those trained in divination. Bay is a symbol of health and strength, it also keeps away evil spirits. Rosemary is used in decorations for its uplifting scent and in food for its flavours. Finally, we have Mistletoe, which has always been a sacred plant to my people.
We hang decorations on a living tree, these can be offerings to the tree spirits or symbol representing our wishes for the future, sometimes they are old, passed down from father to son, grandmother to granddaughter, other times they are made new, either by kits or to commemorate events. Our Yule log comes from this tree and like the fires lit in the boroughs we light it at dusk on the eve of the solstice.
Now I've written all this down, it has been decreed by His Majesty, Dorni Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain, that Erebor will celebrate a Shire Yule. Fancy that, royalty just made a new holiday for little old me.
AN: Leave me a review and let me know what you think.
There will be 24 chapters in this collection dedicated to the days of Advent. 1 chapter dedicated for Christmas day. And 12 chapters leading us up to the Twelfth Night and through the Twelve Days of Christmas.
Any and all requests will be taken into account. If I can't fit them in this I will dedicate them to you in one of my other collections of short stories as a Christmas present.
Translations
Dorni = King.