And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day
One of my Yuletide traditions is to read Susan Cooper's magnificent "Dark is Rising" cycle. Her lovely Christmas Revels poem is perfect for this whole holiday interval in which we celebrate the return of light to the world.
2 comments:
I was born on the shortest day of the year and that has been the problem ever since.
Wouldn't it be fun if minutes were flexible, some longer, some much quicker, and we could just watch and enjoy the bliss of those we loved, and sort of blink and the uncomfortable times were suddenly past. Just a thought.
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