Wiccan holidays and traditions play an integral role in the practice of Wicca, a modern pagan witchcraft religion. Wicca emphasizes nature worship and the belief in a divine energy that is present in all living beings and elements of the natural world. The Wiccan year is divided into eight major holidays, also known as Sabbats, which are based on the cycles of the sun and the seasons. These holidays are typically celebrated with rituals, feasting, and the observance of specific customs and traditions. The first Sabbat is called Samhain, which falls on October 31st or November 1st. It marks the beginning of the Wiccan year and is associated with ancestors, death, and the thinning of the veil between the living and the dead.
High Priestess Syleena anoints a guest before the Yule ritual. Anointment is a part of many different religious rituals, including Wicca and Christianity. Photo by Bailey Jo Josie/Sound Publishing.
During the ritual, Kalu, the coven s High Priest, said that in Wicca, Yule is simultaneously the end and the beginning of the Wheel of the Year, a calendar that marks the eight holidays called sabbats that tie-in with the solstices, equinoxes and other markers of the seasons. Over the centuries, more and more pagan and folk practices became mainstays of Christmas, like Christmas trees, mistletoe and Christmas carolling, or wassailing.
It marks the beginning of the Wiccan year and is associated with ancestors, death, and the thinning of the veil between the living and the dead. During Samhain, Wiccans may hold rituals to honor their ancestors, communicate with spirits, and seek guidance for the coming year. The next Sabbat is called Yule and is celebrated around December 21st, the winter solstice.
Yule in the PNW: How witches, pagans, Wiccans celebrate winter holidays
Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year, which has been celebrated for thousands of years all over the world. Have you ever wondered how modern witches like to celebrate?
- by Bailey Josie
- Monday, August 28, 2023 1:05pm
- LifeNorthwest
You know the usual winter holidays — Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve. There’s also Saint Lucia Day, Boxing Day, and a little something called the Winter Solstice.
For the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, usually Dec. 21, which harkens to the return of the sun as each day afterwards grows longer. It also goes by a name that you may have heard in some of your favorite Christmas songs or when tuned into a crackling fireplace on Netflix — Yule.
Yule comes from the Old Norse Winter Solstice “jōl” and for many modern Wiccans, witches and pagans, it’s a very important holiday.
“More than just a synonym for Christmas, Yule has reclaimed its place at the holiday table as a distinct and valuable religious and spiritual tradition,” wrote Jason Mankey in “Llewllyn’s Little Book of Yule.”
“It’s celebrated by Witches, Pagans, and Heathens, and for many secularists and atheists, the Winter Solstice has become a viable alternative to Christmas,” Mankey continued.
At the the wellness center of 4 Sisters Holistic Remedies in Renton, the High Priest and High Preistess of the Triple Goddess Coven held their Yule ritual the weekend before Dec. 21.
The Triple Goddess Coven is a British Traditional Wicca order which Syleena, the coven’s High Priestess, says is not eclectic but more traditional and “church-like.”
“The four solar holidays have been revered for thousands of years,” Syleena said, referring to the equinoxes in spring and fall and solstices in summer in winter. “What we do in Wicca, we just keep that old way alive.”
Every year, the coven does a different mythos of the solstice from around the world. “For this year, we’re doing traditional Celtic view on it with the death of the Holly King and then the re-birth of the Oak King,” said Syleena.
In the form of a skit, coven volunteers Julia Sayn played Mother Earth, or Gaia, and Noah Tassie of Tacoma played the Holly and Oak King, whose death marks the end of long, dark nights and whose re-birth marks the eventual return of the sun. As Syleena said at the end of the skit, “the sun is reborn and the waxing year begins!”
The ritual, which took about an hour, also included a guided meditation, energy work, gingerbread snacks and spiced wine or tea. As Syleena said at the beginning of the Yule ritual, Wicca does not have dogma and everyone attending the ritual is there of their own free will. Several guests to the ritual were dressed in festive gowns and formal-wear, while others chose to wear more casual clothes, which even included a sweater with Santa Claus all over it. “The coven has always been open and welcoming,” said Sayn. During the ritual, guests got to create their own “witch orbs” resembling a Christmas tree ornament that everyone filled with their choice of herbs, glitter and sigils.
During the ritual, Kalu, the coven’s High Priest, said that in Wicca, Yule is simultaneously the end and the beginning of the Wheel of the Year, a calendar that marks the eight holidays — called sabbats — that tie-in with the solstices, equinoxes and other markers of the seasons. Some sabbats coincide with more mainstream holidays like Halloween (Samhain, pronounced “sow-wein”) and Easter (Ostara), which borrow from these older traditions.
While Wicca is a more modern religion (it should be noted that Wiccans are often called witches, but not every witch is Wiccan), many of its traditions come from ancient practices, especially for the Triple Goddess Coven. Ancient Winter Solstice traditions can be found throughout the world, from Scandinavia to China to the Inca Empire of modern Peru (which celebrates its Winter Solstice in June).
“Almost every culture marks the Winter Solstice,” said Karin Olsen, a pagan of Thurston County. “I don’t think there’s any culture that doesn’t celebrate it.” Olsen teaches online classes about Yule, though she says she prefers to say that she celebrates the Winter Solstice.
“I am Scandinavian so Yule could be the way I work with it, but I prefer Winter Solstice in my personal practice,” said Olsen, who has been practicing for over 25 years.
For Olsen, celebrating the Winter Solstice means inviting family and friends over for dinner and a gift exchange. “I like to encourage people to think of how we celebrate other secular holidays like the Fourth of July or secular Easter and often times, people come up with food as a commonality,” she said.
“Because we’re eclectic — my partner is Jewish and my in-laws are Christians — I give the gift of light to everyone who comes to my Winter Solstice. It’s a fun accessible ritual that feels safe to a wide range of people and that’s the goal. I want everyone at my table to be comfortable and I also want to celebrate my spirituality and my framing of the world.”
Octavia McAloon is a forest witch and pagan living in western Washington who also celebrates Yule. She likes to bake, cook, watch the burning Yule log on TV and listen to playlists of the Wheel of The Year (a term for the calendar year that is most associated with Wiccans but is often used by witches and pagans).
McAloon, a professional musician and singer, says she likes to listen to songs about the Winter Solstice over “regular Christmas songs” since they’re something different. “The new Christmas pop stuff, in my opinion, is awful,” she said, though she likes the “old jazzy ones.”
For John B. of Seattle, a solitary practitioner of witchcraft for 18 years, the Winter Solstice and Yule are very important to him. “I like to mix the traditions of different forms of witchcraft into my practice so I often have a Yule log which I like to burn at night,” he said. “But in more recent years, since I don’t have a fireplace, I’ve been ordering Yule log-shaped cakes.”
The tradition of burning a Yule log is believed to have come from Germanic and Scandinavian pagan practices, though it’s often incorporated into Christmas celebrations as well.
Like Olsen and McAloon, John also incorporates food into his celebration of the Winter Solstice, along with gift-giving. These are practices that are also often associated with Christmas, but both traditions can be traced back to the winter holidays of Saturnalia and Kalends.
Pagan celebrations of Yule and the Winter Solstice are, in many ways, precursors to the modern traditions of Christmas.
According to an article from Christianity.com, though Jesus’ birthday is traditionally celebrated on Dec. 25 — around the time of the Winter Solstice — about 37% of Christian denominations put the Nativity story in January and that the exact month and date are difficult to decipher.
In another article from HowStuffWorks.com, the first mention of a date for Christmas wasn’t until over 1,800 years ago and noted that Christmas wasn’t celebrated until about 250-300 C.E.
Modern Christmas can trace its roots back to winter holidays of the Roman Empire, like Saturnalia and Kalends, holidays filled with merriment, decorations and exchanging of gifts. Over the centuries, more and more pagan and folk practices became mainstays of Christmas, like Christmas trees, mistletoe and Christmas carolling, or wassailing.
Despite the similarities in the winter holiday traditions, many witches and pagans like John and McAloon sometimes feel compelled to keep their craft, and by extension, their Winter Solstice practices to themselves.
“I don’t say it explicitly, but I don’t hide it. People have a pre-conceived notion of what a witch means,” said McAloon, who has worked as a professional singer in churches in the past. “I wouldn’t want to mention that around them.”
While witchcraft and witchy aesthetics have seen a rise in popularity over the last few years — popular movie and television actress Aubrey Plaza has now co-written two children’s books titled “The Christmas Witch” and “The Return of the Christmas Witch” — many witches and pagans consider “coming out of the broom closet” to be a tough thing.
“I don’t often feel the need to tell people around me that I’m a witch on a regular basis and sometimes it’s a little scary to do so because you never know how someone is going to react,” said John B. “There’s a lot of bias in the Western world when it comes to witchcraft. Many people like to assume we sit around worshiping the devil or casting curses all day rather than worshiping nature and trying to better our environment as well as help those around us.”
Please share your story tips by emailing [email protected].
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
Guests at the Triple Goddess Coven make their own Witch Orbs to decorate their homes during the holidays. Photo by Bailey Jo Josie/Sound Publishing.
High Priestess Syleena anoints a guest before the Yule ritual. Anointment is a part of many different religious rituals, including Wicca and Christianity. Photo by Bailey Jo Josie/Sound Publishing.
High Priestess Syleena anoints a guest before the Yule ritual. Anointment is a part of many different religious rituals, including Wicca and Christianity. Photo by Bailey Jo Josie/Sound Publishing.
High Priestess Syleena anoints a guest before the Yule ritual. Anointment is a part of many different religious rituals, including Wicca and Christianity. Photo by Bailey Jo Josie/Sound Publishing.
High Priestess Syleena anoints a guest before the Yule ritual. Anointment is a part of many different religious rituals, including Wicca and Christianity. Photo by Bailey Jo Josie/Sound Publishing.
High Priestess Syleena anoints a guest before the Yule ritual. Anointment is a part of many different religious rituals, including Wicca and Christianity. Photo by Bailey Jo Josie/Sound Publishing.
Sacred Plants of the Winter Solstice
Yule is a time of rebirth, as the days start to get longer again. Wiccans may light candles, decorate trees, and exchange gifts during this holiday. The focus is on bringing light and warmth into the darkness of winter. Imbolc, also known as Candlemas, takes place on February 2nd and is associated with the first signs of spring. Wiccans may perform purification rituals, light candles, and make offerings to honor the returning light and the awakening of nature. Ostara is celebrated around the vernal equinox, usually on March 20th or 21st. It is a time of balance and fertility, symbolizing the arrival of spring. Wiccans may engage in rituals involving eggs, flowers, and seeds to celebrate renewal and growth. Beltane, also known as May Day, is celebrated on May 1st and marks the peak of spring. It is associated with fertility, love, and the blossoming of nature. Wiccans may participate in rituals involving bonfires, dancing, and the weaving of maypoles. Midsummer, also known as Litha, is celebrated around June 21st, the summer solstice. It is a time to honor the sun at its zenith and the abundance of nature. Wiccans may hold rituals outdoors, gather herbs, and create sun-oriented crafts. Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas, takes place on August 1st and celebrates the first harvest of the year. Wiccans may engage in rituals involving baking bread, making corn dollies, and giving thanks for the abundance of the earth. The last Sabbat is Mabon, which falls on September 21st or 22nd, the autumnal equinox. It is a time of balance between day and night and the second harvest of the year. Wiccans may hold rituals to honor the fruits of their labor, give thanks for the blessings of the year, and prepare for the coming darkness of winter. In addition to these Sabbats, Wiccans also celebrate Esbats, which are rituals held during the full moon. These ceremonies may involve meditation, spellwork, and the drawing down of the moon's energy. Overall, Wiccan holidays and traditions provide a framework for spiritual connection with nature, the cycles of the seasons, and the divine energy that is believed to permeate the universe. Through their observance, Wiccans seek to cultivate a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of all things and to live in harmony with the natural world..
Reviews for "Wiccan Holiday Crafts: Creating Homemade Decorations and Offerings"
- Sarah - 2 stars - I was really disappointed with "Wiccan holidays and traditions". I thought it would provide me with a comprehensive guide to practicing Wiccan rituals and celebrating holidays, but instead, it was filled with vague and simplistic explanations. The book lacked depth and substance, and I found myself constantly searching for more detailed information elsewhere. Overall, it felt like a missed opportunity to create a valuable resource for Wiccans.
- Mark - 1 star - This book was a complete waste of money. I was expecting to learn about the rich and fascinating history of Wiccan holidays and traditions, but instead, I was met with a shallow overview of the subject. The author clearly did not do their research and failed to provide any meaningful insights or explanations. The information provided was conflicting and confusing, leaving me with more questions than answers. I would not recommend this book to anyone serious about learning about Wiccan practices.
- Emily - 2 stars - "Wiccan holidays and traditions" fell short of my expectations. The book lacked structure and organization, making it difficult to follow its content. The information provided was scattered and disjointed, making it hard to grasp a comprehensive understanding of Wiccan holidays and rituals. Additionally, I felt that the author's writing style was dry and uninspiring, failing to captivate my interest. Overall, I would not consider this book a valuable resource for anyone interested in Wiccan practices.