Midwinter is the season of gatherings, which makes it a hard time to be alone, and a harder time still to keep a festival that the people around you do not share. This ritual is for the solitary: one person, one evening, and a handful of candles on the longest night.
The winter solstice falls between December 20 and 23 in the Northern Hemisphere, and between June 20 and 23 in the Southern. Our guide to Yule explains its history and meaning. Our Wheel of the Year page shows the date of the next one.
What you will need
- One large candle, which will be your Yule candle, and three small ones, all in safe holders
- A sprig of evergreen: pine, fir, holly, or ivy
- A warm drink. A recipe for wassail is given below.
- Something good to eat
- Your journal and a pen
Before sunset
Tidy the room and cleanse it in your usual way. Set the candles on your altar or on a table, with the evergreen well clear of the flames. Prepare the drink and keep it warm. Then go outside, if you can, and watch the sun go down on the shortest day. Say goodbye to it.
The ritual
The longest night
- Enter the dark. Turn off every light in the room. Sit down, and let your eyes grow used to the darkness.
- Ground and cast. Ground and center. Cast a circle, in full or with the one-minute method.
- Sit with the night. For a few minutes, do nothing. This is the bottom of the year. Think back over the twelve months that have passed: what was hard, what was lost, and what you are tired of carrying.
- Light the Yule candle. Strike the match and say: "On the longest night, the light is born again. Welcome, sun."
- Light the first small candle. Say: "For what I am thankful for." Name three things.
- Light the second small candle. Say: "For what I leave behind in the dark." Name what you are setting down.
- Light the third small candle. Say: "For what I hope will grow with the light." Name one hope. Hold the evergreen while you say it.
- Raise your cup. The old wassail toast means "be well." Drink to the returning sun, to the land, to those you love, and to yourself. Eat something.
- Write. Record your three thanks, what you released, and your hope. You will read this again next Yule.
- Close. Give thanks, close the circle, and put out the small candles. Keep the Yule candle burning for as long as you stay awake and in the room, then put it out safely.
The morning after
If you can, get up before dawn and watch the sun rise. It will look exactly like any other sunrise, and it is the first of the new solar year. Say good morning to it. Place your evergreen sprig on the altar, where it can stay until Imbolc.
A simple wassail
Wassail is a hot spiced drink for sharing and for toasting. This version contains no alcohol.
- Pour a quart of apple juice into a saucepan.
- Add a cinnamon stick, four cloves, a few slices of orange, and a small piece of fresh ginger.
- Warm it gently for twenty minutes without letting it boil. Stir clockwise now and then.
- Strain it into a cup. Pour a little onto the ground outside, as an offering to the land and to the trees.
On being alone at midwinter
I have kept many Yules alone, some by choice and some not. The ritual helps. So does being honest with yourself about what you need. If solitude feels peaceful this year, enjoy it. If it feels heavy, do the ritual and then call someone, go for a walk where there are other people, or make a plan for the days ahead.
The whole meaning of this night is that the dark does not last. You do not have to feel hopeful. You only have to light the candle.