Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice (December 21, 2010, M.A. Reilly)

           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, reveling.
            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 so do we, here, now,
                     This year, and every year.
                             Welcome, Yule!

      --by Susan Cooper, 1977 written for The Christmas Revels