Winter Solstice/Alban Arthan

At this Solstice (welsh: heuldro)/Alban Arthan, which is one of the four astronomical, solar festivals, the Sun is revered at the point of its apparent death at midwinter. The winter solstice occurs on the shortest day of the year, usually the 21st or 22nd June in the southern hemisphere and the 21st or 22nd December in the northern, this is the time of death and rebirth. In ancient times the understanding the day started with the sunset, not the sunrise, and the New Year began with the coming of darkness Nos Galan Gaeaf/Samhain and this solstice is the mid-point where the sun now begins to rise longer in the day.

The focus since Nos Galan Gaeaf/Samhain has been on darkness, the night, the going within and hibernation, a time of gestation, and the colours symbolic to this time are white, black, grey and silver. Alban in Welsh means Zenith/Top and Arthan is little bear, and this refers to the height of the little bear, meaning the star constellation that would be dominating the Northern Hemispheres skies, in the Southern Hemisphere it would be the southern cross dominating our dark skies.

Our ancestors did not take the return of the Sun for granted (they were suffering much more under the hardships of severe winter weather than we do today), for an agricultural society, whose survival depended mostly on crops, the return of the Sun was not just a matter of casual celebration, it was rather a matter of life or death.

For this festival a log or a big piece of wood is to be burned in the central fireplace and according to tradition it must come from one’s own land or be a gift (it must not be purchased). It is traditionally ignited with the remaining piece of last year’s Yule log, this way, the light is passed on from one year to another. The Yule log is to burn slowly for 12 days in the fireplace, before it is extinguished. The ashes are stowed away and in springtime mixed with seeds and brought out on the fields. Thus, the power of the Sun, symbolized in the Yule log, is distributed over the land, with the rest of the wood kept until next year to ignite the new log.

The old stories tells us that there is a perpetual battle between the Oak King, the God of the waxing light and the Holly King, the God of the waning light. Each year at the winter solstice, the Oak King wins the battle and rules, until he is defeated by the Holly King at the time of the summer solstice.

Greenery can be brought into the home on/after Alban Arthan, traditionally being mistletoe and holly, but in a wider sense all evergreen plants, e.g. spruce, fir, pine, eucalyptus etc. this being pleasant to the eye and symbolizes the promise of renewal and new growth.

The central and essential thought of Alban Arthan is renewal.