Holiday Spirits (Mead and Wine and Akvavit, Oh My)

I'll readily admit it: I'm a Bad Heathen. I haven't actually been to a real blót with a kindred yet. The reasons are a mix of being online instead (chatting with my better half every day we can manage, which is just about daily) and the blót being somewhere almost an hour away by trains, in the middle of a forest and lasts forever (until the last bus of the night or until the busses start running again in the morning). I'm used to living in the city. I used to live in the country-side, but right now I'm a spoiled city girl who considers it somewhat of a trauma if I have to wait 8 minutes for a bus, much less a Metro train.

Then there's the whole issue of the holidays themselves. I know there was a Midwinter blót. I know it's been Midwinter, because that's when the days get longer again and you wake up the day after and realise that while it's still dark outside and we have the worst of winter to come, it's finally heading in the right direction again. (As an aside, I get the same feelings after Midsummer, with a big, fat minus in front of it. We still have the best of summer to come, but it doesn't change the fact that the days are getting shorter and before you know it, the trees will start to lose their leaves).

It's just that Midwinter so far hasn't managed to grab a hold of me. I'm not from a Christian household. On one side I'm from a family of sailors, with everything that implies, and on the other, my grandmother is a wicked-awesome somewhat-atheist whose father was a Jehovah's Witness and who broke with his religion in such a way that for years, my grandmother could make them leave just by mentioning who her father was. We celebrate Christmas (or Jul, rather, which is what it's called here) because it's nice and cosy and about family. It's 'hyggeligt', basically. It's less about presents (well, in our side of the family. The other side of the family... well...) and more about holiday goodies and decorations and seeing the family and extended family and well, everyone else, in the days around Jul. (As another aside, it's pretty much a month-long celebration here. Not counting the stores and their decorations, it starts on December 1st with the TV advent calendars and chocolate advent calendars and calendar candles and 'Christmas lunches' at work and with friends and various clubs you might be in, and then it just continues until it tops on December 24th, Christmas Eve, with presents and drinks and food - lots of food - and rice pudding with an almond (and reward for finding the almond) and good company. December 25th and 26th are holidays and usually you end up visiting the family/extended family you didn't see on Christmas Eve, and then it's more food and more good company).

Point being, I can't get my brain to cooperate with the idea of Midwinter instead of Jul. Jul is tradition and has lost most of its religious meaning over the years and now a lot more about family and celebrating the fact that the days have started to get longer again. Invite some light and warmth into your home and watch the season change ... which is what Midwinter is all about. Celebrating the turn of the year and having one hell of a party doing so. Even if most of the drinking and hardcore partying got outsourced to the 'Christmas lunches' during December (and November, in some cases). Midwinter would feel silly and artificial to me, and I doubt that's something anyone wants - my Gods, the other blótguests, or me. I'll happily honour my Gods, but I prefer it to be on genuine terms. Make them part of the celebrations, rather than try and force my Jule-cheer into a date several days before Jul itself because that's when the shortest day of the year falls. I like the idea of inviting them to the party itself, when the party is there, and not several days before. They're part of my family, Elder Kin, and should be part of the celebrations, just as the rest of my family is. Maybe it's because Jul is such a fundamental holiday here that it's hard to imagine it in any other ways. The 24th is the way it's been for... well, not forever, since there was a time when it was on Midwinter itself, but for a very, very long time, at least. (We have someone in the extended family who married a French man and moved to France. They've found a compromise. He's welcome to make the traditional French Christmas food, but the celebration and presents happen on the 24th. Period.) Maybe it'll change if I ever manage to make Midwinter sit right with me, but until then, I figure that between blóting when it feels artificial and insincere and blóting when it's technically incorrect but with genuine feeling behind, the latter option is probably the better. The best option, of course, would be Midwinter and being sincere about it, but until then, I suspect that I'll stick to the 24th and hope no one, divine or otherwise, takes insult to my tweaking the holiday a little.

Which was, I think, just a long ramble that sums up to 'Merry Jul'... whenever you celebrate it, and wherever you are.