Usually December 22.

Aisha’s Moonlit WalkStories and Celebrations For the Pagan Year

By Anika Stafford

From inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop

A fictional modern-day family celebrates eight pagan holidays over the course of a year.

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Winter solstice is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Traditionally, it is a time of both foreboding and expectancy, as the longest night leads to the return of the sun. “Solstice” in Latin means “the sun standing still.”

The Winter Solstice has become important to both humanists and pagans, who can find common ground in celebrating this occasion. Themes can include light amid darkness; the death of nature and the cycle of life; the darkness just before the dawn; the miracle of every birth.

Faith Without Borders

For everything there is a season—a time to die and a time to be born. With the arrival of winter’s low dark sky, communities around the world look to the miracle of light as a sign of rebirth and a source of hope. We celebrate the promise of new life and recommit ourselves to the protection of everyone’s right to his or her own radiant humanity.

Celebrating the winter holidays is an excellent opportunity for Unitarian Universalist congregations to express their commitment to our Sixth Principle: We covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all.

From Tapestry of Faith Curricula

Unitarian Universalist Perspectives

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  • Now is the moment of magic, when the whole, round earth turns again toward the sun....
    Meditation | By Victoria Safford | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Connections, Earth-Centered, Gratitude, Hanukkah, IllUUmination, Kwanzaa, Love, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder
  • God of life and beauty: We pray for the quietness of snowflakes, knowing that love is quiet. We pray for the kindness of small acts, knowing gentleness is fragile....
    Prayer | By Lucinda S Duncan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Compassion, God, Kindness, Living Our Faith, Service, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Space-hanging Earth, fragile as a Christmas babe delicate as a Christmas Tree ornament: nurture us as a mother nurtures children, like Mary nursing Jesus. Forgive our hurtful ways. Help us to fairer sharing. And so may you sustain all earth's children and all earth's beings even your Earthly self...
    Meditation | By Andrew M Hill | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Christmas Eve / Christmas, Earth-Centered, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Spirit of Life, The beginning of the holiday season is filled with temptations to conspicuous consumptions, and pleas for generosity. The contrasts between the values represented by this time of year, and our ability to fulfill them, remind us how great the distance can be between aspirations and...
    Prayer | By Wayne B. Arnason | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Balance, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Hanukkah, Patience, Service, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • In this small flame dwell: the beacon light of lanterns guiding travelers home; the warmth of hearth fires tended through the generations; the transforming energy of furnaces and the power and life of our sun. May these blessings -- warmth and light and life-giving energy -- be kindled in each of...
    Chalice Lighting | By Jean L Wahlstrom | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Community, Family, Friendship, Generations, Home, Journey, Love, Power, Transformation, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Not gold, nor myrrh, nor even frankincense would I have for you this season, but simple gifts, the ones that are hardest to find, the ones that are perfect, even for those who have everything (if such there be). I would (if I could) have for you the gift of courage, the strength to face the...
    Meditation | By Maureen Killoran | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Challenge, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Community, Connections, Courage, Generosity, Hope, Presence, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Simplicity, Strength, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Ritual | By Liz Benjamin | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Earth-Centered, Paganism, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Holy One, known by many names -- Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer -- you make your presence known to us in the sunshine of winter, in the dance of the flame, and in the lingering embrace of a trusted one. Fill us this day with your warmth, your power, your strength. Help us to see our lives with a...
    Prayer | By Marta Flanagan | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Freedom, Gratitude, Letting Go, Purpose, Sacred, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • Great Rainbow Arch your bright light your seven colours your cool dew link sky and earth above the Christmas stable. Hold us all in your encompassing arms. Forgive our exclusion of others earth and life and child. So may we too forgive those who have excluded us. Save us from the darkness of deep...
    Meditation | By Andrew M Hill | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Awe, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Earth, Earth-Centered, Forgiveness, Nature, Presence, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule
  • We join our hearts and minds together in a time of meditation or prayer; spoken, silent, sung, and shared....
    Meditation | By Christine Robinson | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Paganism, Winter Solstice / Yule