27/12/2021
And so we turn to the midwinter festivals. It's Christmas in the Christian calendar, Yuletide in the old Anglo-Saxon pagan calendars and for the Greco-Romans, Saturnalia. These diffuse traditions are linked with ancient agricultural communities who would mark the turning of the year as the ever increasing hours of darkness slow and stop and then gradually, almost imperceptably at first, the days begin to lengthen again. The Glastonbury based pagan bookstore Goddess and the Green Man puts it like this: “With the end of the longest night the dark is defeated with the Return of the Sun, the return of light, hope and promise”. These are days of merrymaking and feasting, in traditions that date back probably at least to neolithic times, some five thousand years ago. But they are also a time for comfort, home and hearth and it is fine to celebrate at home in your own way. Please remember that your local community radio stations such as the one you are tuned to now will be there for you over the holidays. Tune in for fun and friendship. We wish you a happy time full of delight, but remember, don't drink too much!
