A New Year's Faining, followed by a feast and then sumbel hosted by the Lansdale Tru Folk. If you would like to bring an offering or gift to the Gods, an ancestor, or for luck in the new year please do. Lansdale Tru Folk will also be accepting prospective new members. To quality, one must be an AFA members and must have been practicing ritual with Lansdale Tru Folk before this event.
This event is open to members of the Asatru Folk Assembly, Lansdale Tru Folk, and their friends only. For information, please email cerickson@runestone.org.
From Asatru: A Native European Spirituality by Stephen A. McNallen, Chapter 21, pages 152-153:
"Yule—Approximately December 20 through December 31
To moderns, Yule is just another word for Christmas. However, before the coming of Christianity, Yule was the great midwinter celebration of the Germanic peoples. Many of the things we associate with Christmas have pagan roots. The evergreen is a symbol for enduring life, the candle and the Yule fire represent the reborn sun, and the giving of gifts and the emphasis on kin were Germanic themes long before they were Christian ones.
Because of these common features, the Asatru celebration of Yule looks a lot like what our Christian friends do at this time of year. We erect Yule trees, which for us symbolize the World Tree. We decorate them with pre-Christian sun-symbols and runes. If we have a star on top, it stands for the North Star; or perhaps instead of an angel we have a valkyrie. Our homes are decked in wreaths and evergreens. Asatruar get together with kin and friends and exchange gifts, just like everyone else.
Yule is not just a single day, but rather a whole miniature season of its own. The common expression “Yuletide” suggests this—“tide” meaning a span of time consisting of a number of days. In modern Asatru, at least in the United States, Yule typically starts on December 20, which is on or just before the winter solstice. We call this first day of Yuletide “Mother Night” because it gives birth to the sun and to the new year. Celebrations continue for the next twelve days. On Twelfth Night, December 31, the season ends by swearing oaths for the year to come.3 Interestingly, the modern custom of “New Year’s resolutions” goes back to a pre-Christian tradition: in the Norse sagas, we read how the Yule boar was led around the hall, so the folk could place their hands upon it while making oaths.
Several major religious ideas come together at Yule. One is the rebirth of the sun. At the winter solstice, the year’s longest night, the spell of winter is broken and the days will gradually become longer. This turning point was extremely important to our ancestors, who by this time were wondering if they would have enough food to survive until milder weather.
Another crucial idea at Yule is the continuity of the clan. Yule is a time of family—not just the nuclear family, or even the extended family, but the family line itself as a time-transcending unity encompassing the ancestors, the living, and the descendants yet to come. At Yule, the veil between the worlds is thin and the ancestors are with us in a special way. Because of this, we may prepare an “ancestors’ plate” before sitting down to the Yule feast, thus inviting those men and women who gave life to join in our festivities."
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQmpVHi2Uc&list=PLw82Jy1m3oijS-faOMEnjbYYLlUMeO2ED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riM_7uq-WaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaoyxPra1k0
