Welcome Yule!

 

So the shortest day came

and the year died

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake,

They shouted, reveling!

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us -- Listen!

All the long echoes sing this same delight

This shortest day.

As promise wakens in the sleeping land;

They carol, feast, give thanks

They dearly love their friends

And hope for peace

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

                                                -Susan Cooper