Here Comes the Sun

Today I'm posting my addition to the Witches Yuletide Ball. You may have noticed a little badge about the event on the side of my blog this month. I signed up to write a Yule themed post on December 10th, without knowing much about Yule. I only associated the holiday with the Yule Log and Christmas. After doing some research, I learned that Yule is an ancient Pagan holiday. From what I found, there have been mentions of the holiday dating back to the 4th century.

Yule is also known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences. This year's winter solstice occurs on December 21st. The nights leading up to the solstice are longer and the days shorter. After the solstice, the nights will get shorter and we'll see more light throughout the day. Just wait a little over a week, and things will look up. I look forward to days where the sun doesn't set around 4:30 PM!

Speaking of the solstice, I have some neat trivia about Stonehenge. Some of you may know this already, but Stonehenge was built so that the sun will always set between two of the stones on the winter solstice. It will set in such a way that the stones resemble a portal filled with glowing light. I ran across a video that's really worth watching. Someone has staged a replica of how Stonehenge looked 4,000 years ago, to show how the solstice sun would have interacted with it.



Stonehenge is such a mystery. The thought of humans being able to move and lift these stones without modern machinery is astounding enough, but the thought of them aligning these stones to perfectly fit the sun on certain days of the year blows my mind!

I found quite a few videos of the solstice celebrations at Stonehenge from previous years. I'm sure there will be more celebrations this year. From what I saw, there's a drum circle, dancing, and a poetry reading. If you can't make it over to Britain, here's at taste of what will be happening:

From what I read, the guy in the crown is supposed to be King Arthur. 

It looks like a cool ceremony to witness. I was reminded a little of our Renaissance Faire while watching these videos. In part because of Arthur and Merlin, but also because of the accents and drum circle.

Yule or winter solstice is still celebrated today. I have some Wiccan friends who celebrate the winter solstice, but I don't know much about their traditions. I do know that many of the modern Christmas traditions stem from Yule. The Yule log, tree, holly, and candles originate from early Yule celebrations. If you want to learn more about the first Yule traditions, I found an excellent web site:

The Winter Solstice ~ Yule Lore

The Yule Wikipedia page also goes into depth about how ancient Yule celebrations varied by country and culture:

Yule Wikipedia Page

There are plenty of other bloggers taking part in The Yuletide Gathering today! Here's a list of them all. I hope this list of links doesn't look too funky on your computer screens. Let me know if I need to rearrange the names. Also, let me know if you wrote a Yule themed post today and aren't listed here. I'll make sure to add you to the list!

1.	Miss Peach aka Karla	16.	Laughing Vixen Lounge	31.	Dana from Land, Sky & Sea
2.	Aine	17.	The Village Witch	32.	aw
3.	Amythyst Raine	18.	Elderflower	33.	Grey Catsidhe
4.	Hannah	19.	Zombiegirl Shambling	34.	Rue
5.	Autumn Wind	20.	Cordelia	35.	Treegold & Beegold
6.	Briana Desmond	21.	Druid- in- training Liz	36.	Mina
7.	Briana	22.	Spiritdog Studios	37.	New Moon Summer
8.	Astraea Sapphire	23.	Danni	38.	Toriz
9.	Kristina	24.	Sherry Byrum	39.	Unleashed Diva Living Out Loud
10.	Dee Ellwood	25.	The Multi- Faceted Experience	40.	Little Gothic Horrors
11.	Sue the Wicked Faerie Queen	26.	Elderflowery	41.	Pensive Pumpkin
12.	Sophiadawn	27.	Magaly from Pagan Culture	42.	EmKat Creations
13.	Fangs, Wands and Fairy Dust	28.	The Domestic Pagan REAL LINK
14.	Susan G	29.	Aisha
15.	Willow Silverhorse	30.	Hedgefaery Herbals

Also, I should mention that the 13 days of Creepmas is going on! Creepmas is Christmas with a creepy twist.  I was so busy that I barely got my Yule post up, so I wasn't able to participate in Creepmas. Lots of my blog friends did, though. They've put together some pretty entertaining posts so far! The Creepmas blog is here:

http://creepmas.blogspot.com/

If you look at the column of "participating creeps" on the right, you'll be able to read some of these great posts!

I'll leave you with the perfect song for winter solstice:

Just think of this song when you're feeling cold this winter. With every day after December 21st, the sun stays with us a little longer!

Cultural Differences Among Zombies

There has been a lot of zombie talk lately in the blogs I follow. Probably, because as I learned from my buddies over at Gravedigger's Local 16, May is Zombie Awareness Month. I'm not too much of a modern zombie fan (unless you consider Night of the Living Dead modern). So I decided to go a little old school with this blog entry.

In Haitian, the word "Zombi" translates to: "Spirit of the dead." In "Vodun" or what you probably know as Voodoo, Zombies are seen as people who have lost all control. They are just bodies who no longer have any free will, because a sorcerer has taken control of their minds. In the Haitian culture, zombies are seen as an empty shell of a person who must work as a slave to the person who made them that way. They aren't thought of as rotten corpses feeding on brains.

In 1932, a movie came out that was heavily influenced by the Haitian concept of zombies. In "White Zombie" Bela Legosi's character controls zombified people who he uses as undead slaves. They may be used to make him more successful, and even at times kill for him, but they aren't really evil. The zombies in this movie are more victims than villains. Here's the "White Zombie" trailer:



In 1938, the book "Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica" was published. The book was written by Zora Neale Hurston (pictured below) and documented her experiences visiting Haiti and Jamaica during the 1930s. Zora was an anthropologist as well as a writer. She was also associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was very productive as a writer, essayist, theatrical producer, and anthropologist.

While visiting Haiti to gather material for "Tell My Horse", Zora met a woman who was thought to be a zombie. She took a photo of the woman who claimed to be Felicia Felix-Mentor (someone who died in 1907) When Zora met the supposed zombie, it was 1937. Here is the photo that Zora took of her:

 

I can see from this photo that the woman made a convincing zombie. She was seen wandering around a farm where the real Felicia had lived. Felicia's family and husband did identify this woman as their lost loved one. Since she was staggering around and acting strangely, the woman was sent to a hospital. Once at the hospital, she laughed for no reason, spoke about herself in the first and third person, and seemed to have lost all sense of time. Doctors decided that she wasn't the once dead Felicia, since Felicia walked with a limp and this woman did not. However, Zora did state: "I know that there are Zombis in Haiti. People have been called back from the dead." So whatever Zora witnessed in Haiti made her a believer.

If you aren't familiar with Wade Davis, you should take a look at some of his work and youtube videos. He is also an anthropologist who has documented his experiences in Haiti. He provides a modern look at Voodoo and his videos are interesting and even a little funny in places. If you want to explore what he has to say, I found a nice, long NPR interview you can either read or listen to here: Wade Davis Interview about Haitian Voodoo

I admire Zora and Wade for being so fearless in exploring new cultures. I like to read and learn about this topic, but I can't see myself searching out Voodoo ceremonies in Haiti. I think there is power in thought, especially when a group of people focuses their thoughts at once. Watching some ceremonial videos tonight, I'm so struck by how into this people get. Some of these people are in a trance that you can argue is either self-made or a spiritual possession. Either way, it's intense to watch.

Here's a short clip from a BBC special on Haitian Voodoo. It's a little campy, but entertaining.

I was surprised to learn that Voodoo was recognized as an official religion in Haiti in 2003. Millions of Haitians have practiced Voodoo for hundreds of years. That's not to say everyone there believes in this religion; there are many groups of people in Haiti who do not approve of it. Here is a more serious and respectful look at the Voodoo religion. The following video is of a ceremony that is interesting but may be hard for some people to watch. If you think you might have a difficult time seeing someone chew on a live chicken's neck, you might want to skip out on this one. Despite that scene in the video, I thought the ceremony was educational, so I still decided to put it up.

So what scares you more - The modern American concept of a zombie or the Haitian Voodoo concept of a zombie?