It is Yule. The sun, our bringer of light, is dying. As the world falls into darkness, the question is: how will it end? For millennia, people have pondered and worried about what will come after the sun dies. Traditionally, those worries centered around the winter. Would they survive? Will the food hold out until the sun (and the crops) is reborn in the spring? It was a question of life and death. In our modern times, we still share the same concern: Will Y2K destroy industrial society as we know it? How will it end?
The Norse saw the winter solstice as the anniversary of Ragnorak, the last battle at the end of the era of the world that came before theirs. In that battle, the old gods were slain and the sun was devoured by a giant wolf. After it was all over, the sun god, Balder, returned from Hel and started the new, happier era. The death of the sun was grim and terrible, the Norse believed, but it led to a happier time, so they celebrated it. Many of our Christmas traditions come from their celebrations.
The theme of this issue of Widdershins is dying and reborn gods. Our cover story goes into great detail about Osirus and Dionysus, two of the gods who died and were reborn, as the sun is, at Yule. It also examines the links between the two. As the gods and the sun pass into darkness, so do some of our other articles. Death, and the dark side, are also discussed. By examining the dark, we learn not to fear it.
We also have an article about the most famous of dying and reborn god in our culture, Jesus. It is a VERY different view of Him than is commonly presented. It isn't meant to offend the Christians out there, but instead to examine some of the alternate explanations for the events in the Bible. It is also meant as a humorous gift for some of us pagans who still have not worked though our "issues" with Christianity.
Speaking of Jesus and the end of the year, I want to talk about the calendar thing. Is December 31st the end of the millennia or not? I can hear the party poopers now: "NO, there was no year 0!" Well, guess what? There was no year 1 either. Or a year 2 or year 3. In fact, the first year was 536 AD. The question becomes, then, what was the intent when creating the calendar.
In 536, the monk Dionysus Exegesis created our calendar. It was hundreds of years old by the time the church officially recognized it. Dionysus wanted every date to tell the world how long it had been since Jesus entered the world. Dates would be used in the form: on the 5th day of the 3rd month of the 837th year, etc., and that would mean: 5 days, 3 months and 837 years since birth. He set the first day of the calendar to be the day when he believed that Jesus was born: winter solstice, start of year 0. With all the popes moving around days and things, this eventually migrated to December 25th. Since the calendar was basically the age of Christ, saying there was no year zero is the same as saying all babies are born 1 year old. There was no year called "0". During that 0 year, they would have just said 26 days and 7 months since birth and left off the year. The millennia is changing, go out and have a party.
By the way, when the sun dies for us this year, we will have a special treat: The light will be born again with the full moon. This year will be the first full moon to occur on the winter solstice in 133 years. Since this full moon on the winter solstice occurs in conjunction with a lunar perigee (point in the moon's orbit that is closest to Earth) the moon will appear about 14% larger than it does at apogee (the point in its elliptical orbit that is farthest from the Earth). So, if it is clear, we will have the brightest full moon in a long time.
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