hi everyone wondering if you can help me
being new to paganism and wanting to do somthing speciall i wondered if there is anything i can do or make for when my family come round on news years day for dinner.is there any special foods or flowers i should have any special sayings.i know we celebrate dec 21st rather than dec 25th but what about new year please help i try to read books but they confuse me help hope this is in the right place if not sorry love alice

Will move this to the General forum

There is absolutely nothing you have to do. YOu dont have to celebrate on the 21st and there is nothing you have to say or any flower or things you have to have.

As for new year. Again its about what suits you and your path. Its a new year, its about new beginings, how about starting from that point and what those things mean to you.

What Xalle said!

Celebrate however you feel you want to celebrate. Personally, we start celebrating around the 19th December and finish celebrating when we go back to work in early January.

You may want to develop your own Yuletide traditions with your family or friends. There is no 'should' involved.

Apart from Rule No. 1 of paganism, which is 'Any excuse for a party!'

Rhiannon x

I would say the general pagan saying for any celebration is 'eat drink and be merry'. As for a flower don't be a wallflower! Whatever food you and your family find really really yummy is by far the best. And yes I agree with Rhiannon: Rule No. 1 of paganism is 'Any excuse for a party!'

Off topic slighty.

The Local Supermarket is allready all Xmased out, Huge Santa, Tree (decorated in the company coluors of course) strings of tinsel over the tills, The Seasonal Asle is groaning under the weight of Wrapping Paper and Presents. And they are at this moment still selling Fireworks at the front door. If I was working there It would drive me Mad, I haven't heard the endless loops of Cliff, Slade and all the other Xmas hits (my Blobby and the Shite Girls being two of them) yet! All of this puts me off the red and white season. I accept its a Xtian county and if we want to celebrate Yule then we can do as well (2 celabrations are better than 1) .

Thre's no Law saying you must have Turkey and trimmings on the 25th, its just a Public Holiday and like all the other Public Holdiday we do our best to Intergate it into our year. And do your own thing. My advide to Alice would be "Don't start off in Paganism thinking there are a set of rules to follow. Because there arne't. Pagainism in some way is about being a Individual and follwing your own path not about following a congregation"

Ditch the books and do what feels right.

Alice as others have said, do what you feel comfortable with. There doesn't appear to be any hard abd fast dates and times to celebrate new year, it depends on when new year starts for you. Personally i treat every season as a new year a) it gives me the incentive to have a jolly good clean up and declutter and any excuse for a damn good party!!!

Whatever you do, enjoy and may it be an happy one

BB from TTT

ps how's the old blind dog doing?

hi johnOdin
thanks for youre advice i do work in a supermarket and its not to bad at the moment but i know what you mean i do have to say though its not the paper the music or the trees that gets to me ,its the amount of food people buy that will be wasted and the attitude of the customers.goodwill to all men i think not most customers dont have a good will bone in thier body come december and by the 24th they are absoulty horrid.but if thats there way of celebrating im glad im thinking out side the box
love alice

hi ttt
thanks for that but as you have all said there are no rules and i know its not like other religons and ways of life but how do i know what traditions are right for me to start if i dont know off any.for example are there any godds or goddess around this time do any plants or flowers have a special meaning at this or any time oh im so confused.as for aamber shes not to bad had a good bonfire night now shes so deaf she didnt bark once yipeeeeeee
speak soon
alice

Well, in the 'Wheel of the Year' story, Pagans often celebrate New Year as October 31st: Samhain/All Hallow's Eve.

If October is a time for reflection and ancestors, then the xian new year and Yule (21st) celebrations are an almighty piss-up and food fest. I don't think Christians invented the hedonistic, orgiastic or material side of Christmas

Go Taurean. Make nice food, buy nice wine. The point of it is to glow in the warmth of the people you're with. Enjoy. Don't turn it into some tokenistic 'turn around three times, kiss a picture of the Virgin Mary and Ganesh then throw some wine on the floor' tosh. Just go with what feels good and focus on the immediate: those who are present.

And do it for me, for I am in a land without seasons or Christmas

Next year, '09, I'll be wallowing in mulled wine, rubbing chocolate cake over my face and asking people to lick it off under the mistletoe.

Christmas is the gluttonous mid-winter feast. Be gluttonous. Feast

And enjoy this cartoon.

x

I think this is the best advice for any newbie to Paganism full stop!!

End of

This is the hardest part to get your head around when you're starting out: most of us are brought up in the structured Christian environment of "this happens at this time of year" and then you're pagan and you're kind of cut adrift

Gods and goddesses are around all year, not just at certain points of it, though the myths and legends tend to "place" them at certain times.

As for plants and flowers: well, look outside and think about what kind of flowers/plants etc you tend to see around at that time of year. Mistletoe for example?

Think about what Yule actually IS. It's the mark of the solstice, where the sun stands still. The days, which have been getting shorter and shorter, the nights longer and longer, now stop in hiatus for this point, and then the balance is reversed: days start getting lighter, "conquering" night which beginsn to recede. Winter's hold on the land is symbolically over even if there's a damn good fight left in Her yet and she won't go out without screaming The Sun will grow in strength, the year is moving forward again inexorably into spring, summer, autumn, another winter.

Search online for Yule, for pagan rituals, for stories about Yule, and then think about what you've read and what seems most pertinent to YOU. Don't just follow some ritual blindly without thinking about WHY you're following it, WHAT the words mean to you, WHAT the point of the ritual is

No-one here, or anywhere else for that matter, can tell you exactly what you should be doing, because we are not you, we don't know what is in your heart, we don't know what deities will be speaking to you, if any, because we are all different. Certain points of the year tend to mark points where many Pagans have something in common to celebrate, no matter what path, because they are all significant markers in the cyle of the year: summer/winter etc.

Do some research. Then think about what seems best to YOU.

As Pomona says,YUle marks yet another turning and the hope this brings of longer days, warmth, and new growth. All things in their time.

Looking at the wheel of the year can help you have a clearer understanding of how the seasons are marked, and common sense helps too - looking out of the window and seeing the first new growth in Springtime - watching crops ripen, making jam from the hedgrow brambles, seeing the first frost etc.

There are so many forms of Paganism - you may spend years exploring all sorts of Paths, from Heathenism, to Wicca to Witchcraft to Ceremonial Magic. One day, you will decide which feels right for you - if any. Maybe you'll be eclectic? Who knows!

But back to the Yule question.

I personally burn a yule log outside (I don't have an open fire) and it symbolises amongst other things, the returning light. It will be lit from the remains of last year's log. I light candles until the whole house is a aglow with their golden lights, and we eat extremely well, of whatever takes our fancy! The face stuffing and general hedonistic gluttony lasts for the festive season as a whole (see, we Witches understand FUN!) basically from Samhain (for me at first frosts and main ritual will be next weekend, though we had a ritual dinner for the dead on Saturday last week). For Samhain, elderberry wine and cider are drunk. And whisky!

I also decorate my home with greenery - fir branches and pine cones, holly and ivy. I always have vases of these as well, and my stang is decorated too. Basically, my decorations are bright, golden and shiny to represent the sun's return.

As my OH is of no particular persuasion, we also have the xmas day stuff as well, so my girls certainly don't miss out - why waste a perfectly good opportunity to indulge in yet another delicious dinner!

Maybe once you have explored some more, you will hit on other ideas, but basically - ENJOY! (Apart from Joe Publics' supermarket antics, over which we shall draw a bloody great veil! )

You could have a look at this book to give you some ideas.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sacred-Celebration...26678089&sr=1-1

I enjoy that comic, even if I do find it's flagrant heterosexuality mildly offputting

What a bizarre thing to say. You may as well say you find its lack of black charaters off putting.