Pagans, help, Yule and children.

MrsTinks

I don't have kids but plenty of my friends who are also pagan do... they have brought their kids up in their pagan path but just as happily would accept if they wanted to choose their own path.
My OH isn't pagan (or anything else really) so I do my own thing - winter solstice I go out in the fields behind the houses and sit and comtemplate the year that was. I offer thanks to the earth for the blessings and the lessons learnt. I ask for guidance and strength to face the new challenges the coming year will bring and then I share a glass of mead with the earth and a few offerings that mean something to me... these are personal and things that are of importance to me. They can be physical things (biodegradable ofcourse) or promises...
Julenissen is something we grown up with in scandinavia, and I like the traditions that go with him. It used to be that each house had a "nisse" and at christmas you would put out a bowl of rice pudding witha knob of butter in, cinnamon and sugar drizzled on top and a glass of beer. You would put this out at christmas to keep the "nisse" happy through the year and he would help you protect the house and livestock. If you forgot.... he would get VERY mischievous! And your animals could fall ill because he didn't look after them, your crops would fail etc etc...
In Denmark a lot of decorations are of nisser for christmas and not santa or "julemanden" or "julenissen". Funny how some traditions carry on isn't it?

Anyway I digress... To me Yule is mead... friends... family (if absolutely necessary)... lots of food... and being very greatful for what the year has brought and what the new year might bring. Yeah I like presents but I love giving them too - more and more so as the years have gone by
Then you have the yule log and it's various meanings. A good article on this on wikipedia... I don't have a fireplace in this house so go without. My next house does on the top of the list have "fireplace" though

Another wikipedia article - this one is on Yule... and might give you the basic outlines which could be a first step to explaining paganism ot the kids.

Personally I think changing christmas to yule in one year might be a toughie - depends on how old they are I guess

piglet6

Perhaps not quite for this thread (although related to Paganism, and therefore partly relevant ), I am watching ITV and it has just been announced that Paganism is the subject of this week's "Essentials of Faith" programme tonight at 12.35am.

May be worth a look for anybody still up at that time who would like to find out more about the subject...

Piglet

knithappens

tine wrote: »

Personally I think changing christmas to yule in one year might be a toughie - depends on how old they are I guess

I wont be changing Christmas to Yule, but in corporating the two, i though that it would be nice this year if we actually celebrated Yule too, rather than just christmas.

knithappens

piglet6 wrote: »

Perhaps not quite for this thread (although related to Paganism, and therefore partly relevant ), I am watching ITV and it has just been announced that Paganism is the subject of this week's "Essentials of Faith" programme tonight at 12.35am.

May be worth a look for anybody still up at that time who would like to find out more about the subject...

Piglet

oooh thanks for that, may be an interesting watch

Hapless_2

piglet6 wrote: »

Perhaps not quite for this thread (although related to Paganism, and therefore partly relevant ), I am watching ITV and it has just been announced that Paganism is the subject of this week's "Essentials of Faith" programme tonight at 12.35am.

May be worth a look for anybody still up at that time who would like to find out more about the subject...

Piglet

As long as there is no "sky-clad W/wiccans" dancing round bonfires, teenagers wearing purple and black velvet, pseudo-druids celebrating at Stonehenge, vegan heathens, angel healing, crystal healing, lightworkers and neo-nazi asatru followers it might be a good programme.

knithappens

Hapless wrote: »

As long as there is no "sky-clad W/wiccans" dancing round bonfires, teenagers wearing purple and black velvet, pseudo-druids celebrating at Stonehenge, vegan heathens, angel healing, crystal healing, lightworkers and neo-nazi asatru followers it might be a good programme.

thats why i said it may be and interesting watch lol. Some programmes are great where as others just perpetuation the thousands of myths there are out there of Pagans.

strawbsuk76

Spendless wrote: »

Hi -can't add much to your discussion, but thought some of you with young children might be interested to know in an episode of Little Bear, he goes off to celebrate the winter solstice. Know a member on another forum liked being able to show her child a tv programme which showed something they celebrated so thought I'd share. Can't remember which sky channel it's on, but will edit the post when I find out.

little bear is on nick junior and channel five milkshake (occasionally)
my kids love this programme and every episode has a great story behind it. the winter solstice one is indeed a good one to watch

strawbs x

piglet6

piglet6 wrote: »

Perhaps not quite for this thread (although related to Paganism, and therefore partly relevant ), I am watching ITV and it has just been announced that Paganism is the subject of this week's "Essentials of Faith" programme tonight at 12.35am.

May be worth a look for anybody still up at that time who would like to find out more about the subject...

Piglet

Sorry to cause confusion - this programme was on last night at 12.35am (when I said "tonight" my brain hadn't clicked that we had gone past midnight and therefore the date would look like it was on Monday evening...:rolleyes:).

I watched it because I would be the first to admit I don't know much about Paganism (and am always open to finding out about alternative beliefs - IMHO you can't express a valid opinion on something you know nothing about!;)). However, although there were a couple of interesting people being interviewed, I still don't feel that I learnt very much about Paganism, and I do think there was a fair bit of myth perpetuation (to borrow Lilmrsmullen's phrase:p). I think, if I'm honest, I could have discovered more via Wikipedia/Google and searching on the internet...

Obviously, I would be interested to hear from any Pagans who watched it as to whether they feel it was an accurate representation, but personally I was a bit disappointed...:o

Piglet

Ishtar

Both OH and I are Pagan, each following a slightly different path - our daughter, however, is not being brought up into any religion at present. We felt that as we had been heavily 'Christianised' as we grew up, we would let our daughter decide what she wanted to believe as she grew older. Obviously, at the moment she is Pagan through osmosis, but that may well change as she grows older and begins to challenge what she's learnt.

As for Yule celebrations, well we start on the shortest day, and carry our celebrations into Christmas and beyond - Christmas has always been a very special time in both our families, so we didn't want to omit it completely. We don't do anything particular, perhaps just watch the sun come up on the solstice, giving thanks for the return of the light. We also bake biscuits and, of course, mince pies, which we share in the evening.

DD will be 3 this year, so will be much more involved than she has been previously.

D.