Ring Out Solstice Bells by Jethro Tull—Murfin Winter Holidays Music Festival 2024-‘25

        

                                                                Jethro Tull's Ring Out the Solstice Bells by Ian Anderson.

Call it Solstice, Yule, Meán Geimhridh, or any name you choose, it is the longest night of the year—the official beginning of Winter. Tomorrow the Sun begins its annual return. Despite claims otherwise, Solstice is the Reason for the Season—the overt or disguised inspiration of most Northern Hemisphere Festivals of Light clustered around this date. To celebrate we turn to Jethro Tull’s classic 1977 album Songs from the Woods, Ian Anderson’s turn from jazz-infused rock to an embrace of his English roots and folk identities is a fitting carol for the day.

Today, the Solstice—the moment in the Northern Hemisphere when has its maximum tilt away from the Sun will occur at 3:21 CST.  You can calculate it for your time zone.

                                         The Holly King rules in the Germanic Yule celebration at Solstice.

In most so-called pagan traditions around the Northern Hemisphere there were two ways to celebrate the Solstice.  Some lit fires in the darkest night to summon the return of the Sun.  Others gathered at dawn to in some way capture the first light of that return.  The latter often involved human construction on or in which that light would strike a significant stone or altar.  Think pyramids in Egypt and the pre-Columbian Americas, Stonehenge, Greek temples, medicine wheels, certain Medieval Cathedrals, and far simpler wooden structures in Northern Europe and Siberia.  Either way, those who observe or re-create such rituals have found a way to do so.

Even if you do not observe the pagan doings—or shun them as the Devil’s work—chances are that you to have been or will be celebrating the solstice yourself.  

Buried in traditional folklore, swathed in symbolism, and steeped in metaphor, Christmas and Hannukah share the same impulses as Yule and its Celtic and ancient British cousin, Meán Geimhridh  beloved by contemporary neo-pagans of one stripe or another.  At their core there was in each of them a physical or metaphorical re-kindling of the light at the darkest hour of the year offering a glimmering of hope at a time of cold and starvation. 

                                The Moon Goddess is the spirit of Solstice in Celtic-based modern neo-paganism.

Archeological evidence shows that the event—the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the Sun’s daily maximum elevation in the sky is the lowest—was marked, often using physical constructions to capture the rising sun, in Neolithic times across widely separated cultures in Europe, the Near East, Asia, and North America.  Stonehenge is just the most famous example.  

English Druids and other neo-pagans celebrate the winter solstice annually at dawn at Stonehenge.

While the trappings of Christmas—the Yule log, the holly and the ivy, the Christmas tree, mistletoe, wassailing, and other customs are commonly known to be borrowed from pagan celebrations, the metaphor of the birth of the Son, bringing light and salvation to the world is often overlooked.  Among still nervous orthodox Christians, drawing parallels to pagan belief is still actively discouraged.

Ring out Solstice Bells was included on Jethro Tull's 1977 album Songs from the Woods featuring Ian Anderson.

Ian Anderson is a Scottish born multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the creative force behind the innovative and influential British folk/jazz/fusion/progressive rock band Jethro Tull.  Many of the band’s best known songs evoke a magical, even mystical spirit.  That is certainly the case in Ring Out Solstice Bells featuring percussion and Anderson’s signature flute.