Looking forwards, or just backwards?

Published: Mon, 12/22/25

According to Roland Zerpe’s book on Stav: Yule or Jul as the Swedes call it, is largely a festival of remembering and honouring the ancestors. To quote: ‘Within Stav, the traditional idea is that the living hold a feast during Jul for both the Gods and the deceased ancestors. Additionally, there is no practical distinction made between deities and ancestors; ultimately, the deities of the Stav pantheon are also perceived as our ancestors.’ 1. It was believed that the ancestors would be present at the festivities and sometimes table places were laid so that unseen members of the family could join in the meal.’
In the UK some people with a pagan inclination will claim to be celebrating Jul or Yule when the rest of the population call it Christmas. It doesn’t really matter too much what we call the midwinter festival. We recognise the turn of the year into longer days and eventually spring. Families come together to celebrate and those who have passed on will leave a particular gap and will, hopefully, be fondly remembered at this time.
The church can provide a focus with ritual, symbolism, music, and the Christmas narrative. It could also be noted that the church doesn’t really expect the Christmas narrative to be taken too seriously. Out of the whole New Testament only two gospels even mention the nativity story and those versions are quite contradictory. Certainly the tale of the baby born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago is a symbol of divine intervention into our world. However, it would be a mistake to take the imagery too literally and a cursory reading of the first couple of chapters of both Matthew and Luke suggest that we are not meant to as the stories are quite incompatible.
The term solstice means ‘sun standing still’ and indeed there is a period of a few days following the shortest day when the sunrise and sunset times vary by a couple of minutes but the overall period of daylight remains about the same. Then, a couple of weeks into January, the days become noticeably longer and we are on our way to spring and, eventually, summer.
Over this period of ‘standing still’ there is often a lot of looking back to the past, memories are shared, especially by the older generation to the younger, when the youngsters are wiling to listen. The celebrations will largely be focussed on the here and now and simply managing the logistics of the mid-winter festival will take up a great deal of effort and focus. And yet there is a promise for the future. We enjoy less than 8 hours of daylight in 24 and the winter weather does get a bit tedious. In C S Lewis’ first first Narnia book the Pevensey children discover a land where, thanks to the White Witch, it is perpetual winter and never Christmas. The most potent sign that the spell is breaking is the arrival of Father Christmas. For Narnia there is still a way to go, and yet the promise of a golden age glimmers on the horizon. Likewise for us, the solstice brings a certain promise of spring.
Spring we can take for granted. What is also needed during this standing still period is a vision, the outcome of which we cannot take for granted and yet can give us something to hope and work for.
In our present society there is still a great deal to enjoy and take comfort in. However, there is also a sense of coasting on momentum which was generated by the ancestors. We are living on the capital which previous generations accumulated. Our prosperity and comfort is built on the vision and efforts of those who are no longer with us. What is our vision which will sustain the children and grand children of this generation? A spring in three months time may be guaranteed regardless of our efforts. However, I do wonder what kind of world my daughter will be living in when she is my age?
Sometimes I find it hard to look forward to a world that I would actually want to live in. It is always easier to look back to the past and imagine that everything was always better then. However, now it the time to visualise the future for coming generations and do our best to lay the foundations. The important stuff like time and seasons will always be there, it is just the details that are up to us.
Regards
Graham
1. Stav, Runes, Martial Art, Philosophy by Roland Zerpe Page 147 (Available on Amazon)
Graham Butcher
21 Beaver Road
Beverley East Yorkshire HU17 0QN
UNITED KINGDOM

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