The winter solstice – the darkest and longest night of the year – has passed, and what we can expect from today, tomorrow and the days to come is more and more light until spring is not a faint hope but a reality.

What a blessed mystery that the solstice occurs before the holy days of Christmas and Hanukkah when people yearn to believe in light, not darkness; in hope, not despair. They welcome today and the coming days with dance and song, in joyful carols and prayerful hearts.

One of my favorite musical renditions comes from a female quartet called Anonymous who have recorded Celtic and British songs and carols that welcome the season known as Yule.

A member of Anonymous, Johanna Marie Rose, explained the history of the music as well as the season:

“The ancient Celts, who dwelt throughout Britain, held a celebration of lights, to give power to the returning sun. They brought evergreens into their homes to symbolize life at the time when most of nature seemed dead and dark, and they gave and received gifts to represent wisdom gained from looking inward during the long winter nights.

“These symbols, and many other elements of ancient pagan ceremonies, were absorbed into the early Christian festivals, blending into a multilayered expression of the universal cycle of life, death, and rebirth.” Many of these expressions were, of course, put to verse and song.

These carols – probably derived from ritual dances with chanting – were rescued from obscurity by collectors of folk tunes and songs in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Two, in particular, bear sharing, the first being an anonymous poem from the 15th century, a medieval riddle, set to music by Geoffrey Burgon in 1984:

“A god, and yet a man?

A maid, and yet a mother?

Wit wonders what wit can

Conceive this? Or the other.

A god and can he die?

A dead man, can he live?

What wit can well reply?

What reason, reason give?

God, truth itself doth teach it;

Man’s wit sinks too far under,

By reason’s pow’r to reach it

Believe, and leave to wonder.”

The other is probably more familiar; it actually dates to the 14th century but was revived by William Sandys in 1833:

“I saw three ships come sailing in, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day. I saw three ships come sailing in, on Christmas Day in the morning. And what was in those ships all three? On Christmas Day… our Savior Christ and his lady, on Christmas Day … Pray whither sailed those ships all three? On Christmas Day … O they sailed into Bethlehem, on Christmas Day … And all the bells on earth shall ring, on Christmas Day … And all the angels in Heaven shall sing, on Christmas Day … And all the Souls on Earth shall sing, on Christmas Day … Then let us all rejoice amain,” on Christmas Day.”

Indeed, let us all rejoice. For the light instead of darkness. For the hope of the season. For the love and goodwill among men. Amain.