If we keep this in mind we can see connections between sacrifices, fertility rites, feasting, fires and our contemporary customs. We can understand the need for the solemn and sometimes frightening feast of dark ancestral spirits as in the Yule and Berchta celebrations. We can also understand the licentious, wild revelry of the Saturnalia and the Feast of Fools. We may even discover an appreciation for the tumult of our own emotional roller coaster ride as we careen through another Christmas season. The Beginning Winter is a dark time.
Seeds germinate unseen in the quiet earth.
Newly fertilized ova develop in warm wombs of women and animals. For life to burst forth in spring, fertilization must begin in autumn or winter. So the long dark nights of winter mark the time for life to fertilize life. The beginning lives and souls that stir unseen in the dark wombs of flesh or earth may be new or returning. Forces caring for those moving toward birth demand homage.