Winter Gifting

Even if the act of charitable giving is not explicitly described in ADF’s virtues, the virtues themselves provide support for acts of generosity. And there does seem to be a historical precedent for them – a precedent that stretches back to our earliest Indo-European pagan ancestors.

On Embracing the Solstice Night

I often find myself at odds over what to do with the winter solstice. A lot of my fellow pagans are really, really jazzed about the narrative of the light triumphant returning after the longest night, but it just doesn’t do much for me. I get it, of course — the Triumph of the Light is a wide-ranging cultural trope, so I feel a little surge of excited joy when listening to songs about it, or ritual that use the narrative structurally — and I certainly mean no disrespect to anyone for whom the return of the light is a meaningful narrative: I’m very glad for you! But it doesn’t do as much for me, and I think I figured out why.

Talking About Winter Holidays in School

Lots of schools are talking about winter holidays with students. Each year I’ve emailed my kids’ teachers with some info about Winter Solstice so that they can include it in their “Winter Holiday Unit” and my kids can feel included. I thought it may be useful to share my email so that others can just steal it, modify it to fit their situation, and send it to their kids’ teachers.