The Third Day of Yuletide

From the Asatru Folk Assembly:

The ancestors are always with us, but in some sense their presence is more immediate during Yule. We feel them in the moments of quiet, walking under the stars or through the wintry woods. They linger near the fireplace, too, as the crackling flames cast moving shadows across the dimmed room. And sometimes, when making grandma's favorite Yule recipe or just remembering what this season was like for us as children, the past seems to rub up against the present like a friendly cat that has stealthily, unnoticed, padded into the room. When we set a place for the ancestors at the Yuletide table, we know that in some way we cannot fully fathom, they delight in the attention.

We think on those who have gone before us - their gift of life to us, and our obligation to burnish the family name with love and leave it shining all the more brightly for our having been here.

This third day of Yuletide, light a candle for Courage and let it shine bravely across the years.

(This series is sent as a service to the Germanic religious community, and its contents do NOT duplicate those of the AFA's booklet, The Twelve Days of Yule in Word and Deed.)