Researching Yule for MUUGs
• Mark Eschbach
Yule is a celebration of the end of Autumn and the start of Winter coinciding with the longest night of the year. If our Georgian Calendar was completely accurate then the 21st of December would be this night every year, however in practice this night may move up to four days in a single direction due to the approximate quarter day accounted for in leap year. My knowledge of these practices arise out of the Nothern European tradition where a log would be traidtionally burnt throughout the night. This night is kicked off with a feast and music. This is the peak of my knowledge and I think where different traditions back apart.
As a compentoporary observation of the seasons I’ve traditionally opted to invite friends over as a pre-Christmas celebration given many have returned to the area to see their parents. Generally we have a “bring something to share” invitation, asking they bring a game, food, or a friend. This is really research on the presentation of holiday to the MUUGs so I need to adapt the obseration into the approximate hour we have.
The game plan we’ve established so far is to use the firepit available to us and to make S’mores. This allows us to keep them occupied and fed while we engage in the conversation.