Do you hear that? The sound of song, laughter and the joyous cacophony of many voices raised in jubilation... Or is that sorrow? The clicking and clanking of cups and plates as meals are shared and drinks passed round. The sound of the holiday, of celebration.

Holidays are central to a peoples collective nature. They hold a vast, untold importance to the heart of a people. While most holidays are joyous, some are sorrowful but all are celebratory. They are a recognition of the human. As families and friends gather to reestablish connections built but frequently neglected due to the strains of the day to day, drifting apart. This is when we come crashing back together with a jubilant rush as though a wave of concerted effort crashing upon the rocky shores of life.

The gathering of the people from the small and often overlooked days of celebration to the grand gatherings of the many tribes of many regions, and everything in between. These are the Holydays of a people who since before memory have come together in recognition of the important, the monumental and the mundane necessities of life. In truth like the many customs of an entire species, these are near innumerable and one could dedicate their lives to the study of them and yet, barely scratch the surface.

Many are still practiced to this day, many more than Yule or Midsummer which many know. There are also celebrations of birth, of death, of meeting, of occasion, of memory.

Ultimately memory is what Holydays are about. The memory of the long forgot. Memory of where we came from. Memory of who we are. And so, where we are going. As the importance of the Holydays fades from our consciousness, so too fades the importance of community, of belonging. The importance of the larger self and so with it fades purpose. Purpose of being, and so we begin to drift like a boat with no rudder, it's spar broken and mangled from the many storms encountered upon the open seas of life.

But how did they start? What do they mean? How were they celebrated? How do we know? These are questions we seek to dive into and explore. Fortunately the last 'How do we know?' is easy enough to answer; and so we shall do so here in our introduction. There are two answers to this question really. The first being that we still practice many of the Holydays of old without even knowing that we are observing them. The second, is the Christian Church itself and its many writings. Fortunately the many priests, bishops and cardinals wrote in letters to each other or in private journals of their own thoughts and observations, often complaining about the masses and their obstinate observation of 'Pagan Rites'.

To paraphrase "These peasants, these commoners every year at this time of year during the waning of the sunlight run amok up and down the streets forming impromptu parades and processions with great insistence upon singing this song. It has no words but merely a melody upon which each seems to know his role with children singing and bellowing one part, while the women trill as though birds dying upon a limb to when the men grumbling and moaning as though great beasts in rut drive the whole affair along. I have however set about a solution to which I shall derive words of melody so that in their insistence to sing this haunting melody to whichever damnable spirit they have dedicated this time, to one of The Lord and God.". This is the development of the song later to come to be known as 'Greensleeves' or alternatively 'What Child Is This'.

You might have noticed others or even yourself on occasion singing this ancient wordless melody under your breath or even quite boisterously should the mood strike you during that most appropriate time of year. That time which is known as Yule or perhaps the Christmas Season. That time when during the long nights, when joy and sorrow both walk hand in hand, as we journey on the crisp and snow lit nights. Those times when conscious and self-conscious thought grow dim, when instinct takes over and we lose ourselves in ourselves.

So please walk with us as we explore our ancient rites and observances, as we seek the truth of our spiritual expression in these our many Holydays.