(The reading is from the first Revels Christmas CD—for me, the quintessential Christmas album—and is spoken by Robert J. Lurtsema. The well-known poem "The Shortest Day" was written by Susan Cooper especially for The Christmas Revels. The lovely song "Sol Invictus" is by Thea Gilmore.)
The Shortest Day
~ Susan Cooper
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen,
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing, behind us — listen!
All the long echoes sing the same delight
This shortest day
As promise wakens in the sleeping land.
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, and hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year, and every year.
Welcome Yule!
Comments