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Now the nights are long and dark and Ruprecht has come and gone. Deep white snow still lies on the mountains. Now is the time to tell you about a mysterious Yuletree. In winter, on a clear starry night, you can see it before you go to sleep. So listen carefully!
For thousand of years, the children have sung about this evergreen Yuletree. The song goes like this:
Mimameida stands on the heath,
wearing a
mantle green;
three sisters there are seen.
In old times, the children named this tree "Mimameida" . It never loses its leaves. Three sisters sit next to a wonderful well which is near one of the tree's three roots. This is the well of "being born", and everything which is immersed in this well will become as pure as the white film under an eggshell.
Another well under the tree is the well of knowledge. Anyone who drinks out of it can see far into both, the past and the future. This well is guarded by Mimir, wisest and most peaceful of all the giants. The tree was called Mimameida in Mimir's honour. Remember how the children's song goes:
Mimameida stands on the heath!
In stories written many hundred of years ago, this Yuletree was called Yggdrasil, or the World Tree. Its trunk is rooted in the middle of the world. The top of the tree is high up in the heavens. Father ond Mother can show you its tip. Many people call its tip the north star. The broad protecting branches of the Yuletree shine and glisten in many thousand ways, because its lights are the stars. On every clear winternight we see the star on the tip of Yggdrasil, and the sparkling ornaments of its branches!
Just think, this powerful, invisible tree protects our world, on which all people, all animals, and all plants live together. That is why we should protect Yggdrasil from harm.
Yuletide is the season when the night is longest. It is the time Dwarfs and Goblins materialize out of the dark of the forest, sometimes playing jokes on us. At Yuletide the winter wind blows over the barren fields and the little fir trees get funny little caps of snow. At this season, we decorate an evergreen firtree with lights which beam to us across our room. This reminds us that, in spite of darkness and distress , the sacred light of Yggdrasil always illuminates us. In the branches of our family Yuletree hang fir cones, nuts and red apples. In their kernels slumber new life that will be reborn each year. Out of every seed grows a new tree, just as we grow, maturing and then having children of our own.
Our Yuletree stands shining in the room. Feel it all: the peace of Yuletide rules! Our Yuletree reminds us of Yggdrasil, with the sacred well and its protective branches
in which the stars shine. When we sing our Yuletide songs, you will often see a furtive tear of joy glisten in the eyes of the elders. Yule is so beatiful! Our family Yuletree is certainly more important than the roast goose and all the presents put together. Yule without a firtree would be no Yule at all. In the splendor of the lights on our family Yuletree, we can feel that Yggdrasil protects us, and that Yule can give us all new strength and new courage. Just look in the eyes of your parents on Yulenight! They too derive strength and courage under the Yuletree for the long new year.
That is the great mystery. Now you know it. Behind the clouds of the winter world, our shining, eternal World Tree soars high to the stars.
But now go to sleep, because soon it will be Yule!
Dr. O. J.