December Days and Dalliances

In the Anglo-Saxon calendar, winter solstice is called Geola, aka Yule, and the months (starting with the first visible crescent of the new moon) before and after that are Aerra Geola, “Before Yule,” and Aeftera Geola, “After Yule.” Since the next “new” (dark) moon occurs on Dec. 19, by the time we can actually spot that sliver of a backwards C that marks a new moon-month, it’ll be the winter solstice, Dec. 21.