The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper

And the shortest day came and the year died

And everywhere through the centuries of the snow-white world

People came 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, reveling.

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 now so do we, here now,

This year and every year.

[Welcome Yule!]