O Solstice Night – Another ReWritten Christmas Carol

In one of my recent articles, I touched a bit on the history of stealing folk songs, trying to inspire a little movement in the opposite direction. On that notion, I shared the lyrics to a couple of songs — one by me and one by Christiana Gaudet. They are well-known Christmas carols that we rewrote as Yule songs.

I concluded by mentioning the fact that “O Holy Night” is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Well, I couldn’t get it out of my head all week, so I rewrote it.

I now present to you: “O Solstice Night.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb4UphA0Qo4

If you’d like to sing along, here are the lyrics.

O Solstice Night

To the tune of “O Holy Night”

O solstice night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the sun king’s rebirth
Long lay the world in cold and darkness pining
Til he appeared shining light on the earth

A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Dance and sing
O hear the witches voices
O night divine, o night the sun is born
O night, o solstice night. O night divine.

-Lyrics by Aerik Arkadian

The original song is about a world lost in sin and darkness, awaiting a savior. My version is about a world in the cold and darkness of Winter, eagerly rejoicing in the dawn of a reborn sun.

It was pretty straightforward to shift this song to be about Yule. Lyrics about baby Jesus can easily be written about a Sun King — and it’s also interesting how “sun” can be sung in place of “son.” There is a line in the original that says “fall on your knees,” which to me has a very Christian ring. I spent some time thinking about what witches would be doing instead of that… and I think we would be dancing and singing, so my lyrics reflect that.

You can hear me talk a little bit about Yule on my podcast…

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3itgupnrPzhMPTEOVjiGAe?si=LcEISorqSsmMABkKTVeOHw

That is all for today! Hope you enjoy.

Any other Christmas songs you think would make great Yule songs? If so, let me know in the comments!

#christmas #music #oHolyNight #pagan #sabbats #solstice #songs #sun #witch #yule

How a forgotten verse of 'O Holy Night' became an anti-slavery anthem in 1855

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.upworthy.com/anti-slavery-christmas-carols