Here's to our horse, and to his right ear,

God send our master a happy new year:

A happy new year as e'er he did see,

With my wassailing bowl I drink to thee.

 

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! 

[Susan Cooper, 'The Shortest Day']