My husband of 20 years moved out, eventually going on in 2006 to divorce me. In December we were still talking, and I hoped to work things out, and that he would come home. I felt very alone in our house, that now felt very empty. Part of my working to keep it all together, I made this music / picture video. I insisted that I would have Christmas, and would decorate my home for myself, and visit friends and take pictures of their efforts as well. It has continued to exist on a single DVD that was created by the software that allowed me to assemble it, as well as fragments on my very old and almost non-working laptop. It was a fragile piece of memory, always guaranteed to illicit complex emotions in me. I felt my creation was beautiful, but for me, it is also very sad.
New friends have helped me to save this copy into a YouTube file, and now I post it here. Hopefully there will not be any issues with the fact that I don't have permission to use the music. The file is marked private, but I can link it here.
The video is a celebration of Yule, the old Pagan word for the longest night of the year. It is a celebration of the sun, and the hope that it will return again to warm the land and bring back life. With the Christianization of the Western World the origins of the festival were wrapped into ideas and concepts that would be acceptable to the church. However, at the root of it is the recognition of the tilt of the globe, and the reality of the decreasing hours of light that mark winter. At Yule, this progression stops, and the sun is reborn, and makes its slow progress back. What better reason can you find to have a party, to drink, to eat tasty foods, and to bring an evergreen tree into your midst and decorate it?
The video has a revolving sun theme, as well as winter scenes, both indoor and out. The creation is older, and my digital camera at the time of poor quality. Images are not sharp, but it is a snapshot of time. Enjoy!
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