Yule is winter’s turning point.
Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shewn me, by an altered life.” – Ebenezer Scrooge, A Christmas Carol
Embracing the In-Between
There’s something otherworldly about the days between Christmas and New Year. Known as Yule to our ancestors, it was a season of retreat. The harvest was done, provisions stored to endure the winter, and people steeled themselves for bleaker and leaner times ahead. Many believed that spirits roamed abroad during the long hours of darkness, making it safer to stay close to the hearth.
Even today, Yule offers a rare pause. Caught between the old and the new, the pace of life seems to slow. Workplaces wind down, emails lose their urgency, and many of us drift into a comfortable limbo. The Germans even have a term for this stretch of suspended routines—zwischen den Jahren, or “between the years” — a chance to reassess and recalibrate priorities.
Yule begins with the winter solstice—the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the sun sits at its lowest in the sky. From here, the hours of daylight gradually lengthen. For centuries, the solstice has been celebrated as a turning point, a shift from darkness to light. To this day, there’s an undercurrent of pre-Christian rituals celebrating death, regeneration, and renewal; thousands still gather at Neolithic sites like Stonehenge and Newgrange to mark the sun’s cycle and witness this timeless transition.
Yule’s Liminal Threshold
Yule marks a liminal conjunction of opposites—darkness to light, old to new. The word liminal comes from the Latin word limen, meaning threshold. Liminality describes in-between stages of life, intervals of transition where we leave behind one phase but haven’t fully entered the next. For instance, adolescence is the shift from childhood to adulthood, marked by significant physical and emotional development. Other examples include bereavement and sudden breakup of relationships, when a familiar bond is severed, and people must adapt to a new life without a loved one. These experiences are where we cross boundaries in life and significant changes take place.
can be physical, temporal, or even psychological. Holidays such as Christmas and New Year may feel significant, but their dates are arbitrary. December 25th was chosen by early Christians to align with pagan winter solstice festivals, while January 1st marks the New Year based on the Roman calendar. However, many cultures do not observe Christmas or they celebrate their new year at different times. The feeling of being between two worlds is therefore a psychological experience for those of us who celebrate these festivals in midwinter. In contrast, the winter solstice happens around December 21st or 22nd each year due to the Earth’s axial tilt. It’s not a symbol or a metaphor but a concrete event that impacts everyone who lives in the northern hemisphere.
Liminal Stories
Each year, streaming channels feature holiday movies with and themes, focusing on people making pivotal choices. They often step outside of their comfort zones, tackle personal or relationship challenges, and emerge with a new purpose or outlook on life. While these stories aren’t directly about Christmas per se, they are set during this time of year and embody the idea that this is the season for transformation and fresh starts.
The story that best captures this liminal mood is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The plot is steeped in liminality as Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a supernatural experience on Christmas Eve. The boundary between the living and the dead is supposed to be thin at this time of year, allowing spirits to wander. Scrooge’s transformation begins with a visit from the ghost of his late partner, Jacob Marley, who appears dragging heavy chains symbolizing the consequences of his selfish choices in life. Doomed to roam the earth without the ability to help others, Marley warns Scrooge that he is following the same path and faces an even worse fate unless he alters his ways. He has one chance at redemption—he will be visited by three spirits who can guide him to change before it’s too late.
Initially skeptical, Scrooge later receives visits from the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. These spirits pull him out of the normal flow of time, forcing him to confront his life from a new perspective. They show him the effects of his choices and make him reconsider what kind of legacy he wants to leave behind. This transformative journey changes him from a bitter, selfish miser into a kind and compassionate man, earning him a reputation of being “as good a friend, and as good a man, as the good old city knew.”
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper is another powerful exploration of yuletide liminality. The story follows Will Stanton, a young boy who discovers he is the last of the Old Ones, ancient immortal guardians dedicated to protecting the world from the Dark. Beginning on the winter solstice and spanning the twelve days of Christmas, the story takes place when pagan elemental forces are at their strongest. This timeline also symbolizes the shift from darkness to light, signifying the ongoing battle between good and evil. Will’s personal journey mirrors this liminality as he grapples with his dual nature. Both human and immortal, he straddles the line between his ordinary life and his extraordinary destiny. This passage from the novel sums up Will’s struggle as his identity is reshaped:
“Will tossed uneasily. He had never known a feeling like this before. It was growing worse every minute. As if some huge weight were pushing at his mind, threatening, trying to take him over, turn him into something he didn’t want to be. That’s it, he thought, make me into someone else.”
In The Dark is Rising, liminality is not just a theme but a vital force.
Season of Transition
can unsettle us because they disrupt the familiar and thrust us into uncertainty. The alignment of the winter solstice with Christmas and New Year brings together a potent blend of natural and psychological transitions—a shift from shorter days to longer ones, from endings to new beginnings. This in-between state puts us in a state of transformation, compelling us to face change head-on. Yule represents the ultimate liminal zone—a no man’s land between what was and what could be, brimming with ambiguity and untapped potential.
