Happy Solstice!

God jul och gott nytt år! © 2005-2023 Rami Schandall

I wish you a peaceful and light-filled celebration of the beginning of winter and the lengthening of northern days!

I designed this jul tree in honour of my Swedish Grandmother many years ago. It brings you a “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” wish in her parent’s language, which she used in rosmaling craftwork. “Jul” or yule has come to mean Christmas, but derives from an earlier tradition that marked a midwinter celebration with much feasting — so important to gather and make light together in northern winters. I think too of how content my Grandma was in the cold — she slept under a warm quilt with the bedroom window open all winter! She lived a very long full life…perhaps that brisk fresh air did the trick.

I used typographic ornaments as building blocks for this design, which is not rosmaling but has a little of its feeling. I am indebted to the scores of unnamed designers who created these ornaments for use in printing houses through the centuries. Let us offer a toast to all the reverberant echos, the traces of those who came before, where they live on in us and with us to this day.

Best wishes for the holiday season, in whatever ways you celebrate!

~ Rami

(P.S. Revisit a poem-prayer I wrote for your solstice.)