Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/religion/dec01/6854.asp

On December 20, 2001, The MIlwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that "Wiccans and followers of other nature-based faiths across Wisconsin are reaching back to the dawn of time today to celebrate the winter solstice with sunlight, songs, flames, feasts and prayerful reverence... The Wiccan religion has caught the public's attention in recent weeks because of controversy over the state's hiring of the Rev. Jamyi Witch at Waupun Correctional Institution as Wisconsin's first Wiccan prison chaplain... At Circle Sanctuary - a Wiccan church and community that has existed on a 200-acre nature preserve about 30 miles west of Madison since 1983 - a 2-foot oak Yule log, decorated with holly, dried pine boughs and mistletoe, blazed during a winter solstice eve ceremony... More than 60 participants in the Circle Sanctuary community will gather there Saturday for a private Yule log ceremony, Yule tree decorating, singing and a holiday feast... The public is invited to an interfaith, multicultural Winter Solstice Celebration [in Madison] sponsored by Circle Sanctuary. More than 200 people are expected for the event."