December 21 – Yule

nPostednon December 21, 2014

Yule,nor Yuletide, is a pagan religious festival that celebrates midwinter.nIt was celebrated by Germanic peoples way back in the Fourth Centurynand before.

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nYuletidenwas more of a season than a day, but the festival lasts 12 days.nSince today is Winter Solstice (the shortest day of the year) in thenNorthern Hemisphere, the biggest celebrations happen today!

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nWe’rentalking burning a Yule log, Yule singing, roasting and eating a Yulenboar, making Yule goat ornaments out of straw—and more!

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nWhonare the Germanic peoples?
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nInmentioned that Yule was a festival celebrated by Germanic peoples.nThis name comes from the time of the Roman Empire, when a group ofnpeople called the Celtic Gauls lived in what is now France. North andneast and northeast of the Gauls lived people who were then considerednless civilized and more physical (bigger, stronger, tougher): the Germanicntribes.

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nNowadays,nwe typically think of Germanic peoples as those who speak German ornlanguages that are related to German: Norwegians, Swedes, Danes,nIcelanders, Germans, Austrians, German Swiss, English, Dutch, Afrikaners, Flemish,nFrisians, and Scots. n

nWhatnis this pagan religion you speak of?

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nFirstnoff, let’s get one thing straight: there is no one pagan religion!

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nThenLatin word that pagan came from meant, roughly,n“country bumpkin.” It had nothing to do with religion—butninstead it hinted that someone lived far from the city, that someonenwasn’t very educated, that someone was a bit backwards, at least asnfar as culture went.

The Spirit of Yule, aka
The Green Man, aka
The Holly King

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nHowever,nwhen Romans used the word to refer to unlearned folks, some laternreaders misunderstood it to identify the religion practiced by thosenunlearned folks. There was so much misunderstanding and then misusenof the word, that the word pagan eventually evolved to have a religious meaning. It now refers to a broad group of indigenous (native) religious traditions andnbeliefs, most of them polytheistic (having multiple gods and goddess).

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nFornmany people, the word pagan has a bad connotation. These days,nit doesn’t make people think, “Oh, wow, what an unsophisticatednyokel!” But most people think of pagan religions as not nearly asnrespectable as the largest religions in the world (Christianity,nJudaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism); some people even think of themnas some sort of devil-worshipping cults (although they would be wrong!).

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nThenparticular pagan religion connected with Yule is the old Norse faith. Scholars say that the festival is associated with the Wild Hunt (a group ofnghostlike hunters who presumably parade across the sky), the god Odinn(who is the Norse Allfather, father of all the rest of the gods and goddesses), andnthe holiday Modraniht (Mother’s Night, which celebrates women and fertility).

In the U.S., the Yule goat never caught on.
But in some places in the world, the goat
that used to be part of the pagan Yule is
now a part of Christmas. Witness this
decorative window (above) and ornament
(below).

nHey,nwait, isn’t Yuletide a Christmas thing?

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nWhennmost of the people in a particular Germanic area converted to Christianity,nthey kept up their old Yule traditions, but tweaked them a bit herenand there to fit into their new religion. To this day, many peoplentalk about Yule, Yuletide, and Yule logs being associated withnChristmas—and these things HAVE been associated with Christmas fornhundreds of years! But they were originally part of the folk religions thatnexisted in Northern Europe well before Christianity made inroads intonthe region.