Yule traditions and history
Yule or the Winter Solstice takes place on 21st
December. Because the cycle of the Earth around the Sun isn't exactly the same
length as our calendar year, the dates can fall on the 20th or the 22nd of
December, however it is generally the 21st that is considered the
festival of Yule. Yule is the celebration of the longest night and shortest day.
After this point our days will begin to get longer and the light return to the
world.
 |
| Yule by Margaret Ellis |
Yule is one of the fire festivals on the Wheel of the Year, a time
of great warmth and celebration. This special time marks a turning point for
our Earth: the days have reached their longest point and from now on until the
Summer Solstice the light will return. The celebration of the Winter Solstice
therefore focuses heavily on the themes of hope and renewal. As new life is
slowly breathed into the world, so we can look at new starts within our own
lives. Yule is also all about family, love and security. We give thanks for the
family and friends that we have in our lives and spending time with them during
the Yule holidays helps strengthen that bond.
The world Yule appears to have many possibilities for its origin
that I have found. The word is said to have been derived from the word Jul, Jol
or Juul in the Pagan Norse tradition which is a word meaning ‘Wheel’ The Feast of Juul was a festival observed in Scandinavia at the time
of the December solstice. In countries like Scandinavia and Norway, people were
forbidden to use wheels on the day of the Solstice as they waited for the return
of the light. This is because they
believed that the Wheel of the Year stopped turning for a brief moment as one
cycle ended and another began. The Old Norse 'jol' is said to have been borrowed in Old French as
'olif', which gave way to the Modern French 'joli'; "pretty, nice,"
originally meaning "festive"
Yule is also know as Alban Arthan (Gaelic
for ‘the light of Arthur) and also may have derived from the Anglo-Saxon Hweol
also meaning Wheel. According to Webster's Dictionary, Yule
originates from "geola" (Old English for "ice"), another
name for the month during which it was celebrated. "Modronacht"
(Mother's Night) is another name for the Winter Solstice.
 |
| Lights of Yule by Oshuna on DeviantArt |
Yule is often celebrated as a 12 day
celebration, it begins on "Mothers Night" (December 21st) and ends 12
days later on "Yule Night" (January 1st). This period of time is the
origin for the Christian "12 Days of Christmas". ( can you recite all
the verses for the song ‘On the twelth day of Chrismas my true love sent to
me…..!). When ancient people used a lunar
calendar, it left about 12 days left over each year. So the twelve nights
of Yule were considered to be not part of the old year, or part of the New Year.
Thus as these twelve days were separate for the other days of the year they
were considered to be especially important and sacred.
The twelve days are organized as follows:
Dec. 20 to Dec. 23. During the 1st 3 days -
The virgin Maiden Goddess
is honored as a guide for moving forward into the new year, to set you on a
fulfilling and positive path.
Dec. 23 to Dec. 26. The 2nd set of 3 days -
The Mother Goddess is honoured
for fertility and all your projects ahead of you.
Dec. 26 to Dec 29. The 3rd set of 3 days -
These 3 days are for the
rebirth of the God, and honoring his guidance.
Dec. 29 to Jan. 1. -
The last 3 days of Yule are a celebration of the
Old Crone Goddess who is honoured for her wisdom and as the teacher in the
lessons of life and spirit. She is
also honored as the waning year giving way to the new year. At the culmination of
these 12 days the new year was then celebrated. In Norse traditions Red
Thor rides pas in his sled pulled by magical goats and brings presents for the
children.
Yule is represented by the death of the Holly King and the birth
of the Oak King, the God of the Waxing Year. Robert Graves
suggests in his book The White Goddess that the two figures, the Holly King and the Oak King represent
the two haves of the year. They constantly strive for superiority with the
Holly King being victorious over the Oak King at midwinter and the Oak King
winning in midsummer. The colours of
Yule, red, white and green are said to have come from the Holly Tree,
Mistletoe, and honoring the Goddess and the God.
 |
| The Holly King from the Village Witch |
The Goddess at Yule is Queen of the Darkness. She will give birth
to the Child of Promise, the Sun God, who will bring light back to the world.
The Sun God is often named Lugh in Celtic traditions.
He is reborn in human form to rejoin his beloved wife Eriu. Eriu is described
as a hag, who transfoms into a beautiful Goddess by the marriage and
personifies the land of Ireland.
Many ancient monuments around the world have been found to be
related to the Winter Solstice. Stonehenge is most famously believed to be in
alignment with both the Winter and Summer sunrise and many people gather there
each year to see the sunrise over the heel stone. The Newgrange burial mound in
Ireland is another ancient monument
said to be aligned with the winter Solstice, the dawn light hitting the
inner shrine. This Stone Age monument dates to around
3200 B.C., making it 500 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt
and a thousand years older than England's Stonehenge.
Yule has long been celebrated as an important festival the world
over. Of course in the Christian world it has been taken over by Christmas but
as we will explore, many of the traditions we associate with Christma such as
mistletoe and the Christmas tree stem from pagan practices in place a long time
before Christianity.
Ancient traditions of Yule
Ancient Pagans’ lives revolved around
harvest and livestock. Thus many traditions concentrated on giving thanks and
ensuring that good luck would continue. The winter solstice was a time of
honoring the sun and giving thanks for the bounty that sustains the family
throughout the cold winter months.
Misltletoe. In the Pagan Norse
tradition the Norse god Balder was son of Frigga, goddess of love and beauty.
She loved her son to such a degree that she had the four elements (Fire, Water,
Air, and Earth) promise that they would not harm her son. However the evil God
Loki found that mistletoe could harm Balder and shot him with an arrow made
from the plant. The white berries are said to be Frigga’s tears at the loss of
her beloved Balder. Luckily Balder is restored to life, and Frigga is so
grateful that she reverses the reputation of the mistletoe, making it a symbol
of love and promising to bestow a kiss upon anyone who passes under it. Thus when we pass under it, the kiss we receive is a sacred kiss from
the Mother Goddess herself! A kiss under the mistletoe was often considered to
be a promise of marriage and commitment.
Mistletoe was
considered highly sacred by the Druids because, as a parasitic kind of
vegetation, it never touched the earth (growing instead on oaks and other trees)
and also like holly bore berries in the middle of winter. Druids gathered the
leaves and berries from oaks trees with special sickles made of gold. They
called mistletoe "all-heal" because they believed it had the power of
protection against illness and bad events, and also because they believed
mistletoe spread goodwill amongst people. Legend says that enemies meeting
under the mistletoe cast their weapons aside, greeted each other amicably, and
honored a temporary truce. Misteltoe was also considered as a symbol of
fertility.
Yule Log. This was traditionally a
large log that was selected on size because it had to burn throughout the
twelve days of Yule. In ancient times A tree was
chosen on the eve of Yule, often an oak as they were considered sacred. The
huge log was then pulled from the forest into the town or village. As many
people as possible grabbed onto the ropes to help pull, because doing so was
believed to bring good luck in the New Year. The log was lit with a scrap of
burned log carefully preserved from the previous year, a practice that ensured
the continuity of good fortune from year to year and from generation to
generation. Various Pagan religions around the world used the ashes in various
ways to ensure luck and protection throughout the coming year. The ashes were
sprinkled under beds, at the threshold, around crops and trees. For
the Vikings, the Yule log was an integral part of their celebration of the
solstice, the julfest. On the log they would carve runes representing unwanted
traits (such as ill fortune or poor honor) that they wanted the gods to take
from them. It was thought that as the log burnt so these unwanted things were
erased. You may want to have your own Yule log in your home this winter. Select
a log that has fallen from a tree if possible.
In her book ‘ Wheel of the Year” Pauline Campanelli says “The Yule Log is selected early in the
year and set aside. It is traditionally of oak. Early in the season as you
begin decorating the house with great sprays of fir and sprigs of holly, you
might wish to adorn the Yule Log with traditional and symbolic greens as well.
The bright green needles of fir represent the birth of the New Year that is
about to begin. The dark needles of yew symbolize death, in this case the death
of the waning year. Trailing vines of ivy represent the Goddess as the female
element, as do bare branches of birch, whose wintry appearance actually
promises the return of Spring. Sprigs of holly with bright red berries
represent the Holly King of the dying year, while the oak log itself represents
the Oak King of the new year.”
One common part of the Yule tradition
was that no unnecessary work would take place in or around the household as
long as the log burned. This encouraged people to get together and relax with
family. This custom still continues today as we spend time with family and
friends.
The ‘Christmas’ Tree. Again many
parts of the world had different traditions concerning the Yule tree. Christmas
trees are thought to have evolved from the rite of symbolically selecting and
harvesting a "sacred tree," a practice found in many ancient
cultures. Evergreens and firs were sacred to early peoples, including the
ancient Greeks, Celts, and Germans. Evergreens
remained green while other vegetation lost their leaves and appeared lifeless
during the bitter winter cold, thus they were seen to be sacred trees. The
German word for Christmas tree is not Kristenbaum, or Christmas tree, but
Tannenbaum, or sacred tree. In Roman times, on the night before Saturnali Roman priests
called "tree-bearers" cut one of the sacred pines, decorated it, and
carried it into the temple. Many ancient cultures chose a special tree to be
part of their celebrations, perhaps decorating the tress around their homes or
bringing a tree into a special meeting point in the centre of their towns and
villages. Decorating the Yule tree was seen as a way of ensuring the return of
the summer abundance. Trees were often decorated with fruit, nuts, flowers and
berries.
Try this Yule to bring in some greenery from
outside into your home and decorate your tree with the fruits of the earth such
as dried fruit and nuts.
The ancient Egyptians considered the palm tree to symbolize
resurrection. They decorated their homes with its branches during the winter
solstice. The ancient Pagan Romans decorated their Saturnalia trees with bits
of metal and replicas of their god, Bacchus [a fertility god]. They also placed
12 candles on the tree in honor of their sun god".
Wreathes. The wreath circle symbolizes the wheel of
the year and the completion of another cycle. Often wreathes are made with
holly and ivy, the holly representative of the Goddess and ivy the God. Like
evergreens holly was seen as magickal as it bore berries in the middle of the
cold winter. Both holly and ivy were seen as sacred and as a protection against
any negative forces. Perhaps you would like to make your own decorative wreath this year?
 |
| Christmas Wreath by Rodalvarez.com |
Carol singing. Carol singing from door to door is said to come from the
tradition of ‘Wassailing’. Wassailing or to
"wassail," is a word derived from the Old Norse 'ves heil'. In Old English 'hál' meant "be in good
health" or "be fortunate." By about the 1600s, the practice of
taking a wassail bowl containing a type of wine or cider about the streets had
taken root. Instead of consuming the drink at home, wassailers went house to
house offering a warm drink and going Wassailing was born. The wassailing tradition also sometimes included drinking
the cider or suitable wine as a toast to a tree or orchard in the hope that it
would continue to flourish.
Christmas Pudding. The Christmas pudding of Victorian times
evolved from the medieval dish of frumenty -- a spicy, wheat-based dessert
Yule around the world
Yule or Winter solstice celebrations were held by many cultures around
the globe. Yule celbrations were practiced among such diverse groups as Native
South Americans, Celts, Persians, Orientals, and Africans. The Winter Solstice
was known as Sacaea to the Mesopotamians, the Festival of Kronos to the ancient
Greeks, and as Saturnalia to the Romans.
In the Norse tradition, the Valkyrie looked for souls to bring to
Valhalla during Yule. Norwegians stopped hunting and fishing for the twelve
days of Yule in order to allow the weary world to rest and to hasten the
arrival of the sun.
In
ancient Rome the festival of Saturnali begins on December 17 and lasts for seven days. It was held to honour Saturn,
the father of the gods and was characterized by the suspension of discipline
and reversal of the usual order, disagreements were often forgotten about at
this time of the year and people forgivien for any misdemeanors. Wealthy
Romans at the time of Saturnali
would exchange lavish gifts. There would be feasting, and they would
hand over the Freedman's hat (also known as a Liberty Cap or pileus) to their slaves and serve
them dinner, although the slaves still had to cook!
In Russia it was customary to sprinkle grain on your doorway as a way of
bringing luck and ensuring plentiful food over the coming months. In many
Baltic lands today corn is still scattered in the doorway, also the ashes of
the Yule log are scattered near fruit trees to increase their yield in the
summer/autumn.
In Poland the ancient winter
solstice festival involved people showing forgiveness and sharing food. This
tradition still survives today and is known as ‘Gody’
In both France and Germany ashes from the Yule log were mixed with cows’
feed to help them to produce healthy carves in the springtime. French peasants also believed that if the ashes from the Yule Log
were kept under the bed, they would protect the house against thunder and
lightning.
 |
| Yule by Rowiel on DeviantArt |
In the northwestern corner of
Pakistan, a festival called Chaomos, takes place among the Kalasha or Kalash
Kafir people. It lasts for at least seven days, including the day of the
December solstice. Chaomos involves ritual baths as part of a purification
process, as well as singing and chanting, a torchlight procession, dancing,
bonfires and festive eating.
In Cusco, Peru there is a major
celebration for the Winter Solstice which begins in the town and proceeds to the
local ampitheatre.
It is apparent therefore as we look
at cultures around the world that Yule has always been an important festival. The
themes of re-birth, returning of the light, love and family are ones that are
echoed across many parts of our world. It is a time for protecting ourselves
and the lives of those we hold dear, a time to ensure harmony amongst all
people. How do you celebrate Yule? Do you have any particular traditions that
happen every year with your friends and family?
#yule
Sources and Further Information:
I have found my information
from various sites all over the internet. Also the following books are
excellent sources for wheel of the year information:
Pagan in the City: Cassandra Eason
MacKillop, J, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press, Oxford,
1998
