Posted
on December 21, 2014
Yule,
or Yuletide, is a pagan religious festival that celebrates midwinter.
It was celebrated by Germanic peoples way back in the Fourth Century
and before.
Yuletide
was more of a season than a day, but the festival lasts 12 days.
Since today is Winter Solstice (the shortest day of the year) in the
Northern Hemisphere, the biggest celebrations happen today!
We're
talking burning a Yule log, Yule singing, roasting and eating a Yule
boar, making Yule goat ornaments out of straw—and more!
Who are the Germanic peoples?
I
mentioned that Yule was a festival celebrated by Germanic peoples.
This name comes from the time of the Roman Empire, when a group of
people called the Celtic Gauls lived in what is now France. North and
east and northeast of the Gauls lived people who were then considered
less civilized and more physical (bigger, stronger, tougher): the Germanic
tribes.
Nowadays,
we typically think of Germanic peoples as those who speak German or
languages that are related to German: Norwegians, Swedes, Danes,
Icelanders, Germans, Austrians, German Swiss, English, Dutch, Afrikaners, Flemish,
Frisians, and Scots.
What
is this pagan religion you speak of?
First
off, let's get one thing straight: there is no one pagan religion!
The
Latin word that pagan came from meant, roughly,
“country bumpkin.” It had nothing to do with religion—but
instead it hinted that someone lived far from the city, that someone
wasn't very educated, that someone was a bit backwards, at least as
far as culture went.
 |
| The Spirit of Yule, aka The Green Man, aka The Holly King |
However,
when Romans used the word to refer to unlearned folks, some later
readers misunderstood it to identify the religion practiced by those
unlearned folks. There was so much misunderstanding and then misuse
of 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 and
beliefs, most of them polytheistic (having multiple gods and goddess).
For
many people, the word pagan has a bad connotation. These days,
it doesn't make people think, “Oh, wow, what an unsophisticated
yokel!” But most people think of pagan religions as not nearly as
respectable as the largest religions in the world (Christianity,
Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism); some people even think of them
as some sort of devil-worshipping cults (although they would be wrong!).
The
particular pagan religion connected with Yule is the old Norse faith. Scholars say that the festival is associated with the Wild Hunt (a group of
ghostlike hunters who presumably parade across the sky), the god Odin
(who is the Norse Allfather, father of all the rest of the gods and goddesses), and
the 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). |
Hey,
wait, isn't Yuletide a Christmas thing?
When
most of the people in a particular Germanic area converted to Christianity,
they kept up their old Yule traditions, but tweaked them a bit here
and there to fit into their new religion. To this day, many people
talk about Yule, Yuletide, and Yule logs being associated with
Christmas—and these things HAVE been associated with Christmas for
hundreds of years! But they were originally part of the folk religions that
existed in Northern Europe well before Christianity made inroads into
the region.
For
more Winter Solstice
celebrations, including Yalda, check out this earlier post:
Also
on this date:
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