Daily Archives: December 16, 2022

Religious festival observed during winter

Hauling a Yule log in 1832

Yule (also called Jul, jl or joulu) is a festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples. Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Mdraniht ("Mothers' Night"). Some present-day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others may have connections to older pagan Yule traditions. Cognates to Yule are still used in English, the Scandinavian languages as well as in Finnish and Estonian to describe Christmas and other festivals occurring during the winter holiday season.

Yule is the modern version of Old Norse Jl and Jlnir one of the names for Odin. The Old English derivates ol or ohol and ola or oli, indicates the 12-day festival of "Yule" (later: "Christmastide") and the latter indicating the month of "Yule", whereby rra ola referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and ftera ola referred to the period after Yule (January). Both words are cognate with Gothic (jiuleis); Old Norse, Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian Nynorsk jl, jol, lir; Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian Bokml jul, and are thought to be derived from Proto-Germanic *jehwl-.[1][2] The etymological pedigree of the word remains uncertain, though numerous speculative attempts have been made to find Indo-European cognates outside the Germanic group, too.[3] The noun Yuletide is first attested from around 1475.[4]

The word is conjectured in an explicitly pre-Christian context primarily in Old Norse. Among many others (see List of names of Odin), the long-bearded god Odin bears the name Jlnir ('the Yule one'). In grip, written in the 12th century, Christmas, jl is interpreted as coming from one of Odin's names, Jlni(r). In poetic language, a plural form (Old Norse jln) may also refer to the gods collectively. In Old Norse poetry, the word is found as a term for 'feast', e.g. hugins jl ( 'a raven's feast').[5]

It has been thought that Old French jolif ( French joli), which was borrowed into English in the 14th century as 'jolly', is itself borrowed from Old Norse jl (with the Old French suffix -if; compare Old French aisif "easy", Modern French festif = fest "feast" + -if).[6] But the Oxford English Dictionary sees this explanation for jolif as unlikely.[7] The French word is first attested in the Anglo-Norman Estoire des Engleis, or "History of the English People", written by Geoffrey Gaimar between 1136 and 1140.[8]

Yule is an indigenous winter festival celebrated by the Germanic peoples. The earliest references to it are in the form of month names, where the Yule-tide period lasts somewhere around two months, falling along the end of the modern calendar year between what is now mid-November and early January.[9]

Yule is attested early in the history of the Germanic peoples; in a Gothic language calendar of the 56th century it appears in the month name fruma jiuleis, and, in the 8th century, the English historian Bede wrote that the Anglo-Saxon calendar included the months geola or giuli corresponding to either modern December or December and January.[10]

While the Old Norse month name lir is similarly attested, the Old Norse corpus also contains numerous references to an event by the Old Norse form of the name, jl. In chapter 55 of the Prose Edda book Skldskaparml, different names for the gods are given; one is "Yule-beings". A work by the skald Eyvindr skldaspillir that uses the term is then quoted: "again we have produced Yule-being's feast [mead of poetry], our rulers' eulogy, like a bridge of masonry".[11] In addition, one of the numerous names of Odin is Jlnir, referring to the event.[12]

The Saga of Hkon the Good credits King Haakon I of Norway who ruled from 934 to 961 with the Christianization of Norway as well as rescheduling Yule to coincide with Christian celebrations held at the time. The saga says that when Haakon arrived in Norway he was a confirmed Christian, but since the land was still altogether heathen and the people retained their pagan practices, Haakon hid his Christianity to receive the help of the "great chieftains". In time, Haakon had a law passed establishing that Yule celebrations were to take place at the same time as the Christians celebrated Christmas, "and at that time everyone was to have ale for the celebration with a measure of grain, or else pay fines, and had to keep the holiday while the ale lasted."[13]

Yule had previously been celebrated for three nights from midwinter night, according to the saga. Haakon planned that when he had solidly established himself and held power over the whole country, he would then "have the gospel preached". According to the saga, the result was that his popularity caused many to allow themselves to be baptized, and some people stopped making sacrifices. Haakon spent most of this time in Trondheim. When Haakon believed that he wielded enough power, he requested a bishop and other priests from England, and they came to Norway. On their arrival, "Haakon made it known that he would have the gospel preached in the whole country." The saga continues, describing the different reactions of various regional things.[13]

A description of pagan Yule practices is provided (notes are Hollander's own):

It was ancient custom that when sacrifice was to be made, all farmers were to come to the heathen temple and bring along with them the food they needed while the feast lasted. At this feast all were to take part of the drinking of ale. Also all kinds of livestock were killed in connection with it, horses also; and all the blood from them was called hlaut [sacrificial blood], and hlautbolli, the vessel holding the blood; and hlautteinar, the sacrificial twigs [aspergills]. These were fashioned like sprinklers, and with them were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood. But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and served as food at the banquet. Fires were to be lighted in the middle of the temple floor, and kettles hung over the fires. The sacrificial beaker was to be borne around the fire, and he who made the feast and was chieftain, was to bless the beaker as well as all the sacrificial meat.[14]

The narrative continues that toasts were to be drunk. The first toast was to be drunk to Odin "for victory and power to the king", the second to the gods Njrr and Freyr "for good harvests and for peace", and third, a beaker was to be drunk to the king himself. In addition, toasts were drunk to the memory of departed kinsfolk. These were called minni.[14]

Scholars have connected the month event and Yule period to the Wild Hunt (a ghostly procession in the winter sky), the god Odin (who is attested in Germanic areas as leading the Wild Hunt and bears the name Jlnir), and increased supernatural activity, such as the Wild Hunt and the increased activities of draugarundead beings who walk the earth.[15]

Mdraniht, an event focused on collective female beings attested by Bede as having occurred among the pagan Anglo-Saxons on what is now Christmas Eve, has been seen as further evidence of a fertility event during the Yule period.[9]

The events of Yule are generally held to have centered on midwinter (although specific dating is a matter of debate), with feasting, drinking, and sacrifice (blt). Scholar Rudolf Simek says the pagan Yule feast "had a pronounced religious character" and that "it is uncertain whether the Germanic Yule feast still had a function in the cult of the dead and in the veneration of the ancestors, a function which the mid-winter sacrifice certainly held for the West European Stone and Bronze Ages." The traditions of the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar (Sonargltr, still reflected in the Christmas ham), Yule singing, and others possibly have connections to pre-Christian Yule customs, which Simek says "indicates the significance of the feast in pre-Christian times."[16]

In modern Germanic language-speaking areas and some other Northern European countries, yule and its cognates denote the Christmas holiday season. In addition to yule and yuletide in English,[17][18] examples include jul in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, jl in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, joulu in Finland, Joelfest in Friesland, Joelfeest in the Netherlands and julud in Estonia.

As contemporary pagan religions differ in both origin and practice, these representations of Yule can vary considerably despite the shared name. Some Heathens, for example, celebrate in a way as close as possible to how they believe ancient Germanic pagans observed the tradition, while others observe the holiday with rituals "assembled from different sources."[19] Heathen celebrations of Yule can also include sharing a meal and gift giving.

In most forms of Wicca, this holiday is celebrated at the winter solstice as the rebirth of the Great horned hunter god,[20] who is viewed as the newborn solstice sun. The method of gathering for this sabbat varies by practitioner. Some have private ceremonies at home,[21] while others do so with their covens.[22]

The Church of Satan and other LaVeyan Satanist groups celebrate Yule as an alternative to the Christian Christmas holiday. Yule in LaVeyan Satanism is not celebrated with the same rituals as in contemporary paganism or Heathenry.[23][24]

dagger indicates extinction. degree symbol indicates changes in date, name or location. ( ) indicate demographic

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Yule - Wikipedia