Yuletide Celebration

Yule is an old Norse and Germanic festival celebrating the Winter Solstice. It was a 12 day celebration starting near the end of December to the beginning of January. The Yule Log was a large log that was partially burnt in the fall before the snows, then it was light again for the Yule Festival to burn for 12 nights. This represented the bringing over from the prior year to the new year the spirit of renewal, lighting the way for the sun to return for longer days. The Christmas tree was also part of the Yule Festival, bringing in live branches of evergreen trees to keep the spirit of life continuous through the hard cold winter months of Northern Europe.

In fact part of what we call Santa Clause is from the Nordic Kris Kringle who came from the arctic circle during the Yule Festival and gave trinkets to the kids. Kris Kringle was later merged with Saint Nicholas of Myra. He was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes. This was combined with the gift giving from the Roman Saturnalia winter festival that was to show respect to the emperor. Thus the gift giving of the 3 wise men to Jesus, since Jesus was the King of the Jews and had to be on par with the Roman emperor.

Mistletoe is also part of the Norse pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice, which was a time for love so that the children produced from that love would be born the next fall and before the winter snows. The men wanting to show their love for someone would escort them under the mistletoe and give them a kiss. If the lady responded with a strong kiss, then it was time to get it on. If she rejected him, then he would be off to find another agreeable partner. Marriage as we know it today was not a concept to the Nordics. Monogamy among the men was not a vow. But they usually associated in their daily lives with the women who gave them children, especially boys. It was not uncommon for a man to have more than one woman in his clan or family. And it was not unusual to have children fathered by other men in your family. It really didn't matter as the children were raised by the elderly women of the village, since everyone else was working for the collective survival of the clan; hunting, farming, cooking, cleaning, and craftsmen of many trades.  Eventually marriage became a ritual performed by the church to stop the open lifestyle practiced by the pagans. As the church became more politically powerful, they outlawed cohabitation unless ordained by the church through the wedding mass (ceremony) and given the blessing of God, and the concept of adultery was born. 

The Catholics could not rid these old pagan rituals, celebrations and customs from their converts, so they commandeered them and made them the celebration of Jesus' birth with then the12 days of Christ's Mass, thus becoming the 12 days of Christmas. To avoid the Winter Solstice connection, the church changed the main celebration date from the 21st to the 25th on the Julian calendar. People still celebrated with the Yule Log and Yule Goat (the sacrificing of a goat so the sun god will return), which the church discouraged.

Today the custom in America is having ham for the Christmas meal. Ham replaced goat by Americans in Virginia in the early 1700s. Goose became the favorite in Europe after the killing of goats during the 12 days of Christmas was banned by the church.

So when everyone is celebrating the Holidays and more specifically Christmas, they are in fact celebrating the old pagan rituals of the Norse (vikings) of northern Europe and the pre-Christian Romans.

So HAPPY HOLIDAYS, whatever your ritual might be.