Yule

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For other uses, see Yule (disambiguation).
This article is about the purported pagan festival and its modern revivals. For the Christian festival, see Christmas.
"Joulu" redirects here. For the album, see Joulu (album).

Yule
File:Chambers Yule Log.png
Hauling a Yule log in 1832
Also calledYuletide, Yulefest
Observed byVarious Northern Europeans, Germanic peoples, Heathens, Wiccans, Neopagans, LaVeyan Satanists
TypeCultural, Germanic pagan, modern pagan
SignificanceWinter festival
DateSee § Date of observance
FrequencyAnnual
Related toMidwinter, Christmastide, Christmas
This article contains Gothic characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of letters.

Yule is a winter festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples that is claimed to have been merged with Christmas during the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples.[1]

The term Yule and Yuletide, along with their cognates, are still used in English and the Scandinavian languages, as well as in Finnish and Estonian, to describe Christmas and the season of Christmastide.[2] Furthermore, some present-day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar and Yule singing may have connections to older pagan Yule traditions.[3]

Today, followers of some new religious movements (such as Modern Germanic paganism) celebrate a holiday they call 'Yule', independently of the Christian festival of Christmas. While some scholars have linked the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin and the heathen Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht ("Mothers' Night"), others have questioned the existence of a pre-Christian festival called 'Yule', holding that the term arose in the Christian era as a synonym of Christmas.[4]

Etymology

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The modern English noun Yule descends from Old English ġēol, earlier geoh(h)ol, geh(h)ol, and geóla, sometimes plural.[5] Both words are cognate with Gothic 𐌾𐌹𐌿𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍃 (jiuleis); Old Norse, Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian Nynorsk jól, jol, ýlir; Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian Bokmål jul, and are thought to be derived from Proto-Germanic *jehwlą-.[6][7] Whether the term existed outside the Germanic languages remains uncertain, though numerous speculative attempts have been made to find Indo-European cognates outside the Germanic group, too.[a] The compound noun Yuletide ('Yule-time') is first attested from around 1475.[8]

It has been thought that Old French Lua error in Module:Wikt-lang at line 169: Name for the language code "fro" could not be retrieved with mw.language.fetchLanguageName, so it should be added to Module:Wikt-lang/data. (→ French joli), which was borrowed into English in the 14th century as 'jolly', is itself borrowed from Old Norse jól (with the Old French suffix -if; compare Old French Lua error in Module:Wikt-lang at line 169: Name for the language code "fro" could not be retrieved with mw.language.fetchLanguageName, so it should be added to Module:Wikt-lang/data. "easy", Modern French festif = fest "feast" + Lua error in Module:Wikt-lang at line 169: Name for the language code "fro" could not be retrieved with mw.language.fetchLanguageName, so it should be added to Module:Wikt-lang/data.), according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology[9] and several other French dictionaries of etymology.[10][11] But the Oxford English Dictionary sees this explanation for jolif as unlikely.[12] 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.[11]

Anglo-Saxon

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Old English forms of the word 'Yule' included ġeōl, ġeōla, ġēohol, iūla and giuli.[13]

In the 8th century, the English historian Bede wrote that the pagan Anglo-Saxons called both December and January Giuli. Bede links this term with the winter solstice, writing that "The months of Giuli derive their name from the day when the Sun turns back [and begins] to increase".[14][15] Other Old English writers call December ǣrra ġēola (the former Yule) and January æftera ġēola (the latter Yule).[13][16][17] In Anglo-Saxon England, the winter solstice was generally deemed to be December 25, following the Julian calendar.[18][19]

The usual Old English name for December 25, Christmas and the winter solstice, was midwinter.[18][19] In the Doom book of Alfred the Great, written c.890, Christmas is called Ġehhol (Yule).[20] Some later Old English texts call Christmas Day Ġeōhel-dæg (Yule Day).[16] It is suggested that the Vikings who settled in England introduced or popularized 'Yule' as a name for Christmas among the Anglo-Saxons.[4][19]

Bede also wrote that the pagan Anglo-Saxons had celebrated the festival Mōdraniht (Mothers' Night) at the winter solstice, which marked the start of the Anglo-Saxon year.[19]

Old Norse

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File:Die Gartenlaube (1880) b 856.jpg
Illustration of an ancient Nordic Yule festival (Die Gartenlaube, 1880)

The word Jól is applied in an explicitly pagan context primarily in Old Norse, where it is associated with Old Norse deities. Among the many names of Odin is Jólnir ('the Yule one'). In Ágrip, written in the 12th century, jól is interpreted as coming from one of Odin's names, Jólnir, closely related to Old Norse jólnar, a poetic name for the gods. In Old Norse poetry, the word is found as a term for 'feast', e.g. Lua error: not enough memory. (→ 'a raven's feast').[21] Whilst the Old Norse month name Lua error: not enough memory. is similarly attested, the Old Norse corpus also contains numerous references to an event by the Old Norse form of the name, Lua error: not enough memory.. In chapter 55 of the Prose Edda book Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., different names for the gods are given; one is "Yule-beings" (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.). A work by the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir 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".[22] One of the numerous names of Odin is Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., referring to the event.[23]

Heitstrenging

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Both Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar and Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks tell of the custom of Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.. They say that on Yule Eve, people placed their hands on a pig referred to as a sonargöltr while swearing solemn oaths. In the latter text, some manuscripts explicitly refer to the pig as holy, that it was devoted to Freyr and that after the oath-swearing it was sacrificed.[24]

Saga of Hákon the Good

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The Saga of Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. the Good credits King Haakon I of Norway, who ruled from 934 to 961, with the Christianization of Norway as well as shifting Yule the date of Jól (Nordic Yule) to the date of Christmas. The saga says that when Haakon arrived in Norway he was a Christian, but, since the people were still heathen, Haakon hid his Christianity to receive the help of the "great chieftains". In time, Haakon had a law passed that Yule celebrations were to be held at the same time as 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".[25]

According to the saga, Haakon's popularity led many heathens many 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 summoned a bishop and other priests from England. On their arrival, "Haakon made it known that he would have the gospel preached in the whole country." The saga continues, describing the reactions of various regional things.[25]

A description of a Nordic Yule is provided (notes are Hollander's own):

Old Norse text[26] Hollander translation[27]
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 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 Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. [sacrificial blood], and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., the vessel holding the blood; and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., 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.

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 Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. "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 Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..[27]

Academic debate

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Significance

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Scholar Rudolf Simek writes the Nordic Yule feast "had a pronounced religious character". He says "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 Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., 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."[28]

Scholars have linked the Nordic Yule 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 Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.), and increased activities of Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (undead beings who walk the earth).[29]

British historian Ronald Hutton wrote of the term "Yule" that there is "doubt over whether it was originally attached to a midwinter festival which preceded the Christian one [of Christmas]".[4] Hutton writes that the earliest Scandinavian literature, before Snorri, makes no reference to Yule as a pagan feast.[4]

British author Nicholas Page noted that all the first mentions of yule-candle (1808), yule-game (1611), yule-log (1725), and yule-tide (1572) are well into the Christian era, in reference to Christmas customs.[1][3]

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (Mothers' Night), a festival seemingly focused on females or female supernatural beings, attested by Bede as being held at the winter solstice, has been seen as further evidence of fertility rituals during Yule.[30]

Date of observance

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Bede linked the Anglo-Saxon Yule (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.) to the winter solstice, and both December and January were named after it.[14] In Anglo-Saxon calendars, the winter solstice was December 25,[13][19] the same day as Christmas, which was usually called Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in Old English.

The date of the Nordic pagan Yule (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.) is debated among scholars. Snorri, in the Saga of Hákon the Good, says that Yule (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.) was a three-day feast beginning on midwinter (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.) in Scandinavia. This led scholars to believe that it was held during the winter solstice. However, the Nordic midwinter was about one month after the solstice, and Snorri says that Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. was moved from Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. to Christmas. Andreas Nordberg places Nordic midwinter on 12–14 January in the Julian calendar and 19–21 January in the Gregorian calendar. Nordberg proposes that the Nordic pagan Yule was celebrated on the full moon after the first new moon that followed the winter solstice. This could range from 5 January at the earliest to 2 February at the latest in the Gregorian calendar.[31]

Contemporary traditions

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Relationship with Christmas in Northern Europe

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In modern Germanic language-speaking areas and some other Northern European countries, yule and its cognates denote the Christmas holiday season. In addition to Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in English,[32] examples include Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in Finland, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in Friesland, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in the Netherlands and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in Estonia.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. The term Yuletide is now used to refer to Christmastide.[2]

Modern paganism

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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".[33] Heathen celebrations of Yule can also include sharing a meal and gift-giving.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

In most forms of Wicca, this holiday is celebrated at the winter solstice as the rebirth of the Great horned hunter god,[34] who is viewed as the newborn solstice sun. The method of gathering for this sabbat varies by practitioner. Some have private ceremonies at home,[35] while others do so with their covens:

Generally meeting in covens, which anoint their own priests and priestesses, Wiccans chant and cast or draw circles to invoke their deities, mainly during festivals like Samhain and Yule, which coincide with Halloween and Christmas, and when the moon is full.[36]

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

LaVeyan Satanism

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Some members of the Church of Satan and other LaVeyan Satanist groups celebrate Yule at the same time as the Christian holiday in a secular manner.[37]

See also

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Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., an event attested from Old Norse sources as having occurred among the pagan Norse
  • Julebord, the modern Scandinavian Christmas feast
  • Koliada, a Slavic winter festival
  • Lohri, a Punjabi winter solstice festival
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., an ancient Roman winter festival in honour of the deity Saturn
  • Yaldā Night, an Iranian festival celebrated on the "longest and darkest night of the year".
  • Nardoqan, the birth of the sun, is an ancient Turkic festival that celebrates the winter solstice.

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ For a brief overview of the proposed etymologies, see Orel (2003:205).

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Citations

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  1. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  2. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  3. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  4. ^ a b c d Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  5. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  6. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.; Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.; Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  7. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  8. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  9. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  10. ^ Dictionnaire historique de la langue française (sous la direction d'Alain Rey), édition Le Robert, t. 2, 2012, p. 1805ab
  11. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  12. ^ "jolly, adj. and adv. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1." OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2019. Accessed 9 December 2019.
  13. ^ a b c Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  14. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  15. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  16. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph. "Geóla". In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  17. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  18. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  19. ^ a b c d e Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  20. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  21. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  22. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  23. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  24. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  25. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  26. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  27. ^ a b Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  28. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  29. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  30. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  31. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  32. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  33. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  34. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  35. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  36. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..
  37. ^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..

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Works cited

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  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
  • Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
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  • File:Wikiquote-logo.svg Quotations related to Yule at Wikiquote
  • Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. at Wikimedia Commons

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