Yule is a solar festival – one of the Lesser Sabbats of the year. It has also been named: Midwinter, Mean Geimhridh, Alban Arthuan and Modernist (Mother Night). We can figure out the meaning of this sabbat’s name when we realise that ‘Yule’ means ‘wheel’ (some say that is a Scandinavian derivation, while other claim that it comes from the Norse word ‘hjól’). Other theories it is from the Old English Word ‘yoole’, derived from geóla – Anglo-Saxon for the winter time. This holiday has been guessed to be around 5,000 years old, but we do know that certain pillars of stone and wood throughout Europe are aligned with the winter solstice sun (Newgrange, Maes Howe, Dorset Cursus and Stonehenge) which have been dated to between 3200-3000 B.C. There have also been many scripture’s describing Yule celebrations, one of the earliest being from 4th century A.D by Syrus.
Yule’s main theme is one of rebirth. This is recognised in the Wiccan myth which claims our Lord, the Old Sage, has returned to the Underworld (died), but our Lady Goddess is pregnant with his son, through which the Dark God is reborn as the Sun God. Light and warmth begins to return to the earth and the waxing year begins. “The Goddess, who was Death-in-Life at Midsummer, now shows her Life-in-Death aspect; for although at this season she is the “leprous-white-lady”, Queen of thecold darkness, yet this is her moment for giving birth to the Child of Promise, the Son-Lover who will re-fertilize her and bring back light and warmth to her kingdom.” This is the longest night of the year, but from this day on the night’s start to become shorter. In Ireland, the sun does not even rise on this day.
The burning of the Yule Log is a common custom celebrated at Yule. The Yule log is usually made of oak, pine or ash. The burning of the Yule log has been displayed through many Pagan traditions, all who would use its ashes in some way. Some traditions would scatter the Yule log’s ashes over their fields. Others would keep the ashes to put into healing ointments and potions. Most would never let the Yule log completely burn so tat they could save pieces of wood for charms, or to save a piece to light the Yule log the following year. Some would keep the remains of the Yule log to bind into the final sheaf cut in harvest next year, or to put into their Corn Maiden that they have saved from last harvest. It is hard to say when this tradition originally started, but we do know some of the most earliest explanations claim that the log was dedicated to the Teutonic Thor, God of Fire and Courage. The Yule log would be burnt for the Thor in the hopes he would be inspired to banish the dark, cold winter nights and bring back the sun. What we can see is that the Yule log is used as a form of sympathetic magic – ‘effects resembling causes’- and the transference of energies from one object to another through the saving and using of the Yule log’s by-products.
Another common theme of Yule is the battle between light and dark. This has been depicted in the popular myth of the Holly King and Oak King, who do battle every Yule and Litha for rulership. On Yule, the Oak King wins and he takes up rulership over the waxing year. This battle is sometimes re-enacted in rituals (and it is interesting to note that in Italy Santa Claus is replaced by a female Witch called Befana (Epiphany) who flies around on the Twelth night giving gifts to the children). Another tradition of battle is the Celtic Lug, God of Light, laying down his life in a battle to slay the darkness and bring back the light. A pine tree was decorated to symbolise his physical death and resurrection. He is reborn two days later when the sun finally rises over Ireland. “The pine tree represents the eternal triangle of life; death, rebirth and all trinities associated with them.” (Commonly called a Christmas tree!) We must remember that Dark versus Light is not Good versus Evil.
As you can tell, rebirth is an overall theme of Yule. The rebirth of the sun and the rebirth of the Lord. Yule is sacred to all sun gods. Appropriate foods are of a wide variety, including mulled wines and cider, cookies, pumpkin, mince pies and yummy chocolate Yule logs. Holly, Ivy, and Mistletoe are commonly seen and referenced in winter rituals as they are all evergreens. They are symbolic for immortality and resurrection.
I should start off by saying I do not follow Nordic paths, but enjoy researching them. Here is what I was referring to in my writings that I know of from my research!
Around 1100AD, post the Viking invasion of Britan (who burned the log in honor of Thor) the Celts adopted Thor in their Yule celebrations (this is probably where most of the confusion comes from with races intermigling their beliefs and rewriting them! There is now so many different versions of the original Nordic beliefs!) This would also be why some people put him under the Fire correspondence (see, in quite a few pagan paths there is only considered to be four main elemental correspondences (five if we want to get technical) and lighting is considered to be a form of sub-correspondence.) Thor indeed is the God of Thunder, but around the Yule time celebration focus was a lot more on fire and this is why I refered to, what I considered to be, his main element in my writings. This tends to be the example that crops up when historians are looking for the earliest use of the Yule Log tradition (at least the ones I came across), but ‘Thor’ can obviously be replaced with many other deity names. Some even consider Thor to be the same as Jesus (The common Nordic ‘replacements’ are: Thor = Jesus, Odin = God, Loki = Lucifer) who is a Sun God. He has also been described as the original Santa Claus- but his sleigh was pulled by goats!
It also interesting to note that some traditions believed that scattering the ashes of the yule log around the house protected it from not just fire, but lightening as well!
I admit the word ‘banish’ of the dark probably wasn’t the best choice of words, but here is the tale I was referring to: At the exact moment of the winter solstice, Thor hurls a lightening bolt through the darkness and strike an oak tree. At that moment light and dark are both equal in power and this moment marks the shift from dark to light (and in effect dark has been banished and the sun is returning.) The legend also tells us that the lightening bolt onto the oak tree also created mistletoe!
I’ll leave you with two interesting tid-bits:
1. The triskele Thor’s Hammer is also the Hellenic three-legged sun-wheel. Interesting the connection to the Sun again!
2. In the Teutonic mythology, Thor’s hammer was not originally of metal, but of stone!