Yule and saturnalia3/18/2023 ![]() ![]() The Yule Log? Well, that’s obviously Yule. Caroling and singing Christmas songs? That’s called Yule singing or Wassailing, and it’s been done since Old Norse times. Spending time inside, with your family, feasting and celebrating? Sounds like Yule. In fact, we find most of the Christmas traditions in the darkness of history, with roots extending to the distant past. Norway isn’t the only country that did this: at various stages of their Christianization, other European countries adapted their previous celebraitons and switched to Christmas - but many traditions remained. It’s entirely possible that Christmas was moved to fit with the existing Saturnalia and Yule celebrations, which would make the transition to Christianity more acceptable for local populations. There’s no historic indication that puts Jesus’ birth on the 25th of December, and it wasn’t always celebrated on that date. In fact, it seems just as if not more likely that it’s not pagan celebrations that were moved, but rather Christmas itself. Yule had been celebrated for three days: starting from the Winter Solstice on the 21st of December, and it was all moved to center around Christmas’ 25 December (although some celebrations started much earlier, at some point around mid-November). This is excellently portrayed in Saga of Hákon the Good, which credits the Norwegian King Haakon I (whose rule started in 934) as rescheduling Yule to fit with Christmas. The Christian knew they couldn’t really get people to cancel their traditional celebrations, so they did something else: they tried merging pagan celebrations with Christian ones. But as Christianity came in, things started to change. Yule celebrations were already happening in the 4th century, and probably even before that. Also all kinds of livestock were killed in connection with it, horses also.” Christianity swoops in Whether you like it or not, Santa Claus is an intercultural figure. At this feast all were to take part of the drinking of ale. “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. A description of Yule practices is also provided by Snorri Sturluson, a famous Icelanding poet and historian. It’s not clear exactly what happened at Mōdraniht, but it seems to be a fertility celebration that probably included sacrificial rituals. It was an Anglo-Saxon festival atested by the medieval English historian Bede in the 8th century. Mōdraniht (or “Mother’s Night) was also associated with Yule and Christmas. Look where you will, it betrays its connexion with heathenism,” wrote Grimm. This is the widely spread legend of the furious host, the furious hunt, which is of high antiquity, and interweaves itself, now with gods, and now with heroes. “Another class of spectres will prove more fruitful for our investigation: they, like the ignes fatui, include unchristened babes, but instead of straggling singly on the earth as fires, they sweep through forest and air in whole companies with a horrible din. No longer was the Wild Hunt bringing catastrophe to everyone who was around - it only targeted the unchristened. But by the time Grimm wrote his work, the Wild Hunt had already changed its meaning and had become christianized. The Wild Hunt was described by Jacob Grimm (one of the Grimm Brothers) in 1835, who noted that variations on this myth appear in many parts of Northern, Western, and Central Europe. Odin, leading the wild hunt in a 19th century illustration by August Malmström. You really wouldn’t want to chance seeing the Wild Hunt, so all the more reason to stay inside and mind your own business, especially during December, when the specters were thought to be most active. It was said that the ethereal hunters were accompanied by ghost dogs, fairies, or even Valkyries that would either take away the souls of anyone who saw them or bring great misfortune. The Wild Hunt is an old folkloric motif represented by a pack of spectral hunters (either Odin or some local figure). The Wild Hunt was recently popularized in media by the Witcher Franchise, which was immensely popular. But Yule and are also connected to a different type of hunt: the Wild Hunt. Yule comes from the old Norse jól (or the old English géohol), which was a season for hunting. After all, we all know Thursday (or “Thor’s day”) and Friday (“Frigga’s day”), with Thor and Frigga being two major Norse gods. It’s also unsurprising that Europe, and the English-speaking world especially, draws so heavily from Germanic myth.
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