A Festive Yule to All

Here's wishing everyone a merry and festive Yule today!

Yule is a holiday that many Pagans celebrate alongside or instead of Christmas.  Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah, many Africans celebrate Kwanza, etc.  At this point in my life, I'm celebrating both Pagan and Christian holidays.

Pagan holidays follow the seasons and the cycle of the earth.  Today is Yule, a.k.a. the Winter Solstice.  Tonight we will experience Last night we experienced the longest night of the year, and today we will experience the least amount of day-time.  Starting tomorrow, though, each day will grow longer and longer as we approach spring and summer.  Yule is also known as Mid-Winter.

In older days, in Norse and Germanic cultures, Yule eve was a time when the rebirth of the sun was awaited with baited breath, and the morning was a time of joy and celebration.  Many of these people would light candles or bonfires and keep them burning throughout the night to help the sun make it's journey back up into the sky.

Yule is also the time of year that many Pagans celebrate the Oak King's rebirth.  This correlation with Christmas and the birth of Jesus is not coincidence.  Many traditions now associated with Christmas started as Yule celebrations.

The Yule Log

I found this excerpt here:

                  "The ceremonial Yule log was the highlight of the Solstice festival. In accordance to tradition, the log must either have been harvested from the householder's land, or given as a gift... it must never have been bought. Once dragged into the house and placed in the fireplace it was decorated in seasonal greenery, doused with cider or ale, and dusted with flour before set ablaze by a piece of last years log, (held onto for just this purpose). The log would burn throughout the night, then smolder for 12 days afterward before being ceremonially put out. Ash is the traditional wood of the Yule log. It is the sacred world tree of the Teutons, known as Yggdrasil. An herb of the Sun, Ash brings light into the hearth at the Solstice."

There is another type of Yule log, possibly more suitable for the times we live in:  this version of the yule log is actually a smaller ash log, cut in half, with 3 holes traditionally drilled in it for candles.  Don't worry about being too close to tradition if you want to be creative, though.  Below is another version of a Yule log someone made and I think it's wonderful!  It can be decorated with holly and mistletoe, and it makes a beautiful centerpiece for a holiday table.

The Yule Tree

 

 Another excerpt from another page:

                     "The Celtic Druids decorated the evergreen trees at Yule with all the images of the things they wished the waxing year to bring. Fruits for a successful harvest, love charms for happiness, nuts for fertility, and coins for wealth adorned the trees. These were forerunners to many of the images on today's Christmas trees. Candles were the forerunners of today's electric tree lights.

                      "In Scandinavia, Yule trees were brought inside to provide a warm and festive place for tree elementals who inhabited the woodland. This was also a good way to coax the native faery folk to participate in Solstice rituals. Some believed the Saxons were the first to place candles in the tree."




My personal celebration of Yule really only goes as far as the time of year and the Winter Solstice, however I do enjoy the lore surrounding this holiday and the history of it.  This year, my Christmas tree is actually a Yule tree, and through the years I plan to collect ornaments that will symbolize my hopes and wishes for the coming year.



Merry Yule to you all!