Overview what is yule?
Yule is an ancient, pre-Christian Germanic and Norse midwinter festival, celebrated around the Winter Solstice (December 21st), marking the rebirth of the sun and the year's turning point from darkness back to light, involving feasting, bonfires, evergreens, and traditions like the Yule Log, which heavily influenced modern Christmas celebrations. It's a time for reflection, feasting, honoring ancestors, and celebrating renewal, with Norse traditions linking it to Odin's Wild Hunt and Thor's goats.
Core Concepts
- Winter Solstice: Yule coincides with the shortest day of the year, a pivotal moment when days start getting longer.
- Sun Worship: A central theme is honoring the returning sun, with ancient practices involving bonfires and sun salutations.
- Renewal & Rebirth: The festival symbolizes the earth's rebirth, the cyclical turning of seasons, and fresh starts.
Key Traditions
- Yule Log: Burning a large log to provide warmth and light, symbolizing the sun's return.
- Evergreens: Decorating homes with holly, ivy, and fir to represent life and ward off winter spirits.
- Feasting: Large communal meals with ale, often involving specific meats like boar and horse (though horses were ritualistic).
- Bonfires: Lit to welcome the sun and drive away darkness.
- Honoring Gods & Ancestors: Offerings were made, and toasts drunk to gods like Odin (Yule-Father) and gods of fertility like Freyr.
Yule vs. Christmas
- Many familiar Christmas elements (trees, wreaths, Santa's look) derive from Yule traditions.
- Christianity adapted Yule, creating Christmas by reinterpreting pagan feasts to ease conversion.
Modern Celebration
- Modern Pagans, Wiccans, and Heathens celebrate Yule as a 12-day festival from the solstice until the New Year.
- Activities focus on cozy traditions, storytelling, feasting, decorating, and personal reflection
Celebrating Yule: The Ancient Roots of Christmas
The year's longest night arrives, and darkness seems to stretch on forever. But in the distance, a glimmer of hope shines. The villagers dance and sing as the night continues, their feet pounding a rhythm on the hard-packed earth. The Yule log crackles and sparkles, a fiery beacon in the darkness. In the hall's center, a great oak tree stands tall and proud, adorned with holly and ivy garlands.
This is the time of Yule, a celebration with roots in Norse and Celtic traditions. As the world celebrates Christmas, it's essential to recognize and commemorate this ancient pagan holiday that has come to be associated with the winter solstice.
In Norse culture, Yule was believed to be the time when the spirits of the dead were passed on to the Otherworld to move on from the living world and to continue their afterlife there. These spirits were honored and celebrated during Yule, and animals were sacrificed in their honor. It was believed to be dangerous to go outside alone in the night during Yule, lest one risked to be carried away to the Otherworld before their time.
The Celts also celebrated Yule, but their focus was on the rebirth of the sun and the coming of a new year. They believed that the burning of the Yule log was a way to symbolize the sun's return and that the exchange of gifts was a way to honor the gods and ask for their favor in the coming year.
Yule and Christmas - Familiar Traditions
The celebration of Yule has evolved and transformed over time, and many of its traditions have been incorporated into the modern Christmas holiday. Some examples of Yule traditions that have been adapted into Christmas practices include:
• The burning of the Yule log: In ancient times, the Yule log was a large log burned in the hearth to symbolize the sun's return and provide warmth and light during the long, dark winter. This tradition has evolved into the modern practice of burning a Yule log or Christmas log in the fireplace or on the hearth.
• The exchange of gifts: In ancient times, the exchange of gifts during Yule was a way to honor the gods and to ask for their favor in the coming year. This tradition has been adapted into the modern practice of giving and receiving gifts during the Christmas season.
• The use of evergreen plants: In ancient times, the Norse and Celts decorated their homes with evergreen plants such as holly and mistletoe during Yule. This was believed to ward off evil spirits and to bring good luck. The mistletoe, in particular, was considered a symbol of love and friendship, which is why it is still used today as a romantic gesture.
Odin - The Original Santa Claus?
Most of us are familiar with the tale of Santa Claus, who is said to traverse the night sky on Christmas Eve, delivering gifts to children. But few of us know the similar legend of Odin's travels through the sky during Yule. This was the time of year when Odin led a great hunt through the sky, and it was believed that the spirits of the dead hunted by Odin were finally released from their bodies and delivered to their afterlife.
In Norse mythology, Odin was often depicted as a god with a long white beard who rode through the sky on his eight-legged horse during Yule for his great hunt. The comparisons to Santa Claus here are striking — Santa similarly sports a long, luscious beard, riding through the sky on his eight reindeers. Instead of cookies and milk, the ancient Norse left out food, oats and hay for the riders of the wild hunt to appease them on their long journey.
While there are minor differences between Yule and Christmas, they both reflect the same essential theme: a time of renewal and unity. This is why Yule remains relevant today, even during the holiday season, forming the cornerstone of our winter celebrations.
As the sun rises on the longest night of the year, let us remember the rich history and traditions of Yule. This celebration of renewal, rebirth, and unity brings warmth and light to our hearts and serves as a reminder of the timeless power of the natural world and the gods. Happy Yule to all!
Andresen, A. (2022). Celebrating Yule: The Ancient Roots of Christmas. [online] Norsegarde. Available at: https://www.norsegarde.com/en-gb/blogs/lore-and-mythology/yule-the-ancient-roots-of-christmas [Accessed 15 Dec. 2025].
Celebration of the Norse New Year; a festival of 12 nights. This is the most important of all the Norse holidays. On the night of December 20, the god Ingvi Freyr rides over the earth on the back of his shining boar, bringing Light and Love back into the World. In later years, after the influence of Christianity, the god Baldur, then Jesus, was reborn at this festival. Jul signifies the beginning and end of all things; the darkest time (shortest hour of daylight) during the year and the brightest hope re-entering the world. During this festival, the Wild Hunt is at its greatest fervor, and the dead are said to range the Earth in its retinue. The god Wotan (Odin) is the leader of this Wild Ride; charging across the sky on his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir; a very awe-inspiring vision. In ancient times, Germanic and Norse children would leave their boots out by the hearth on Solstice Eve, filled with hay and sugar, for Sleipnir's journey. In return, Wotan would leave them a gift for their kindness. In modern times, Sleipnir was changed to a reindeer and the grey-bearded Wotan became the kindly Santa Claus (Father Christmas).
Yuletide is the pre-Christian Germanic Midwinter celebration. The name Yule is derived from the Old Norse HJOL, meaning ‘wheel,’ to identify the moment when the wheel of the year is at its lowest point, ready to rise again. HJOLhas been inherited by Germanic and Scandinavian languages from a pre-Indo-European language level, and is a direct reference to the return of the Sun represented as a fiery wheel rolling across the heavenly sky. Yule celebrations and traditions at the winter solstice predate Christianity by thousands of years. There are numerous references to Yule in the Icelandic sagas, and in other ancient accounts testifying to how Yule was actually celebrated. It was a time for feasting, giving gifts, feasting and dancing.
The Yule holiday is the holiest and most popular of all the native Germanic spiritual celebrations, as Yule marks the return of the God Baldur from the realm of Hel and the loosening of winters grip on the frozen Earth.
The commencement of the Yuletide celebration has no set date, but is traditionally 12 days long with the start of the festivities beginning at sunset on the winter solstice (In the northern hemisphere, this date usually falls on or around December 20th) This Germanic Heathen holiday was forcibly stolen by early Christian missionaries and became known as the “12 days of Christmas”.
The first night of Yule is called The Mothernight, where Frigga and the Disir (female ancestral spirits) are especially honoured on this night. Mothers Night is appropriately named, as it represents the rebirth of the world from the darkness of winter. This is the date with the shortest day and the longest night of the year.
A traditional vigil from dusk to dawn is held on the Mothers night, to make sure that the sun will rise again and welcome her when it does.
Yule is the season at which the gods and goddesses are closest to Midgard: our deities were called ‘Yule-Beings’ by the Norse, and Odin himself is called Jólnir, the “Yule One” and is where the image of Santa Claus is derived from. Yule is also the season during which the dead return to earth and share the feasts of the living. Elves, trolls, and other magical beings roam freely at this time, and must either be warded off or invited to come in friendship and peace. Yule is the time of the year at which the Wild Hunt – Wodan’s host of the restless dead – rides most fiercely; it is dangerous to meet them, but gifts of food and drink are left out for them, for they can also bring blessing and fruitfulness.
Yule is a time for dancing, feasting and family. Sun wheels are sometimes burnt as part of folk festivities at this time. It was the practice in Germanic Heathen times to swear oaths on a hallowed boar (the totem animal of Freyr and Freya). This survived in Swedish folk-custom; a large boar-shaped bread or block of wood covered with pigskin was brought forth at Yule for this purpose through the beginning of this century, and boar-cakes are used for Yule-oaths by most Heathens today. Especially meaningful oaths were also sworn on the horn or cup while drinking at the Yule-feast. The ‘New Year’s Resolution’ is a diminished form of the holy Yule Oath. The fir or pine-tree which is carried into the house and decorated is an ancient Germanic custom, brought to America by German immigrants. The tree on which holy gifts are hung was Heathen in origin representing Yggdrasil, the mighty cosmic tree of life. In Germany, those who kept the old custom hid it inside lest the church authorities notice, but in England and Scandinavia, the trees and various spirits received their gifts outside. In those latter countries, it was a candlelit and ribbon-bedecked wreath, the ring of which may have reflected the holy oath-ring or the Yule sun-wheel, that was traditionally brought in to decorate the home. The Yule-log is also an old Heathen custom. This log was supposed to burn all night during the longest night of the year to symbolize life lasting even in the time of greatest darkness, its fire rekindling the Sun in the morning. Its ashes or pieces were used as protective amulets during the rest of the year. Those who lack large fireplaces often use 24-hour candles instead.
The 12 days of Yule is largely devoted to baking cakes, cookies, and breads and making the unique decorations which beautify every Heathen home at this holiday season. There are, for example, intricate paper cutouts to make and put on the walls; festoons, stars, wooden toys, and straw animals in the shape of Goats, and Wild Boars to hang on the Yule tree. The straw animals, which are still widely found throughout Sweden, are intimately related to ancient Norse Germanic mythology; originating in legends of the sacred animals of the gods; the Goats of Thor, the thunder God, and the Wild Boar of Freyr, God of Fertility.
The majority of the symbols associated with the modern holiday of Christmas (such as the Yule log, Santa Claus & his Elves, Christmas trees, the Wreath, the eating of ham, holly, mistletoe, the star…) are derived from traditional northern European Heathen Yule celebrations. When the first Christian missionaries began forcibly converting the Germanic peoples to Christianity, they found it easier to simply provide a Christian reinterpretation for popular feasts such as Yule and allow the celebrations themselves to go on largely unchanged, rather than trying to suppress them. Halloween and Easter have been likewise assimilated from northern European Heathen religious festivals.
The Pagan Journey. (2025). Yule. [online] Available at: https://thepaganjourney.weebly.com/yule.html [Accessed 15 Dec. 2025].
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