When:
đī¸ First day
of winter âī¸
Where:
đ Everywhere
Since:
Ancient times đ˛
đ
Yule starts at the beginning of winter or the Winter Solstice and there is no single rule for how long it can be celebrated.
Most common is to celebrate Yule until the the early days of January.
Yule is an old midwinter festival from the Central and Northern Europe.
Why this holiday is called Yule is not exactly known.
There are many variations of Yule in different regions and all of them relate only to this festival.âī¸
Yule is the festival that started the traditions of the yule log, the yule ham and singing carols.
In the Scandinavian regions Odin was also called “Yule father” and filled a role similar to Santa Claus.
Just like Santa Claus, Odin had a white beard and he had 2 little helpers: his sooth-black ravens Huginn and Muninn who knew exactly who had been naughty and who had been nice.
Some regions celebrate the Joulupukki, the Yule-Goat. as main figure.
Joulupukki looks a lot like Santa Claus except with goat elements because he may have been a goat turned human.
He is a bearded old man, wearing red clothing, giving presents and even rides a sleigh pulled by reindeer.
These characters were similar to many other winter gift-bringers in surrounding regions and merging them all with Saint Nicholas later on would bring us the composite character that we currently know as Santa Claus.
Yule never went away in Scandinavian regions and made a recent comeback with the growing interest in neo-paganism.
And some people just think “Yule” sounds nicer and/or like it because it reminds us where so many of our current winter celebration elements come from.
#Yule #YuleFest #YuleTide #YuleTime