Yule and the Winter Solstice

A blessed Yule to you all.

The season of Yule started with the Winter Solstice at 9.47pm yesterday (21st December) and lasts until New Years Day. It's a time to reflect on the year that's gone by and, with the Solstice being the shortest day, a return of the light as the days get longer and lead us out of Winter. 

You can expect a crowd of several thousand people - druids, pagans and more - to gather at sites like Stonehenge (and Milton Keynes - see here) to mark the Solstice and the arrival of Yule. For them it’s as important a religious observance as any in other faiths. 

Yule is old - very old. It certainly predates Christmas (and Christianity) and, according to Old Norse expert Jackson Crawford, began life as Jól, a three day long Midwinter festival. The event was marked with feasting, drinking and sacrifices - although it was common to slaughter animals at this time of year to save on feed and ensure meat for the cold Winter months.

The Oxford English Dictionary states that, in 726, the venerable St Bede mentioned Giuli (an old spelling of Yule) as a name for both December and January. But then Bede also says that there was a pre-Christian festival celebrated on December 25 called Modranecht or Mædrenack (Mother’s Night). It may be that Giuli, Modranacht and Jól were three aspects of the same festival. 

In 2018, Bettina Sejbjerg Sommer of the University of Copenhagen wrote an article in which she stated that folkloric sources indicate that: 

'In the Yule period the coming year is not predicted, it is created. In this period, the impending year comes into being and that is why the coming year is shaped by the Yule period: everything that happens in this period influences and creates the coming year.' 

In Old Norse culture, there was a sense that divination actively affects the future, so abundant food and alcohol meant you were actively creating abundance for the coming year. 

'This is why drinking and eating to excess - gluttony, even - is not only the centrepiece and most striking characteristic of the feast, it is a sacred duty, as is evident in the widespread custom that a visitor must partake of food and drink, to refuse is not acceptable.'

By 900, Yule was being used as the name for what we now call Christmas. So when Alfred the Great gave free men 12 days off work at Yule in the late 9th century, he meant a Christmas holiday. This was a time when the two holidays began blending together. According to the 13th century saga of King Hakon the Good (reigned c. 920-961CE), the king demanded that people had to celebrate either Christmas or Jól, both of which were to happen in late December. They were able to celebrate whichever one they chose, but each free man had to 'have ale for the celebration from a measure of grain (four gallons)... and had to keep the holidays while the ale lasted.' 

One left-over from the transition of Yule to Christmas is the Yule Log. These days it's more likely to be a chocolate smeared Swiss Roll but in times past - and in many modern pagan households - it's a real log. The log had to be taken from land you owned or land over which you had control. Or you had to have permission from the owner. The log must have fallen from the tree - it should not be cut - and you should let it choose you - in other words, you should look around until one particular log looks and feels 'right'. You then took the log home, sprinkled it with flour (which is why the cakes are dusted with icing sugar), and doused it with ale before burning in the family hearth. 

In times past, when people had large open inglenook fireplaces, the log could be huge and you were supposed to burn a little every day. These days, they are rather more portable.

But why do we have a Yule Log? As early as 1725, Henry Bourne wrote that, 

'It seems to have been used as an Emblem of the return of the Sun, and the lengthening of the Days. For as both December and January were called Guili or Yule, upon Account of the Sun's Returning, and the Increase of the Days; so, I am apt to believe, the Log has had the Name of the Yule-Log.'

The Yule log created warmth and light and carried it through the long Winter nights. It is mentioned in the folklore archives of much of England, but particularly in collections covering the West Country and the North Country. For example, in his section regarding 'Christmas Observances', J B Partridge recorded then-current (1914) Christmas customs in Yorkshire, such as: 

'The Yule log is generally given, and is at once put on the hearth. It is unlucky to have to light it again after it has once been started, and it ought not go out until it has burned away. To sit around the Yule log and tell ghost stories is a great thing to do on this night, also card-playing. Two large coloured candles are a Christmas present from the grocery. Just before supper on Christmas Eve (where furmety is eaten), while the Yule log is burning, all other lights are put out, and the candles are lit from the Yule log by the youngest person present. While they are lit, all are silent and wish. It is common practice for the wish to be kept a secret. Once the candles are on the table, silence may be broken. They must be allowed to burn themselves out, and no other lights may be lit that night.'

Another tradition says that the last piece of the Yule log should be saved to light the first log of the new year - passing the gift of warmth and light from one year to the next.

I rather like that and, having the luxury of a real fire, I went out walking in the woods today to find my Yule log. And I did!

Have a blessed Yule!