Yule · Holymap

The story behind the day

Yule is the midwinter festival of the old Germanic peoples, and the name belongs today to Heathens, who keep it around the winter solstice, and to Wiccans and Druids, who keep it as the sabbat of the longest night and the return of the sun. The oldest evidence is slender: the Old English month names recorded by the monk Bede in the early eighth century, and a Norse saga telling how a king moved Yule to the Christian feast. Yule later became a name for Christmas. The modern Pagan Yule is a twentieth-century reconstruction.^[1–7]

Origins

The oldest English witness is the monk Bede, who wrote in the early eighth century that the English had once reckoned their months by the Moon, and that the first and last months of the year were both called Giuli. He added that the English began the year on 25 December and called that night Modranecht, mother's night, probably because of ceremonies held through it. He did not describe the ceremonies.^{[1, 9]}

What it marks

Yule marks midwinter, the turn of the sun. In modern Pagan practice it is set at the winter solstice: Wiccans describe the sabbat as celebrating the rebirth of the sun, and Druids call the solstice Alban Arthan, the time of death and rebirth, when a single light is lit.^[3–5]

How it came to be

In the Norse sources Yule appears as a winter feast. The saga of King Hákon the Good in Snorri's Heimskringla says that before Hákon, Yule began on midwinter night and was kept for three days, and that Hákon decreed that Yule would start together with the Christian feast. In this way the old feast and Christmas were joined: a dictionary of English etymology records Old Norse jól as a heathen feast later applied to Christmas, and a University of Glasgow Old English teaching resource glosses geol as originally a heathen festival, later Christmas.^{[2, 7, 10]}

How it is kept

a Yule log hearth, evergreens, twelve nights — A Yule log hearth, evergreens, twelve nightsIllustration · AI-generated

Heathen groups keep Yule around the winter solstice, and the Asatru Alliance holds a High Feast at the solstice. Wiccans mark Yule on or about 21 December, and Druids keep the solstice with a single light. Pagans in the Southern Hemisphere reverse the dates.^{[3, 5, 8, 11]}

Across traditions

The eight-festival wheel of the year in which Wiccans and Druids set Yule dates only from the mid twentieth century, when Gerald Gardner is said to have adapted eight older festivals into the sabbats of Wicca. The Norse and English evidence for an older Yule is slender, and the modern festivals are reconstructions.^{[1–2, 6]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.