Generally, the Norse and Germanic peoples who celebrated Yule did so by feasting, drinking, and carrying out blood sacrifices. As we will see, it is not a coincidence that the Christian Christmas was subsequently celebrated over twelve days. This was eventually extended into a twelve-day festival known as Yuletide. By the time it became common in Northern Europe, it was already celebrated over three or four days at the height of the Roman Empire, running roughly from the 21st of December to the 24th or 25th.
Yule was not just celebrated on the 21st of December by the Germanic and Norse peoples. Thus, the solstice became associated with Odin and became known as Yule. They associated Odin with the winter solstice, which falls on the 21st of December. Odin became associated with winter amongst the Germanic and Norse people of northern Europe, who lived much of the year with much night and darkness around them than the Romans and Greeks of the more southerly Mediterranean. So often, Odin was referred to as Jólnir or the Yule One. This enormous hall in Norse mythology was in Asgard and to which Odin summoned the greatest of warriors. It is a synonym of Jól or Jólnir, another word for Odin, the name of the Germanic and Norse god of war and lord of Valhalla. The term Yule derives from Norse and Germanic traditions. What does this mean, and how is it related to Christmas? A Nordic Yule festival Odin and Yule This doesn’t acknowledge the birth of Jesus but rather the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem after it was reacquired from the Seleucid rulers of the Holy Land by the Maccabean Kings of Judaea in the second century BC.īut of all those names for the Christmas period, perhaps the most perplexing is that of Yule or Yuletide. In Jewish culture, the same period is celebrated as a Hanukkah festival. Others call it the Nativity or Noel in France. Some call it Xmas, which simply is an abbreviation of Christmas, as the ‘X,’ as it was originally used, isn’t an ‘X’ at all, but rather what is known as a chi-rho, an early Christian symbol for Christ on the cross.
There are about as many names for Christmas as there are ways of celebrating it. Last updated on July 25th, 2022 at 10:56 pm
0 kommentar(er)
