How Did the Vikings Celebrate YULE?

Yule today is just another word for Christmas to many of us, but a thousand years ago it was an important part of the Norse religious calendar! Join me in a brief chat about Yule, Christmas, Modraniht, and more about Viking and Norse religion as we say goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021!

I mention the wonderful @historywithhilbert in this video. Check him out!

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Edit: Re-uploaded because YouTube wrecked my audio on the original upload. It's still on here, but is now unlisted. Many apologies.

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[TheWelshViking]

Editing Jimmy: I obviously meant Winter Solstice, not Winter Equinox. That's... not a thing.

[mandipowell]

Dear Jimmy,
If you think about saying "if that sounds interesting, let me know" -- please know, we want the video.

[Pippis]

In Finland we celebrate Joulu (yo-lu), Jul (yul) in Sweden/swedish. Most Finns aren't that religious nowadays even though most are lutherian christians. Winter days get really dark and short here, in the most northern regions sun will set and not come up for a couple of months. So people are very much aware and celebrate the fact the days will again start getting longer at Joulu.

There are quite a bit of remnants of old nature worship and old deities and spirits in our culture or at least a memory of old traditions and in our mindset. I think some families still make a bowl of porridge for the house/christmas "gnome"/spirit/elf (kotitonttu/joulutonttu) - he used to get mead/beer too.
Our word for Father Christmas is Joulupukki, literally Yule Goat. We've had a bit of mixing of the autumn celebrations of harvest and death and Christmas. He has similarities with Krampus too. The modern global image of Father Christmas is actually linked to Finland. The Coca-Cola Christmas dude that has had major influence on it was designed by an artist of Finnish origin. The whole month of November is actually named after death in finnish (but it's an old word so hardly no one knows that).

I'm not sure where the tradition of the christmas tree came from - I've heard Germany? But we used to have a similar thing attached to several different celebrations. The midsummer celebration (also a HUGE festivity in Finland with a tradition of midsummer spell castings) is connected to the birch tree. A pair of birch trees is still often put on both sides of the main entrance to a home at midsummer for good luck. Certain trees used to be important to have in the yard of a home. Some of them inhabited/symbolized the dead family members who used to live in the family home. Not sure if wicker (that has medicinal properties) at Easter time is an old thing, but wouldn't be surprised. We still have the tradition of kids dressing up as witches and going around the neighbourhoods singing spells for health and good luck. It has been getting more and more influenced by halloween by anglo-american culture. The spells are bound into decorated branches of the wicker tree with those white fluffy things (we call then wicker cats) and are given to people who in turn give treats or money in return to the little witches. People don't really talk about this tradition in these terms and don't believe in the magic, but that is technically what happens :D It's a wonder the tradition has survived because people did use to be quite strict Christians. But it has been interpreted as a christian tradition (and may be that??Not sure) - the tree branches are thought as the palm leaves spread on Jesus's feet or something etc.

Bit of rambling.

[FabrayFashions]

As a Neo-nordic pagan, I celebrate Yule (Dec 21- Jan 2) in celebration of winter and the new year. The modern Goddess celebrated is Skadi (Goddess of winter).
My "sacrifice" is usually at least a shot of home-brewed mead or wine.

[vanefreja]

And we still use the word jul/jól for christmas in the nordic countries today ;)

[GaraksApprentice]

“Enjoy the days getting longer”
*cries in Australian*
Don’t get me wrong, I love the solstices. I just don’t love it when the sun tries to kill us.

[Celebrinthal]

Everybody who's interested in the subject, check out Jackson Crawford's channel. He's a scholar specialising in Old Norse and has a lot of fascinating videos on the Viking religion and the sources of our knowledge about it.

[KycklingsoppaDeluxe]

The main thing is that we still call it yule (jul)! Which I think is quite nice. There's this small sacrifical element kept (?) too, although I think it's becoming quite rare. It's too put out some porridge for "tomten. Originally it was done for "gårdstomten" (the yard/farm gnome) to show appreciation and appease him. The gårdstomte was thought to do invisible work around the farm and sort of bring good (or bad) luck. Since adopting Santa Claus, and calling him Jultomten, things have gotten a bit confused. So when I was a kid it was said to be for "tomten", implying Santa. But they are very different figures. Also, the biggest celebration is done during Christmas Eve and Santa is expected to SHOW UP during the evening which means there is often a whole charade about some adult disappaering for an errand only for Santa to show up with presents and so on. Before Santa (Jultomten) was introduced there was another figured called Julbocken (Yulegoat) that delivered presents during like the 19th century. God Jul from Sweden!

[ragnkja]

I have a hypothesis that only those who lived far enough south to see the sun rise on the winter solstice would have considered that their main winter celebration. Up in the Arctic Circle, I think the first sighting of the sun after the midwinter darkness would have been the date that was more significant. After all, we _still_ celebrate it, and while it isn’t an official holiday because the date varies from place to place, and possibly also because the governments of countries with Arctic territory are all much further south, we still do our to celebrate. In Hammerfest, the first sighting of the sun is marked with a cannon salute and taking the rest of the day off.

[laulutar]

Yes please on the Viking religion video 😊
Every year, my inner language geek is amused by the similarity of the Finnish and Swedish words for Christmas (joulu/jul) and Yule. Finnish isn't even in the same language family as Swedish, Norwegian and co, but we still be call the celebration with a similar word.
Here's to the days getting longer again 😁

[korgen-rock]

An important thing that is very important here in Norway is "Christmas beer". Tradition from the Viking age. (Everyone had to brew Christmas beer. If they didn't, they were punished)

[ellajando-saul]

Would love a video that describes what we know about Viking religion that goes beyond a summary of the mythology as it was recorded by Christians, which is what is most usually the description of Viking religion one gets.

[Master_Blackthorne]

There's only one word to describe Hakon's moving Yule to Christmas: sneaky.

[ncalgal]

Love hearing 'common belief' about winter solstice festivals set straight by simply quoting an existing historical document!!

[llatew]

Please please please do a proper deep-dive video about norse/germanic religion! I have been doing a lot of research recently into the evolution of indo-european religions, and especially the links between germanic, nose, baltic, and slavic paganism. Always enjoy your content and would LOVE to see your take on this.

[Angel_]

An episode without tea would just be weird. I love the shield ornament! Definitely need to make one. Definitely was always taught that Christians took yule and moved it. It's interesting knowing it's the opposite.

[michellecornum]

Aw, that's the part I don't like -- the days get longer again. Winter is so short, and goes by so fast. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Stay well, Stay warm!

[Lunareon]

Thank you for sharing this bit of history on the midwinter celebration. It's sad how so much knowledge of ancient traditions is either uncertain or lost entirely in the course of time. It's also somewhat comforting to know one thing remains unchanged throughout the millennia: we feast to celebrate! :)

[Aswaguespack]

In my very Catholic French Creole region of my state the celebration of Christmas was observed with the evolution and development of large bonfires to “light the way for Papa Noël”.

A very important educational institution that opened just prior to the mid-1800s brought Marists Priests to the area to educate the young men of the region. These Marist priests from Normandy brought to this area the tradition of the bonfires of that European area which seems to be part of the evolution from the Yule log that Norman France reportedly practiced at the time of the Winter Soltice/Christmas. The bonfires of this area lit on Christmas Eve are unique to the entire Central Gulf Coast. Since the region is comprised mostly of wetlands there’s little in the way of the traditional Evergreen “fir” type trees that the large German/Alsatian population had access to in Europe before their immigration to America. In the wetlands there is an broadleaf evergreen tree, the Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera), that my German ancestors found readily available and brought into their homes and decorated as Christmas Trees.

A bit different adaptation of European Christmas Traditions that evolved here in the US.

[matteroftime]

Having really taken a dive into Viking . . . uh, everything since the pandemic began, this year was the first I truly paid attention to the winter solstice and traditions. Perfect timing for your video. Thank you for doing it. Happy Solstice!