Winter Solstice

Yes, today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the first day of the pagan festival of Yule, a twelve-day festival that evolved in the Scandinavian and Germanic countries and involved copious amounts of drinking, feasting, songs, games, banquets and sacrifices to the gods and the ancestors.
Yule got its name from the Old Norse word of Jól, which was what they called their midwinter feast.

Trees are sacred to pagans so homes were decorated with branches and pine cones. Often a whole tree was decorated with effigies of their gods.
Holly’s red berries were a symbol of the returning sun.
Mistletoe also had mythical importance. It was believed to grant fertility and also symbolised hope for the end of winter.
The Yule goat - an important animal because two goats drew the chariot of the Norse god, Thor - was made from straw kept back from the last sheaf of wheat harvested, which was believed to have special properties.

Although Christmas mostly supplanted Yule at this time of year - done on purpose to try to persuade people to become Christians - many of its traditions were still kept alive within the new Christian festival.
The Yule log, straw Yule goat, and the Yule boar (now the Christmas ham) all survive to this day.

The Yule log was traditionally a real sacred log carved with runes, which was burnt at this time, but nowadays it is an edible variety!!

During the Yule celebrations, someone would dress up as old man winter, a white-bearded man dressed in a hooded fur coat, thought to represent the chief god, Odin. This individual would travel around the community, joining in with the various celebrations. This figure is one of the early incarnations of what we now know as Father Christmas.

So, today as we journey through the shortest day, let’s take a leaf out of the pagan book and celebrate the start of the return of longer days with all things winter and Yule!!

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