The word is conjectured in an explicitly pre-Christian context primarily in Old Norse. Yule underwent Christianised reformulation, resulting in the term Christmastide. Today, Yule is celebrated in Heathenry and other forms of Neopaganism, as well as in LaVeyan Satanism.
About Yule in brief
Yule or Yuletide is a festival observed by the Germanic peoples and norse religions. The word is conjectured in an explicitly pre-Christian context primarily in Old Norse. Yule underwent Christianised reformulation, resulting in the term Christmastide. Today, Yule is celebrated in Heathenry and other forms of Neopaganism, as well as in LaVeyan Satanism. Some present-day Christmas customs and traditions may have connections to older pagan Yule traditions. Terms with an etymological equivalent to Yule are still used in Nordic countries and Estonia to describe Christmas and other festivals occurring during the winter holiday season. The earliest references to it are in the form of month names, where the Yule-tide period lasts somewhere around two months, falling along the end of the modern calendar year between what is now mid-November and early January.
In Old Norse poetry, the word is often employed as a synonym for ‘feast’, such as in the kenning hugins jól. It has been thought that Old French jolif, which was borrowed into English in the 14th century as ‘jolly’, is itself borrowed from Old Norse jó l. But the Oxford English Dictionary sees this explanation for jolf as unlikely. The noun Yuletside is first attested from around 1475. In chapter 55 of the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, names for the different gods are given; one is ‘Yule-beings’ One of the numerous names of Odin is ‘Jólnir’, referring to the event of Good King Haakon of Norway who ruled from 934 to 961. The Saga of Hákon credits the Good King with the rescheduling of Yule celebrations to coincide with the Christianization of Norway. In the 12th century, it is explicitly stated that Christmas, iol, comes from a name of Odin, Iolne.
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This page is based on the article Yule published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 24, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
