Christmas or the winter solstice has been celebrated for thousands of years. In this blog, we'll take you on a journey to pre-Christian Yule as celebrated by Germanic peoples, Vikings and Balto-Slavs in Northern Europe. We've put together a matching luxury outfit that will keep you warm during the winter days and festivals.
The winter solstice in early societies
As far back as 15,000 years ago, the winter solstice played an important role in the lives of early societies. Food gatherers, hunters, and fishermen in Europe feared the night, which was associated with death and danger from predators like bears and wolves. The transition that followed the winter solstice, when days grew longer and nights shorter, marked an important turning point for them that was likely celebrated in their shamanistic nature religion.
Neolithic winter solstice
Around 8000 BCE, the first farmers arrived in Europe from Anatolia, responsible for monuments like Stonehenge. For these Neolithic communities, the winter solstice marked the most important time of the year, as a transition from long nights associated with death to shorter nights that heralded spring. Many Neolithic burial monuments in Great Britain and Ireland were designed so that sunlight during the winter solstice illuminated the burial chambers, emphasizing the symbolic connection between the dead and their rebirth. It was the transitional period when the dead earth would soon yield grain again. By this point, people had survived the winter, and that was cause for celebration!
The Indo-European sun cult
From 3000 BCE onwards, semi-nomadic herders from the Pontic-Caspian steppes migrated to Europe. They became the ancestors of many modern European peoples and spoke proto-Indo-European: the language from which most European languages descend.
Cosmic order was the foundation of their religion. Darkness was a symbol of death and chaos, while light represented cosmic order, fertility, and life. There were several gods associated with celestial bodies and light, such as *Seh₂ul (Old Norse Sól), god of the sun, *Meh₁not (Old Norse Máni), god of the moon, and *H₂éwsōs (West Germanic Eostre) goddess of the dawn.
The winter solstice, which falls between December 21 and 23, was celebrated by many Indo-European peoples. The Romans celebrated around the Saturnalia, in honor of the god Saturn, and Emperor Aurelianus made this period into the festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the birthday of Sol Invictus or the 'unconquerable sun', in 274 CE. The Vedic peoples of India celebrated the Mahavrata festival, preceded by the rituals of Pitryajna, Traiyambakahoma and Ekastaka; and the Persians celebrated Yalda night, while the Gallic Coligny calendar mentions the month of Equos, which likely had connections to fertility.
The date of Yule
A fragment of a Gothic calendar from the 6th century CE mentions frumajiuleis, though it's unclear whether this refers to the month of December. This would be the earliest mention of a Yule month.
The Anglo-Saxon historian Bede confirms that both December and January were called Giuli. In the Icelandic calendar, used by Snorri Sturluson among others, the second month of winter, beginning in late November, is called ýlir.
It's unclear exactly when the Yule festival was celebrated, but it didn't coincide with the later Christian Christmas. The Hákonar saga góða from Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla (12th/13th century) recounts that Yule was celebrated during the Midwinter Nights and that King Haakon the Good ensured the date was moved to coincide with the Christian Christmas.
The Midwinter Nights fell after the winter solstice, according to Andreas Nordberg during the full moon of the second Yule month, thus January. This aligns with the account of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, who tells that Vikings gathered every nine years in January in Lejre for a blót, where they made offerings to the gods.
The Anglo-Saxon Yule tide: ġēol
In the Old English period, Yule, ġēol or ġēohol, was a 12-day festival, which later became the Twelve Days of Christmas. Here, ǣrra ġēola (before-Yule) referred to the period before the Yule festival (December) and æftera ġēola (after-Yule) to the period after it (January). This means the Yule season lasted approximately two months.
Mōdraniht ("Mother's Night")
Mōdraniht (night of the mothers), was a pagan ritual celebrated by the Anglo-Saxons on the evening now known as Christmas Eve.
This event is mentioned solely by the 8th-century English monk and historian Beda in his work De Temporum Ratione. He describes that the pagan Anglo-Saxons began their year on the eighth day before the calends of January (December 25), and that the night before, which is holy to Christians, was called "Mōdraniht" by the heathens, meaning "Night of the Mothers."
Although Beda provides no detailed description of the rituals performed during Mōdraniht, some scholars, including Rudolf Simek, suggest that the festival may have involved offerings in honor of female deities or ancestral mothers.
They draw connections between Mōdraniht and the Germanic Matres and Matronae, female beings often depicted in groups of three and venerated in parts of Germania. Additionally, parallels have been drawn to Scandinavian traditions, such as the Norns and dísablót, a sacrificial feast honoring the dísir, female protective spirits or ancestral ghosts.
Information about Mōdraniht is limited to Beda's mention and many interpretations are based on comparisons with other Germanic and Scandinavian traditions. Nevertheless, Mōdraniht is considered an important example of pre-Christian rituals aimed at honoring women, goddesses, and ancestors during the midwinter period. Although Yule fell in the season of the dead, it was also a festival where one could request fertility for the coming year. As such, it stands in the broader context of Germanic winter celebrations around Yule.
Wassail
The tradition of wassail began as the greeting "was hál" or "waes haeil," with which the Anglo-Saxons raised a toast to each other's good health. Eventually, this greeting became synonymous with what was drunk during the toast: a warm, spiced drink, usually beer or wine.
In any case, from the 15th century onwards, on the twelfth night of Christmas (January 5 or 6), farmers would visit their landlord's door, or those of wealthier neighbors, with a wassail bowl. The visitors sang songs in exchange for food and drink. The landlord gave them food and drink in return for their blessing. If the landlord refused, he was cursed.
In the late 16th century, Apple-Wassailing also arose in South England. Groups of young men would travel through apple orchards and perform rituals in exchange for a reward. They sang songs or made as much noise as possible. The goal was to "wake up" the cider apple trees and drive away evil spirits, so the harvest would be successful. The ceremony was led by a wassail king and queen, with toast soaked in wassail being hung in the trees as an offering.
These Wassail rituals only emerged in the late Middle Ages, but likely have a much older pagan origin. It served as a symbol of reciprocity, an important Indo-European principle. The farmers sang for (praised) their landlord in exchange for food. With this, they confirmed their patron-client relationship.
The Scandinavian Yule
The Hákonar saga góða recounts that during the Yule festival for King Haakon, three toasts were made: the first cup was for Odin "for victory and power," the second cup for Njörðr and Freyr "for good harvests and peace," and the third cup, the bragarfull, in honor of the king himself.
The Orkneyinga saga tells that midwinter is connected to Thor, also a god associated with weather and fertility.
Odin and the Wild Hunt
The period between Halloween (álfablót) and Yule was the season of the dead. This was the time of the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession led by Odin, and heightened supernatural activity, including the presence of draugar -
