The most sacred of all our feasts; the time of year when family and friends come together to share in the bonds of kinship. For thousands of years in cultures all over the world, celebrations in December are held, originating in the ancient rites honoring the return of the sun. WIth the passing of the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, winter's death has reached its culmination and the days begin to grow in length. In the days before indoor heating units and electric blankets, such an event was indeed joyously welcomed by all people, especially our Nordic ancestors.

There is much to consider in the celebration of Yule. After all, with traditions spanning all over Northern Europe, many of which can point to a heathen origin, it is difficult to get a clear view of exactly how our ancestors celebrated this most sacred holiday season. The purpose of this essay is not to detail every single Teutonic Yule tradition, but rather to present a common theme that probably echoes the Yule celebrations of ancient times.

It is generally accepted by most people in the Odinist community that there are at least two festivals within the Yule-tide: the Winter Soltice, commonly known as "Modresnacht" or "Mother Night", and New Year's Day, called "Twelfth Night". Many reject the December 25th date as a significant due to its perceived Christian origin. However, evidence points to the possibility that this was the most beloved of the Yule rites of our ancestors!

To understand why December 25th would be so significant one must observe the astronomical phenomenon it is associated with. The Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, afterwards there are three days where the lengths of the days and nights remain relatively the same. On the fourth day, usually the 25th (when the Solstice is on the 21st), the days are noticeably longer than they were. This event was recognized all over the world and became the "birthday" of savior or sun gods such as Krishna, Quetz-alcotl, Mithras and Christ. It was because of the widespread reverence paid to this day that the Romans assigned the date to the birth of Jesus, whose name in Greek means "The Light Bearer".

It is doubtless that our ancestors recognized this phenomenon as well and celebrated it as part of the twelve days of Yule. In fact, Bede actually assigns "Modresnacht to December 25th, but this had been used by modern writers and practicioners to signify the solstice instead. There is no need for us to try to work around Christian traditions or fear of co-opting them since the modern-day Christian faith itself is a fabricated religion based upon many different belief systems before it, including ours. We cannot steal that which already belongs to us.

It is established that Yule is an ambiguous term used to represent various passages of time. First and foremost it is the representative of The Wheel of the Year (cp. Grimm's Deutsch Mythology pg. 91 on the jahrring, jares umbihring, etc.) or the Wheel of Time represented various wheels symbols with different numbers of spokes. The word "Yule" means "wheel". Each wheel symbol possibly represents differents lengths of time (see Oera Linda Book where the six spoke wheel signifies the passing of the ages). The month of December was called Yule or Yule month by our ancestors and then there is the Yule feast. It is possible that there is another variant meaning for this word, which caused some of the confusion in the first place. In modern day Scandinavia December 25th is called "Yule Day" (Ice. Joladagr, Swedish Juldagen, etc.), so in the ancient records there may be incidences where "Yule" was interpreted as the entire Yule-tide when actually December 25th was intended. We can be certain that our ancestors celebrated the Winter Solstice, and that this marked the beginning of the twelve day celebration ending in the new year, but it is the 25th, the first day of the sun's "renewal" that culminated the festival.

For our purposes here we can continue to label the WInter Solstice "Modresnacht" to distinguish it from the other holidays, giving us three names for three sacred rites within the season. Joladagr or "Yule Day" would mark the 25th and "twelfth night" represents New Year's Day. The three high Yule celebrations are most likely the most traditional, giving the Yule season its purpose and meaning of honoring the past, present and future. Such a theme continued to be recognized in literary circles throughout Europe, inspiring such works as the Charles Dickens class "A Christmas Carol".

Probably the most significant piece of evidence we have to prove the authenjticity of the three sacred Yule rites is the treatment of its patron saint in the Christian traditions, that is, Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Wihnachsman, etc. Forget that absurd nonesense that his story comes from some Persian saint. The only point where the Christian and Persian traditions or tales actually connect is that both were known as gift-givers, but even this is too generic of a concept to be considered to have any merit. In Scandinavia, as the Julnissen or Tomte, he is viewed as an elf, which is a divine clan of demigods in the Odinic faith. Other traditions connect him to reindeer, which are most notably found in Scandinavia and are a major part of Scandinavian life and culture. From what we see, the origins of his depictions are most certainly Northern European.

I believe that the "Father Christmas" character is a combination of three ancient Odinic gods, each representatives of the three holy days of Yule. Some traditions speak of three different gift-bringers (and correlations to the three wise men of Christian myth are erroneous): one blue, one red, one green. Only three gods can, without argument, be linked to these colors: Odin is blue, Thor is red, Frey is green. Some depictions show "Father Christmas" as a grey-bearded old man, others show him at a younger age with a red beard. This can only be explained by the fact that his is an image taken from Odin-Harbard (Grey-beard) and Thor-Raudskegg (Red-beard). In Germany the Wihnachtman rides down on his horse to bring children gifts, which they give oats and hay for in return. Odin, also known as Onski, "God of Wishes", is particularly known as a gift-giver (see Hyndluljod 2-3) and rides to Midgard on his steed Sleipnir.

Most of the names of Santa Claus' reindeer are modern inventions, but two of them are of ancient origin and are of particular interest to us: Donner and Blitzen (Thunder and Lightning). Not only are thunder and lightning closely related to our god Thor, Donner is a German variant of his name! One also need not forget that it is Thor who is well-known for his travels in his chariot drawn by two animals, his goats Tanngnjost and Tanngrisnir.

Finally, there is the tradition of Santa Claus or Father Christmas either being an elf or lord of the elves. Remember that the elves are only recognized in Teutonic belief systems. Grimnismal 5 tells us that the gods gave Frey Alfheim as a tooth-gift, a gift given when a child cuts his first tooth, making him lord over them.

It is quite fitting that these three gods, whose statues were found together in the great temple at Uppsala, would be connected to the Yule rites. If the theory of the three sacred Yule feasts proves correct the first celebration, the Winter Solstice, would be a time of honoring the past year, of honoring ancestors who have moved on to the divine worlds. Some have postulated that there are correlations between the Celtic Samhain and the Teutonic Modresnacht. Thetre is no other deity in the Nordic pantheon that would fit to such a tradition than Odin himself, judge at the Thing near Urd's well (where the lots of the dead are chosen) and lord of Valhall. It is also said that his wild hunt, where he clears the atmosphere of ill-wights, is honored here.

The 25th date, Yule Day probably resembled, in ancient times, the celebrations held today all over the Western world. It is the honoring of the present, of the gathered folk-- where gifts are exchanged and feasts are enjoyed. Who else than Thor, the laughing one, the god of the folk, Midgard's protector and benefactor, husband of Sif, goddess of affinity, could represent such a celebration?

There is an ancient tradition where the sacred oaths for the coming year, the "New Year's resolutions", if you will, are made on the hide of a bear, the symbol Frey. This would be an act of looking toward the future, considering the days to come. Thus it would be Frey and his elves that would be revered on the Twelfth Night.

The question remains: why didn't the Teutons recognize Yule as the birth of the sun god or some savior like most other cultures? This is probably due to the climate of the North. Although Yule was certainly the most holy of holidays to our ancestors, the changes in the season would not have been significant enough to recognize an actual birth of a sun god. It wouldn't be until May Day when Balder celebrates his birthday.

In order to fully represent all of the deities that have been linked to the Yule rites I have found it useful to honor the families of the three Yule gods, along with each of the three high Norns to mark the recognition of the past, present and future. So the gods and goddesses honored would be: on Modresnacht, Odin, Balder, Frigga and Urd; on Joladagr, Thor, Sif, Ull and Verdandi; on Twelfth Night, Frey, Freya and the elves.

I have found that since I began using this theory in my own practices that many of the traditions one comes across can easily fit into one of these three celebrations accordingly. For example: the Yule-log, lit from the remains of last years', represents the return of light and would be burned at the Solstice. The "Yule-Buck", a Swedish tradition, would represent Thor's goats and would be used on Joladagr; mistletoe would be hung up on Modresnacht and taken down on Twelfth Night; Yule Trees, reminiscent of Yggdrasil ("Ygg-Odin's steed") would be decorated on Modresnacht, and so on.

No matter how you celebrate Yule, it is important to remember that, more than anything, this is a time of reflection, a time when we honor the past, celebrate the present and look towards the future.

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