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Yule
Yule, actually Yuletide ("Yule time") is a festival observed by the historical Germanic peoples, later undergoing Christianised reformulation resulting in the now better-known Christmastide. The earliest references to Yule are by way of indigenous Germanic month names ' (Before Yule) or ' and ' (After Yule). Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht. Terms with an etymological equivalent to ''Yule'' are used in the Nordic countries for Christmas with its religious rites, but also for the holidays of this season. ''Yule'' is also used to a lesser extent in English-speaking countries to refer to Christmas. Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule. A number of Neopagans have introduced their own rites. Etymology ''Yule'' is the modern English representation of the Old English words ' or ' and ' or ''ġéoli'', with the former indicating the 12-day festival ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yule Log
The Yule log, Yule clog, or Christmas block is a specially selected log burnt on a hearth as a winter tradition in regions of Europe, and subsequently North America. The origin of the folk custom is unclear. Like other traditions associated with Yule (such as the Yule boar), the custom may ultimately derive from Germanic paganism. American folklorist Linda Watts provides the following overview of the custom: The familiar custom of burning the Yule log dates back to earlier solstice celebrations and the tradition of bonfires. The Christmas practice calls for burning a portion of the log each evening until Twelfth Night (January 6). The log is subsequently placed beneath the bed for luck, and particularly for protection from the household threats of lightning and, with some irony, fire. Many have beliefs based on the yule log as it burns, and by counting the sparks and such, they seek to discern their fortunes for the new year and beyond.Watts (2006:71). Watts notes that the Yu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wheel Of The Year
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern pagans, consisting of the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them. While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, syncretic treatments often refer to the four solar events as " quarter days", with the four midpoint events as "cross-quarter days". Differing sects of modern paganism also vary regarding the precise timing of each celebration, based on distinctions such as lunar phase and geographic hemisphere. Observing the cycle of the seasons has been important to many people, both ancient and modern. Contemporary Pagan festivals that rely on the Wheel are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of actual historical pagan practices. Among Wiccans, each festival is also referred to as a sabbat (), based on Gerald Gardner's view that the term was passed down from the Middle Ages, when the terminology for Jewish S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germanic Calendar
The early Germanic calendars were the regional calendars used among the early Germanic peoples before they adopted the Julian calendar in the Early Middle Ages. The calendars were an element of early Germanic culture. The Germanic peoples had names for the months that varied by region and dialect, but they were later replaced with local adaptations of the Julian month names. Records of Old English and Old High German month names date to the 8th and 9th centuries, respectively. Old Norse month names are attested from the 13th century. As with most pre-modern calendars, the reckoning used in early Germanic culture was likely lunisolar. As an example, the Runic calendar developed in medieval Sweden was lunisolar, fixing the beginning of the year at the first full moon after winter solstice. Months The Germanic calendars were lunisolar, the months corresponding to lunations. Tacitus writes in his '' Germania'' (Chapter 11) that the Germanic peoples observed the lunar months. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winter Solstice
The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky. Either pole experiences continuous darkness or twilight around its winter solstice. The opposite event is the summer solstice. The winter solstice occurs during the hemisphere's winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the December solstice (usually 21st or 22nd December) and in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the June solstice (usually 20th or 21st of June). Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment, the term also refers to the day on which it occurs. The term midwinter is also used synonymously with the winter solstice, although it carries other meanings as we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Winter Festivals
This is an incomplete list of multinational festivals and holidays. January ;Christianity * Feast of the Circumcision: ''1 January'' * Twelfth Night (Epiphany Eve): ''5 January'' * Epiphany: ''6 January'' – the arrival of the Three Magi * Armenian Apostolic Christmas: ''6 January'' * Orthodox Christmas: ''7 January'' – in churches using dates corresponding to the old Julian calendar, 7 January is equivalent to 25 December in the Gregorian calendar. ;Secular * Saint Basil's Day: ''1 January'' – In Greece, traditionally he is the Father Christmas figure. * New Year's Day: ''1 January'' – First day of the Gregorian Year. * Old New Year: ''14 January'': New Year's Day according to the "old" Julian calendar. Includes a winter ritual of strolling and singing that was later incorporated into the Christmas carol. ;Sikhism * Lohri/Bhogi: ''13 January'' ;Telugu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra * Makar Sankranti: ''14 January'' ;Tamil Nadu * Pongal: ''14 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christmas Ham
A Christmas ham or Yule ham is a ham often served for Christmas dinner or during Yule in Northern Europe and the Anglosphere. The style of preparation varies widely by place and time. Despite the common claim that the tradition of eating ham is related to the Germanic pagan ritual of sacrificing a wild boar known as a sonargöltr to the Norse god Freyr during harvest festivals, this is highly dubious. In fact, in the United States, ham only became popular as a Christmas food in the 20th century.Stavros Macrakis, "How Old is American Christmas Ham?", '' Repast'' (Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor) 37:1:6 (Winter 2021full text/ref> The Romans were known to have eaten various foods during the Saturnalia, of which one was a roast piglet. Pope Sixtus III insisted in 435 that Christians should eat pork on Christmas to make a difference to the Jews, for which pork is forbidden. Swedish traditions The centerpiece of the cold cuts section of a traditional Swedish Christmas smör ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mōdraniht
or (; Old English for "Night of the Mothers" or "Mothers' Night") was an event held at what is now Christmas Eve by the Anglo-Saxon pagans. The event is attested by the medieval English historian Bede in his eighth-century Latin work . It has been suggested that sacrifices may have occurred during this event. Scholars have proposed connections between the Anglo-Saxon and events attested among other Germanic peoples (specifically those involving the , collective female ancestral beings, and Yule), and the Germanic , female beings attested by way of altar and votive inscriptions, nearly always appearing in trios. Attestation In , Bede writes that the pagan Anglo-Saxons: Theories and interpretations Scholars have linked these ' ("Mothers") with the Germanic .Simek (2007:205–207) and Herbert (2007:24). Rudolf Simek says that ' "as a Germanic sacrificial festival should be associated with the Matron cult of the West Germanic peoples on the one hand, and to the ' and the ' alread ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif (Motif E501 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature) that occurs in the folklore of various northern European cultures. Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in Germanic legends, but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king , the Welsh psychopomp , biblical figures such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel, or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul or spirit either male or female. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies, valkyries, or elves. Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to forebode some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom. In some insta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wassailing
The tradition of wassailing (''alt sp'' wasselling) falls into two distinct categories: the house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail. The house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts; this practice still exists, but has largely been displaced by carolling. The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year. Notable traditional wassailing songs include " Here We Come a-Wassailing", "Gloucestershire Wassail", and "Gower Wassail". Etymology According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "wassail" originated as a borrowing from the Old Norse salutation ''ves heill,'' corresponding to Old English ''hál wes þú or wes hál'' – literally meaning 'be in good health' or 'be fortunate'. It was initially used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germanic Paganism
Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germany, and at times other parts of Europe, the beliefs and practices of Germanic paganism varied. Scholars typically assume some degree of continuity between Roman-era beliefs and those found in Norse paganism, as well as between Germanic religion and reconstructed Indo-European religion and post-conversion folklore, though the precise degree and details of this continuity are subjects of debate. Germanic religion was influenced by neighboring cultures, including that of the Celts, the Romans, and, later, by Christian religion. Very few sources exist that were written by pagan adherents themselves; instead, most were written by outsiders and can thus can present problems for reconstructing authentic Germanic beliefs and practices. Some basic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the runic alphabet, and depicts him as the husband of the goddess Frigg. In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, the god was also known in Old English as ', in Old Saxon as , in Old Dutch as ''Wuodan'', in Old Frisian as ''Wêda'', and in Old High German as , all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym *''Wōðanaz'', meaning 'lord of frenzy', or 'leader of the possessed'. Odin appears as a prominent god throughout the recorded history of Northern Europe, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania (from BCE) through movement of peoples during the Migration Period (4th to 6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries CE). In the modern period, the rural folklore of Germanic E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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