Today is the day our Pagan Norse-Germanic and Saxon Brothers celebrated the Winter Solistice in the cold lands of Europe.

This festival brought warmth, joy and tribal gatherings together in these long cold nights.


Yule is the original Norse-Germanic Pagan festival that marks todays Winter Solistice before it was replaced by the christian version of 'christmas".

A description of heathen Yule practices is provided :

It was ancient custom that when sacrifice was to be made, all farmers were to come to the heathen temple and bring along with them the food they needed while the feast lasted. At this feast all were to take part of the drinking of ale. Also all kinds of livestock were killed in connection with it, horses also; and all the blood from them was called hlaut [ sacrificial blood ], and hlautbolli, the vessel holding the blood; and hlautteinar, the sacrificial twigs [ aspergills ]. These were fashioned like sprinklers, and with them were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood. But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and served as food at the banquet. Fires were to be lighted in the middle of the temple floor, and kettles hung over them. The sacrificial beaker was to be borne around the fire, and he who made the feast and was chieftain, was to bless the beaker as well as all the sacrificial meat.

The narrative continues that toasts were to be drunk. The first toast was to be drunk to Odin "for victory and power to the king", the second to the gods Njörðr and Freyr "for good harvests and for peace", and thirdly a beaker was to be drunk to the king himself . In addition, toasts were drunk to the memory of departed kinsfolk. These were called "minni [memorial toast]".

The Svarfdæla saga records a story in which a berserker put off a duel until three days after Yule to honour the sanctity of the holiday. Grettis Saga refers to Yule as a time of "greatest mirth and joy among men."




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Hmmm

The Yule log has been said to have its origins in the historical Germanic paganism which was practiced across Northern Europe prior to christianization.

The first mention of the Yule log in Britain is a written account by the clergyman Robert Herrick, from the 1620s or 1630s. Herrick called the tradition a "Christmas log" and said that it was brought into the farmhouse by a group of males, who were then rewarded with free beer from the farmer's wife. Herrick claimed that the fire used to burn the log was always started with a remnant from the log that had been burned in the previous year's festivities. He also said that the log's role was primarily one of bringing prosperity and protection from evil - by keeping the remnant of the log all the year long the protection was said to remain across the year.

The Yule log was not only seen as a magical protective amulet in traditional British rural culture. There are many reports of rivalries occurring between members of a community as to who had the largest log.

The traditions of the Yule log died out in Britain in the latter 19th and early 20th century because of"the reduction in farm labour and the disappearance of the old-fashioned open hearths"




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Happy Saturnalia to you too.

mmsen: Happy Saturnalia to you too.

You too Sir.

May the Rays of the Glorious Sun shine upon you, bringing light, warmth , and hope amidst this freezing cold.

mmsen: Happy Saturnalia to you too.

What has Saturn got to do with this?

OlaoChi:

What has Saturn got to do with this?

It actually has nothing to do with this.

However it was held around the same date.

Saturnalia was the Roman Festival.

Yuletide was the Norse-Germanic Festival.


Both are unrelated , yet related as Pagan Festivals of Winter.

PAGAN PAGAN