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The Real Yule I’ve seen a lot of nonsense written about Yule by fundamentalist
Christians over the years. In Schemes of
Satan, Warnke
lists “Yule (December 21)” as a Druid celebration, describing Druids as
Satanists. In America’s
Best Kept Secret,
Frattarola describes December 22 as “CELEBRATION: Feast Day, TYPE: Orgies,
USAGE: Oral, Anal, Vaginal, AGE: Any age (male or female, human or
animal)”. In Halloween: ‘Tis the Season to be Evil, Schnoebelen claims that the
“THE YULE SOLSTICE... celebrates the shortest day of the year and
the rebirth of the sun as a young babe to the Great Goddess. It has been said that during this time baby
boys are severely tortured to blaspheme the Christ child being born.” The Colorado Bureau of Investigations
Questioned Documents Examiner’s Occult Guide claims that “[Yule] celebrates the shortest day of
the year and the rebirth of the sun as a young babe to the Great
Goddess. It has been said that during
this time baby boys are severely tortured to blaspheme the Christ child being
born.” In Detective Don Rimer’s “Symptoms Characterizing
Occult Ritual Abuse”, describes December 22 as “WINTER SOLSTICE Orgies.” Tom Sanguinet states: “Christmas, we've kind of overtoned the
pagan thing (the Roman Saturnalia for instance)...” The Saturnalia was a seven day festival in ancient Rome, commencing 17
December. It was a season of goodwill
to all in which slaves were permitted to meet their masters on equal terms. It was one of the ancient festivals from
which modern Christmas customs are derived.
Like Sanguinet, many of the fundamentalist Christians object to the
inclusion of the many Pagan customs in the modern celebration of Christmas. In his book America’s Occult Holidays Marquis tries to convince us
that Christmas was “an ancient occult ceremony dedicated to the birthday of
Tammuz, the son of the cofounders of the occult, Nimrod and Semiramis”. Marquis tells us that Christmas was forbidden
by the early American pilgrims. It was
actually, briefly, following Oliver Cromwell’s English civil war. Yule, the Winter Solstice (December 21), is a Lesser Sabbat in the
Wiccan calendar, also known as Alban Arthuan.
The Winter Solstice is known to the ADF as La Ceimbroadh, to ODOB as
Alban Arthan (“the light of Arthur”), to the RDNA as Yule and to the ODU as
Mean Geimhridh. December 21 also is
the Christian Feast of Saint Thomas The word “Yule” first appeared in its
modern spelling in 1475 CE. Circa 1450
CE it was spelled “Yoole” and circa 1200 CE it appeared in The Ormulum as
“Yole”. Before 899 CE it appeared in
Old English as the word “Geol” or “Geola”.
The venerable Bede recorded it circa 726 CE in his history (written in
Anglian Old English) as “Giuli”. It
may have originated in Scandinavian countries, since their word for this
season is similar: “jul”. In old Icelandic it is “jol”. December 21 is also the Christian Feast of
Saint Thomas. As a matter of interest, the term "Christmas" cannot be
traced back as far as the term “Yule”.
It first appeared as “Cristmessa”, or “Christ's festival” around 1100
CE. Another Old English variation was
“Cristes Maesse”. The expression
“Christmas Eve” did not appear before 1300 CE (from “Cristenmesse Even”),
Christmastide appeared in 1626 and although decorated trees appeared in
England in the mid 1700s, the term “Christmas Tree” did not appear until
1835. Yule is the winter solstice:
the longest night of the year.
Some cultures hold a festival of light to commemorate the Goddess as
Mother giving birth (once again) to the Sun God. In the Wiccan community this often this
takes the form of getting up before the sun rises and lighting a bon
fire. The celebrants stand around the
fire, “singing the sun up” in celebration of the returning light. Wiccans often appoint coveners to represent
the Young Lord (or the waxing year) and the Old Lord (the waning year) and
play out a ritual drama of the Young Lord's victory over the Old to mark the
point from which the days will lengthen. Druids consider Yule to be a time of rebirth and elimination of
obstacles: One Druid Yule ritual calls upon the participants to “Cast away, O
wo/man whatever impedes the appearance of light.” In darkness the
participants throw to the ground scraps of material signifying those things
which have been holding them back. A
lamp is then lit from a flint and raised up on the Druid's crook in the East.
The white mistletoe berries distributed in some Druid Yule ceremonies are
also symbolic of the return of the light. Yule was another time of year that the custom of “Hodening” or
“Hoodening” was practised. As in the
Samhain Hodening, a man would drape a stable blanket or sheet over himself
and carry about a horse's skull (sometimes a wooden horse's head) on a pole
about four feet long. The jaws were
often hinged and made to snap open and shut.
He would go about from household to household at night with a small
group of attendants. His visit was
said to bring fertility and good fortune to the household. One of his attendants would lead him by the
reins or a rope, another would carry a whip, sometimes a lighter person would
ride on his back. Another of the
attendants was a man dressed as a woman called “Mollie” or “Old Woman”, who
carried a besom. Originally this was
probably a woman, perhaps a priestess.
This group would greet the householders at the front door, the
Hodening horse snapping his jaws and The Old Woman sweeping the entrance way
to sweep out any bad luck. The
Hodening party would enter the house and the occupants would tie a red ribbon
on the horse's head. In Wales this custom was referred to as Mari Lwyd. A horse’s skull or wooden replica, decorated with ribbons and draped with a long white sheet was carried around on a pole, |
The Real Yule
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"Christmas" cannot be traced back as
far as the term “Yule”. It first
appeared as “Cristmessa”, or “Christ's festival” around 1100 CE. |
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Dispatches: Volume 2 No. 7 Yule/Alban Arthan/Mean Geimhridh/La
Ceimbroadh 2007 |
