Yule is a festival of twelve nights that starts at sunset on the winter solstice which usually falls on or around December 20. The first celebration of Yule is known as Mother’s Night. This is the night when the goddess Frigga and the Disir, Idis in the Germanic tradition, are honored. Disir are the female ancestors of a family line. They are the protective female spirits or powers that are said protect their family line. Unlike some protective powers the Disir are able to follow their family lines across the ocean to other countries. Some Heathen traditions also honor Frigga’s handmaidens at this time as well.
In the Ha’konar saga, two of the things we know for sure about the celebration of Yule is that everyone ate a lot of horse meat and drank large amounts of alcohol. Both were a requirement for the celebration. (King Ha’kan actually created a law stating a certain amount of alcohol had to be consumed to have successfully celebrated Yule.) In modern times we do not eat a lot of horse, but one of the things several people do is replace the horse meat with pork. Then they make a simple offering to honor the Vanir god Freyr. As always please remember to drink wisely if you do drink alcohol during this holiday season. It is not a good idea to end up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning because of Yule.
One of the things several people miss when decorating for this holiday is the Yule goat (The goat, a symbol of Thor, was an established symbol of Yule, and the animal was slaughtered as a sacrifice during Yule). The Yule goat (one of Thor’s goats) is a tradition that was celebrated in this country into the earliest parts of the twentieth century in Pennsylvania. The Yule goat is the one who brought the children presents instead of Santa Claus. People use to make little Yule goats from straw and set them around their homes. They can also be found online for those of you who are not crafty.
Mother’s Night is the longest night of the year, so it was important to the Northern European people to hold a vigil from dusk to dawn on this night to make sure that the sun rose again in the morning. When the goddess Sunna, the sun, rose that morning a celebration was held to welcome her back. In the Germanic traditions a sun wheel is burned that morning.
We do not have a lot of information about how Mother’s Night was celebrated beyond staying awake all night, but if it is anything like the other Yule celebrations feasting and drinking most likely fit in somewhere.
In the Anglo-Saxon and German traditions, it is time for the Yule log. The Yule log needs to be large because it needed to burn throughout the twelve days of Yule. An important aspect of the Yule log tradition is that it needs to be lit from a piece of last year’s Yule log. This is important because it ensures the continuation of good fortune. The most popular part of burning the Yule log is that no unnecessary work was supposed to take place in the home while it burned. Yule is a time of fun, relaxation, and introspection. If you do not have a fireplace some people keep a bonfire going outside for all
twelve days. (If you do keep a fire going outside, please remember to have someone watching 24/7.) My family and I take a more modern version of this idea and light a candle every day for the twelve days.
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