Okay, so if you’ve been following my blog and newsletter, you probably realize by now that I am definitely ready for the holidays this year. 🙂 In fact, I’m feeling so festive that for the next few weeks, Friday’s “fun fact” blogs will be all about Yule!

And if you’re following along with the #12DaysofTurvy challenge on IG and FB, it probably won’t surprise you that I’m writing about Yule. My characters, Red and her friends, live in a fairy tale world. As such, they tend to celebrate ancient or pagan holidays–many of which echo holidays in our modern world. So, “Samhain” instead of “Halloween” in Cry Big Bad Wolf; “Ostara” instead of “Easter” in last year’s Peep-themed short story mishap; and Yule in the place of Christmas.

Traditionally, Yule was a celebration of the winter solstice. I’ve written a little bit about it before, in this post on “The Holly and the Ivy,” one of my favorite Christmas carols. In this case, “traditionally” means ancient Celtic or Norse traditions–so, pre-Christian Europe. That said, many cultures across the world have celebrated the winter solstice, because it marks the point of winter where the days actually begin getting longer. Spring is on the horizon–let’s party!

Seems strange to us now, right? In the modern Northern Hemisphere, we often don’t think of “winter” as beginning until December. But the winter solstice (usually December 21st or so) is the shortest, “darkest” day of the year. Yule, then, is that feeling that we’re in the depths of winter–but we’ve already made it this far, and we’re going to make it out.

Most Yule celebrations involve feasting (i.e., eating any surplus food that might go bad before spring), lighting candles (usually symbolizing light returning), and giving gifts to friends and family (sharing good fortune!). In the next few weeks, we’ll take a closer look at some Yule traditions that have made their way into modern Christmas–things like mistletoe and wassailing. So grab a cozy blanket, some tea, and a scented candle, and stay tuned! 😉

Selected Sources

A lot of the musings today are my own, but for the basics, the info isn’t hard to find! This old HuffPost article gives a good quick overview of solstice celebrations. For more about the myths and folklore of Yule, check out this article from Learn Religions.