Yule- the Winter Solstice Norse Style

Introduction

Merry Christmas, Good Yule, and Happy Holidays to all!
I am hoping everyone has had a good winter season so far, and that it only gets better as we go into the New Year. In today’s blog post, we are going to be talking about Yule, the celebration of the Winter Solstice as we currently practice it, and the research into how it was celebrated by our ancestors.

I’ll be splitting this blog post into two sections along those lines: first, I will go into what we know of the old ways, and then I will get into how we do things inside our clan.

Ancient Norse Yule

From what I have read and been able to decipher in the Viking Age, Yule was celebrated as the longest night of the year, the ending of the previous year, and that Fenris hadn’t swallowed the sun.

The Wild Hunt which appears in both Norse and
Celtic mythologies is a precursor to Santa. As is Odin himself.

The celebration itself would last until the sun rose, and the time was spent feasting and drinking. Specifics on how the ancestors celebrated are scarce, as with many things. All we can do is count on secondary sources to get an idea of what may have been. We do know from historical sources that many of what are now Christian traditions have their start in the way the Norse used to celebrate Yule: things like the Christmas Tree, holly as a decoration, Santa’s ride around the world, and even stockings all have a start in the Norse traditions.

By looking at these traditions, we can sort of build what a Yule celebration might have looked like, but mostly it has a lot to do with celebrating the meaning of the Blot as best we can, in a way that -to us- honours the gods and our ancestors.

Our Yule

For our clan’s celebration of Yule, we mix traditions created by us with others taken from historical records, combining the two to create something that means family and winter holidays to us. The worry on Yule has always been that the Ragnarok has come, that with the setting of the sun Fenris has risen and Fimbulwinter has at last begun, so we gather the clan and prepare for what may be. While we wait for the sun to return we feast, drink, and game the night away!

It is now time to choose our champions! We create challenges of Strength, Skill, and Wisdom. Each

Norse children would leave snacks for Sleipnir in their boots
and in exchange Odin would leave them sweets. This
became the stocking tradition.

year, a new challenge is chosen by the previous year’s champion to represent what games have always been: playing to have fun, while also training and preparing for anything life throws at you.

Our Test of Strength is almost always as much about endurance as actual strength, a way to display our prowess as a clan, and to cheer on our kin as they compete to be the best. Since the previous year’s champion picks the challenge, we have had a really wide variety of tests throughout the decade: everything from planks to wrestling to shot put, each one adding to the atmosphere of festivities while also giving us the chance to show off and brag. I can’t think of anything more Norse than that!

The Test of Skill is a little bit more finicky, since skill can be highly subjective: for one champion it may be a test of agility; for another, a test of aim; and for another still, juggling. These are often the most entertaining to watch, as people are essentially learning a new thing to try and win! This last year we did Nerf gun duels, and in the past we’ve had knife throwing, darts, juggling, and even parrying Nerf darts with lightsabers! The physical tests give us something to gather around and watch while we wait for the food to be served, and it gets everyone talking and laughing.

The final test is the Test of Wisdom, which is almost always some sort of puzzle or riddle challenge that people can submit their answers to the Goði. The first person to submit the correct answer is declared the winner. In the past we have also done a riddle contest in the style of Odin and Vafthrudnir, with questions being passed around until a person can no longer answer and then they are removed from the game, until only one is left standing. I favour this kind of contest or chess riddles because they give everyone the opportunity to learn and grow.

After the challenges are won, it’s time to feast. We like to do a potluck so that the clan comes together as a whole to feed everyone. To me, this also plays into that idea of family and hospitality, that we are all in this together and here for each other. As the hosts, my wife and I usually provide a roast pork shoulder or similar, as well as breads and salad. Each of the other guests bring things that they enjoy, or that show off a special recipe or dish. This leads us to a very international feast with a huge variety of foods, and there’s always more than enough to eat. When the feasting is done, everyone helps to clear the table and we all prepare for the next activities.

After feast, we gather in a circle and each tell tales of our wins and losses of the previous year. We also review the boasts that we made to allow the clan to decide if we had succeeded or not. These are a big portion of the night, and they happen after the tale-telling, representing improvements that we want to make to ourselves or adventures we wish to embark upon before next Yule… sort of a bucket

Christmas trees come from the tradition
of decorating wild trees during the winter time. This
practice is even spoken against in the Bible.

list before the world might end, and a New Year’s Resolution all combined into one. Once we have gone over the boasts and tales of the previous year, the Goði stands and blesses the horn. Our tradition is to sing the Song of Odin by Karl Donaldsson, but we have also taken this time to read a passage from the Eddas or Hávamál that might be meaningful in the coming year.

The horn itself represents an oath to the clan and to the people who share the blot with us. It says “I am here and you are my chosen kin.” When you are part of the clan and the circle, it means that you don’t have to go it alone, whether that means help moving, an extra push to complete your boast, or a couch to sleep on because life has become hard, we are all in it together. Family was one of the cornerstones of Ancient Norse life, and it's just as important to us.

When the horn is blessed, we pass it around, each person making their boast for the coming year. A boast should be a specific task that you will complete before the next Yule, and to make sure you do, you also state before the clan what the consequences will be if you don’t. Our Goði is fond of suggesting people shave their heads as a consequence, but oftentimes people choose things that give back to the clan as a whole. One person offered, should they fail their boast, to give a certain amount of rides uber-style to members of the clan. Things like this reinforce the idea of us all being in it together, and gives you the motivation to push through and complete your boast.

A sample boast:
I, Rurik Ulfhamar, boast that by next Yule I will have gathered enough savings to cover three months of my bills. If I fail to do so, I will sell off two of my collector’s edition books to add to my savings.


This isn’t the most exciting boast… it involves making responsible choices and working hard. It is, however, an important boast to me and to my family after the last couple of years of financial hardship. It creates accountability towards the goal that I want to achieve, and produces hard consequences should I fail.

Another example:
Before next Yule, I will run a marathon. If I fail, I will take the clan out to dinner at Flannigans.

Clear goal, clear consequence. These types of direct boasts are best because they give you a defined end point.

Now, you don’t need to boast to drink from the horn; it’s a good thing to do but not a requirement. Drinking from the horn is creating a bond to the clan; making an oath is making a promise to yourself. Once you have made your oath and drunk from the horn, you pass it to the next person in the circle until everyone has had their turn. Then the Goði pours out some of the horn for our ancestors and those who could not be there, and then finishes it himself, sealing the pact.

We then spend the rest of the night playing games and spending time with our kin who we don’t get to see nearly often enough given how hectic life can get. We don’t usually stay until sunrise, but it's a pretty close thing. Usually the Godhi, the wife,  and I stay hanging out with the last stragglers until 4-5 in the morning.

In our house, a sort of odd morning-after tradition has begun to take shape over the last 3-4 years. As many of you know, we have three daughters, and the morning after Yule they wake up extra early and make it a point to clean up the entire house and do the dishes so that we don’t have to worry about it.

Leaping over the Yule log is a test of bravery, and
is supposed to bring good luck in the coming year.

It was a huge surprise to my wife and I when they did it the first time, and the fact that they have continued makes it even more impressive, especially since the older two are hitting the teen years pretty hard and often don’t even want to clean their room!

There are a couple of traditions I am wanting to add in future years, one I can’t do until have a backyard of my own, and another from Iceland I intend to start this coming year. The first is the leaping over the Yule log. I currently don't have anywhere to make a proper and decent sized bonfire of a log for people to jump over! During the Viking Age, jumping over the Yule log was supposed to give you good luck for the coming year, but for now we will make do with a Yule log on the TV while the boasts are happening.

The second tradition I’d like to start is based on the jolabokaflod, the Yule Book Flood! This is a tradition in Iceland where books are exchanged on Christmas Eve and then the evening is spent reading them. For the Clan Book Flood, my idea is to do a Secret Santa style event where each person gives one other person a book of their choosing. This way we can share books that are meaningful to us, and everyone gets more books, which everybody knows is really the reason for the season!

Conclusion

I hope you all enjoyed this glimpse into how we celebrate Yule, and an example of how you can build your own Yule traditions. Let me know how you celebrate it in the comments below, and if there are any traditions you think I should look into, share that too!

References

http://paganpoet.com/library/an-asatru-viewpoint-of-yule-customs-and-traditions/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule
http://www.asatru.org/holidays.php
https://9gag.com/gag/aeN4Qjb/irrefutable-proof-that-santa-is-odin  (pretty funny and partially true)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1fy3d3HhKg Odin's Song by Karl Donaldsson