Yule - The Winter Festival
Yule was the great winter festival celebrating the return of light and honoring ancestors.
Yule was the Norse winter festival, lasting twelve days around the solstice. It celebrated the rebirth of the sun, honored ancestors and gods, and involved feasting, gift-giving, and drinking. Odin rode the Wild Hunt through Yule nights.
At Yule, the wheel turns; darkness gives way to returning light.
Yule was the most important Norse festival, influencing modern Christmas traditions.
Various Sources
Written about in
- What the Norse year looked like, season by season
Twelve days around the solstice for feasting, for the dead, and for the sun starting back. Of the festivals here, Yule is the one with the firmest footing in the wider Germanic record.