YULE.

There's something to be said for a celebration that holds its origins in Scandinavian lands more than 4000 years ago.

That's right. Yule isn't really related to all these new-fangled holidays like Kwanzaa, or even Christmas. Yule is the name of the celebrations following the Winter Solstice. That's the day of the year that the tilt of the earth and position from the sun makes for the shortest number of daylight hours and longest number of nighttime hours. Thus, every day afterwards gets longer, and every night gets shorter. Winter Solstice this year was 21 December 2002.

So, our party's a little late. Big whoop.

Yule has lots of fun things associated with it, so let's take a look at some of those in preparation for the party. Maybe we'll see some of these things on the 18th.

What's "Yule" Mean?
 Yule Cat New: 5 Jan 2003
Yule LadsNew: 11 Jan 2003
Yule Log New: 14 Jan 2003
Yule Goat New: 14 Jan 2003
Mistletoe New: 17 Jan 2003

What's "Yule" Mean?

The word "Yule" has been linked by linguists way back. WAY, way back. It supposedly has the same root as the word for "Wheel." This is probably to show the realization of Yule as the full turn of the wheel of the year. Before Solstice, the nights keep getting longer and longer... realizing that Solstice is the turning point and the nights will start getting shorter again. It's a cycle, or a "wheel." Get it?

We're hoping you do, and that our yule celebration will come back again the next year and the year after that. It's hopefully, a new Meridian family tradition.

But back to Yule. There's a lot of grumbling over Yule's roots: some places have it pegged as from the word for wheel. Some sources point to Yule as a word which predates the actual wheel (i.e. WAY, way back), but is a word that's always carried the meaning of a cycle. Other sources link it to a supposed god of fertility named Jule. Remember, (or learn) J's and Y's are sometimes equivalent in Scandinavian languages. For example, the phrase "Good Yule!" can sometimes be seen written as "God Jul!"

In any case, Yule is a genuinely ancient holiday. Also, the cool part? It hasn't been corrupted by the incessant commercialism of other holidays. The celebration is one of pulling together during the dark and the cold times to be friendly and warm. Sounds win-win to me, too.

Yule Cat

You might be asking yourself, "What would Yule be without a Yule Cat?" Actually, you're probably asking, "What's a Yule Cat?" Well, the Yule Cat is a devourer. No, this isn't any ordinary tabby. This cat is huge. It takes down men, women, and children alike. It doesn't kill indiscriminately, though. Think of it as the unnatural enforcer of natural selection.

As said earlier, Yule is traditionally done on the day of the year of the longest night and the shortest daylight. Thus, it's pretty cold. The goal for many of the people who celebrate Yule was to ready the Autumn's harvest of wool into sweaters, socks, and anything warm. Everyone takes part in this, because it's important to be warm. The men would shear the sheep, the children would card the coarse wool, and the women would spin the wool into usable thread. Then everyone would sit and knit. A lot. Unless one were lazy.

The lazy ones who would not shear, nor card, nor spin, nor knit would avoid the work and hide. Come Yule, gifts would be made of freshly knitted goods and they would be distributed, but those who would not help would get nothing. Result? It would be a cold winter.

Oh, but the Yule Cat? That's right. Its sole mission in life is to find those too cold and too lazy to help themselves and off them. End result? A cold winter and a mauling by some horrible feline behemoth. Double Whammy.

Pretty messed up, these Scandinavians, eh? Not content with threats of freezing to death, they have to throw in a massive, gargantuan cat. Well, don't you worry, Yule partygoers, you'll be taken care of. Our Yule Cat's pretty docile. We'll do our best to keep her distracted.

Yule Lads

Get ready for more Scandinavian oddness. This time, more from Iceland than anywhere else come the Yule Lads: Jólasveinarnir

These are the children of Grýla and Leppalúði (no idea) who are known for stealing and eating naughty children. The lads are mainly mischievous through most of the year, but around Yule, they start appearing on the days up to Yule and each day will leave a gift in the shoes of nice children and something like coal or a potato in the shoes of the naughty. Oh, then their parents will eat them (assuming they aren't devoured by the Yule Cat first).

The parade of Yule Lads is quite an odd one. They are impish and forever wearing floppy hats and brightly colored shirts and shoes. Probably inspiration for Santa's Elves. Except for their names.

Because of the lack of a decent internationalized browser, I can't reliably print out their names for you. They might be okay on this site to read. Even if you can't see the Icelandic names, check out their common translations. I've also included lines from a poem about them... these get a bit risqué:

  • Gimpy -- "stiff like a tree, he snuck into the stables and fooled the farmer's sheep"
  • Gully Imp -- "he hid in the stables and stole the froth while the milk maid chatted up the stable boy."
  • Itty Bitty -- beginning a trend, he stole a pan and ate the caked on food
  • Pot Licker & Pot Scraper Licker & Bowl Licker -- more of the same
  • Sausage Snatcher -- liked to steal sausage and eat up in the rafters
  • Window Peeper -- you get the idea.

    There are more than that, though...

  • Idiot Child, Strap Loosener, Door Slammer, Skirt Blower, Fat Gobbler, Doughnut Beggar, Smoke Gulper, Butter Greedy...

    These guys probably aren't the types you want visiting you any time of the year, but as long as you're been a good boy or girl, they're relatively harmless. You'll probably get a toy or some candy... just be sure to check your shoe before you put it back on.

    Yule Log

    I have a fond memory of the Yule Log. Channel 20, KOFY... Stereo (and the dogs look at the TV) used to broadcast a show that ran all the way from about 8 PM to midnight that was of a big log of wood just burning and crackling while a really long set of Christmas music played in the background. It was a nice departure from the usual grind of horrible never-again-shown "special episodes" of whatever deplorable sitcom happened to be on for Christmas Eve.

    Ahem.

    What's the yule log in general, though? Traditionalists liken the Yule Log as the scapegoat: they take all the troubles of the village and in one grand night, burn them together with a tree and turn them into positive energies. Another theory is the log is a symbol of the infinity and circular nature of the year because the ashes and cinders of the burned log were kept for luck during the year and used in the kindling for the next year's log. Still others guess it's a phallic symbol.

    Ahem.

    More than likely, the Yule Log was the dictator of how long the party goes for. The goal, of course, is to make the log as big and long-burning as possible while still maintaining warmth and light for long enough for everyone to have a good time. No special meaning other than fuel for fire, mirth, and partying.

    Yule Goat

    Why a goat? Well, why not? We have a Yule Cat, and all sorts of other creatures. Apparently the Scandinavian dwellers have all seen the Yule Goat. Called Julbock in Sweden, Julbukk in Norway, and Joulupukki in Finland. Some places have the Yule goat delivering a gift-bearing Yule Elf (Jultomten in Sweden, Julesvenn in Norway, and Jule-nissen in Denmark), and sometimes (like in Finland), the goat does the delivering of the gifts himself, and one story has the Yule Goat riding a bicycle.

    I kid you not.

    But, again, why a goat? The goat is traditionally seen as the bearer of the god Thor. Not necessarily riding the goat, but maybe pulling a chariot. We're not talking about little goats, either. We're talking about the big mountain-goats. The ones that walk the razor-edged cliffs and climb mountains. All while pulling a chariot with Thor slinging his mighty war hammer Mjölnir around.

    Hmm... big goat with antlers pulling a big guy around slinging stuff around. Yup. Apparently, Santa Claus and the reindeer are Thor and his band o'goats.

    Mistletoe

    Ah, the good stuff. Well, only sorta. Mistletoe's poisonous to small pets and small people (aka children). Especially the leaves and berries. Mistletoe's also a parasitic plant-- growing on a host tree's branches and trunk and drilling it's root system into the host such that the only way to kill it is to prune the branch it's on or kill the whole plant. Most mistletoe, though, is specific to cretain trees, so it's unlikely to jump from tree to tree in a mixed garden.

    The deal with mistletoe is that it's been linked to evil because of it's parasitic nature. By cutting parts of it off and putting it in doorways or over baby's cribs it's a sign to the spirits that "evil's already been here" and they'll merrily get fooled. Stupid spirits.

    But the kissing part? Well, I personally don't like this explanation, but it goes something like this: in Norse Mythology, there's a goddess named Frigga who has two sons, Balder and Hoder. Day and Night, essentially. Hoder's also blind. Balder, aside from being bright and wonderful looking, he's practically invincible. Frigga went around to all the animals, rocks, and plants and made pacts with them to not harm him. Loki, all-around meanie of a Norse god, is jealous and finds the only thing that Frigga didn't talk to, mistletoe, makes an arrow of it and gives it to Hoder to unwittingly shoot at his brother, Balder. Balder gets hit and is mortally wounded.

    Okay... and the kising part is... in certain (ones I haven't heard) tellings of the story, Frigga apologized to mistletoe who makes an anti-poison and saves Balder. Frigga then associates mistletoe with love and promises a kiss to anyone that stands under it.

    There ya go... pucker up.
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