‘Tis that season again, Yuletide is upon us, hohoho! Now, while Christmas is what we usually call this annual celebration in English, the word Yule, which is arguably quite sparingly used today, is also a part of the English lexicon for a very good reason.
While the religious celebration called Christmas (literally Christ’s mass) is now celebrated annually at this time of the year, Christmas is actually a much more recent celebration than the one which it in effect replaced in the Nordic region – Jól (Yule in English) – which was the Old Norse name for an annual mid-winter feast, celebrated by Norse heathens in this region long before the advent of Christianity. Germanic peoples in other regions also had similar celebrations that are etymologically related. This annual celebrative feast was arranged around the darkest time of year, which we today refer to as the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year), and which in 2015 was on December 22nd in the northern hemisphere.
Jól was a grand celebration of the end of the dark period and the return of light, and people would feast in celebration. From the 10th century, when Christianity came to be a dominating religion in the Nordic region, an effort was made to eradicate all traces of ancient heathen culture, including this precursor to Christmas. However, many elements survived, including the name for the original Norse mid-winter celebration and many of its traditions. For that reason in the Nordic languages today, unlike in for instance English, the word for Christmas is actually not related to religion at all, but rather the word Jul is still used!
And so to make a long story reasonably short; While one will say “Merry Christmas” in English and actually wish others a good mass in the name of Christ, in a Nordic language, such as Norwegian, one will instead rather say “God Jul”, which in reality means that you wish others a good mid-winter/winter solstice celebration! Imagine that!
Good to know! GOD JUL! 🙂
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References:
1) Bø, O. and Stovner, I.L., 2015. Jul. In: Store Norske Leksikon [online], translated. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
1) Løkeland-Stai, 2008. Gleðileg jól. Forskning.no [online], translated. Retrieved 15/12-2015.
2) Online Etymology Dictionary, 2015. Yule. Online Etymology Dictionary [online]. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
3) Wikipedia, 2015. Jul. In: Wikipedia, den frie Encyklopedi [online], translated. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
Photo credits:
1) Creative Commons/Flicker
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