Charley, EUROPEAN pagans call the winter Solstice Yule. Out here in San Francisco we just call it the Solstice! My own experience with such is limited to the chocolate and whipped cream version, which I believe the French perfected and call Buche de Noel. There are pagan religions all over the world, reveling in each season. While they have winter celebrations, not all of them are similarly named:
<<During the Fourth Century, the Church ordained that Christmas would be observed on December 25th in order
to replace the rituals of the pagan Winter festivals. In Northern Europe, the Winter festivities were considered to
be a Feast of the Dead, complete with ceremonies full of spirits, devils, and the haunting presence of the Norse
god, Odin, and his night riders. One particularly durable Solstice festival was "Jol" (Yule), a feast celebrated
throughout Northern Europe in honor of Jolnir, another name for Odin. Since Odin was the god of intoxicating
drink and ecstasy, as well as the god of death, Yule customs varied greatly from region to region. Odin's sacrificial
beer became the specially blessed Christmas ale mentioned in medieval lore, and fresh food and drink were left on
tables after Christmas feasts to feed the roaming Yuletide ghosts. Even the bonfires of former ancient times
survived in the tradition of the Yule Log, perhaps the most universal of all Christmas symbols.
The origins of the Yule Log can be traced back to the midwinter festivals in which the Norsemen indulged...nights
filled with feasting, "drinking Yule" and watching the fire leap around the log burning in the home hearth. The
ceremonies and beliefs associated with the Yule Log's sacred origins are closely linked to representations of
health, fruitfulness and productivity. In England, the Yule was cut and dragged home by oxen or horses as the
people walked alongside and sang merry songs. It was often decorated with evergreens and sometimes sprinkled
with grain or cider before it was finally set alight.
In Yugoslavia, the Yule Log was cut just before dawn on Christmas Eve and carried into the house at twilight. The
wood itself was decorated with flowers, colored silks and gold, and then doused with wine and an offering of grain.
In an area of France known as Provencal, families would go together to cut the Yule Log, singing as they went
along. These songs asked for blessings to be bestowed upon their crops and their flocks. The people of Provencal
called their Yule Log the "trefoire" and, with great ceremony, they carried the log around the house three times
and christened it with wine before it was set afire.
To all European races, the Yule Log was believed to bring beneficial magic and was kept burning for at least
twelve hours and sometimes as long as twelve days, warming both the house and those who resided within. When
the fire of the Yule Log was finally quenched, a small fragment of the wood would be saved and used to light the
next year's log. It was also believed that as long as the Yule Log burned, the house would be protected from
witchcraft. The ashes that remained from the sacred Yule Log were scattered over fields to bring fertility, or cast
into wells to purify and sweeten the water. Sometimes, the ashes were used in the creation of various charms...to
free cattle from vermin, for example, or to ward off hailstorms. In Germany, it was thought that the remnants of
the Yule Log would protect the house from lightning.>>
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