Yule is an ancient winter-solstice feast.
Note that in around 22nd 21st 20th December we have yule in the Northern Hemisphere, but at the same time summer-solstice south of equator. So celebrating yule is connected to seasons, not the same date of calendar everywhere on our beloved Mother Earth
google earth’s axis for her seasons.
Constantin of Rome had to keep his vast empire as peaceful as possible, all around the Mediterranean, and north of the Alps as well. He could not afford some wars on religions, so he let the Pagans keep their Saturnalia, only added the Jesus-fabula to it. Everyone happy.
Jólasveinar, our yule lads, come from the mountains during yule, jól, winter-solstice. “Die into a mountain”, deyja í fjall, is a good Icelandic way of departing.
Our jólasveinar should not be mixed up with the Santa Clauses who wear the Cardinal-red clothes.
Our jólasveinar could be our deceased forefathers, who we offered food at this most delicate time of the year.
The dedication to ancestors might have been banned during the dark ages, and therefore the jólasveinar turned into bad wights.
But we kept on offering food to them and the elves during yule-tide. Now our bairns love them and fear them not.
jólasveinar 2 min 36 sec
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Listen to pronunciation: jól, jólasveinar,
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