This article explores the history and meaning of Yuletide, an archaic term for Christmas. It delves into the origins of the word, its connection to the ancient Germanic pagan festival of Yule, and its modern-day usage.
Christmas is known by many names depending on where you're from and what your beliefs are. We have all heard it referred to as the 'festive period' or the 'holiday season', but there's another term that's very common around this time of year even though many of us don't know what it means - Yuletide . You'll find the word in many Christmas songs, including Deck the Halls and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas .
You might have bought a Yule log to tuck into after your Christmas dinner, and your festive marathon of Harry Potter films might remind you that they celebrate something called a Yule ball in the franchise. But what do Yule and Yuletide actually mean, and where do they come from? If you Google the word 'Yuletide,' you'll be told it's an 'archaic term for Christmas'. This is backed up by several online dictionaries, such as Dictionary.com, which defines it as 'the Christmas season' and also adds: 'The season of an ancient Germanic pagan holiday centring around the winter solstice, now sometimes celebrated by neopagans.' The word itself comes from two Old English words - 'geol', meaning Yule or Christmas, and 'tid', which means time or season. It refers to the time of year we would now call the 'festive season' between late December and early January, and in the same way you can say Christmastime to describe this general time of year, Yuletide does the same thing with the celebration known as Yule. What is Yule? According to the Britannica website, Yule is a festival that is observed historically by Germanic people and coincides with the winter solstice, which in the Northern Hemisphere is December 21 to 22. The festival originated in Scandinavia and predates Christmas, as it has its origins among the ancient Norse thousands of years ago. The Britannica website states: 'Its roots are complicated and difficult to trace, although there are several theories about how and why the festival was celebrated
Yuletide Christmas History Yule Winter Solstice
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