Celebrating Yule the Historical Way

Celebrating Yule: The Real Pagan Winter Holiday of the North

Most people today think of Yule as the winter solstice or a poetic name for Christmas. But the truth is far older and far more interesting. When we look at the historical sources, celebrating Yule (Jól) in the Viking Age was nothing like the modern winter solstice festivals popular today. Yule was a January feast, a pagan winter holiday of sacrifice, drinking, and sacred peace, later moved by Christian kings to overlap with Christmas.

If you want an easy way to follow the actual dates of the Norse calendar—Yule included—our Norse Calendar is available in our shop. Hang it on your wall to follow the ancient festivals month by month.

[Norse calendar wall tapestry here]

Holiday Yule: When Was Yule Really Celebrated?

Although many modern pagans celebrate Yule on the winter solstice, the historical record is very clear:
 Yule was not originally a solstice festival.

The first recorded connection between Yule and the solstice appears only in the 1600s—over half a millennium after(by Magnus Celsius, Olof Dalin and Olof Rudbeck. and repeated by the Grimm brothers later on). In the pagan period, Yule (Jól) fell later in January.

This isn’t guesswork. Our sources are explicit:

  • Ynglinga Saga / Heimskringla tell us that King Haakon the Good—a Christian king ruling a pagan population—moved the date of Yule to align with Jesus’s birthday so that pagans and Christians would feast together.

  • Before his reform, Yule was held later in the winter, near mid-January.

  • Thietmar of Merseburg also describes the great winter sacrifice at Lejre (Denmark) as taking place in January, aligning with the same timing.

  • Bede even tell of Geola celebrated among the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons around this time as well.

This means that for most of Scandinavian pre-Christian history, celebrating Yule meant celebrating in deep midwinter, not at the solstice.

Celebrating Yule Pagan: What the Sources Actually Describe

When we strip away modern reinterpretations and return to the sagas, we find a vivid picture of Jól as a three-day festival, heavy with ritual. These are all told of in the various sagas in Heimskringla, a 13th century account of much earlier events.

1. A Three-Day Feasting Period

Communal meals, drinking, and hospitality formed the centerpiece of the holiday.

2. Sacrifice of a Wild Boar

This practice survives today in Sweden’s Christmas ham, but its origins lie in pagan sacrifice for fertility and good harvests.

3. Blót for a Good Crop

Midwinter sacrifices were directly tied to agricultural hopes for the coming year.

4. Drinking From a Communal Vessel

The full was passed from hand to hand—a sacred cup used for ritual toasts.

5. Toasting the Gods, Ancestors, and King

One toast for the gods, one for the ancestors, one for the king—described in Heimskringla.

6. No Fighting Allowed

The sagas emphasize a sacred peace. Warriors avoided conflict until Yule had passed.

These are the only direct, Viking Age descriptions of celebrating Yule pagan. They show a ritual of feasting, sacrifice, unity, and peace—not a solstice ceremony.

Did the Vikings Celebrate the Winter Solstice?

Surprisingly, we have no Viking Age records of solstice celebrations.

The closest medieval reference is the 12th-century Primstav, a Norwegian calendar staff that marks:

  • The winter solstice with a sun symbol

  • St. Lucia’s Day with a fire symbol

This suggests the solstice was known but not celebrated in a documented ritual way(that we know of)

However solstice traditions existed across Europe, including in Germanic lands:

  • The ancient Greek historian Procopius reports bonfires lit on the solstice in northern Europe.

  • Megalithic sites across the Celtic and Germanic world—dolmens, cairns, tombs, and stone monuments—are aligned so the solstice sun strikes their entrances, implying ancient spiritual significance.

These alignments likely reflect earlier religious practices, initiations, or rebirth symbolism long predating the Viking Age.

St. Lucia’s Day: A Solstice Survivor

Though now Christian, St. Lucia’s Day retains clear echoes of older pagan winter traditions.

Historically, on the Julian calendar, St. Lucia’s night was believed to be the longest night of the yearthe night before the true solstice. Early Scandinavian traditions include:

  • Åsgårdsreia — the spectral “Ride of Asgard,” where gods, giants, and spirits raced across the sky

  • Girls dressed in white with candle wreaths symbolizing returning light

  • Lusseboller / Lussekatter spiraled pastries reflecting solar cycles

  • Processions and fire symbolism across Norway, Sweden, and Denmark

Many scholars view these as Christianized forms of older Scandinavian solstice rites.

What About the Yule Log?

The beloved Yule log tradition, though centuries old, has:

  • No evidence from pagan or Viking Age practices

  • Strong roots in later Scandinavian folk customs

  • Examples of carved runes on Yule logs in rural communities

It is a beautiful tradition, but a medieval one at the very oldest, not a Viking ritual that we know of.

Other Winter Traditions Connected to Yule

Årsgång (Aarsgang)

A prophetic midwinter walk where individuals roamed the village or forest seeking omens for the coming year.

Gløgg / Glühwein

Mulled wine, widely consumed in Scandinavia and Germany during winter festivals; a direct descendant of medieval spiced ale traditions.

 

 

Sources

  • Ynglinga Saga (Heimskringla), Snorri Sturluson

  • Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon

  • Procopius, Gothic War

  • Norwegian Primstav tradition (12th century and later)

  • Scandinavian folk customs (St. Lucia Day, Åsgårdsreia, Lussekatter)

 

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