The Historical Pagan Winter Solstice

Pagan Winter Solstice: The Real History Behind the Pagan Yule and Yuletide Traditions

Every December, millions celebrate “Yule,” assuming it was the ancient pagan holiday of the winter solstice. But the truth is far more complex and interesting. Across Northern Europe, there were two different midwinter traditions:

  1. The Pagan Winter Solstice – rooted in bonfires, light symbolism, and ancient megalithic monuments

  2. The Pagan Yule (Jól) – a January feast recorded in the Viking Age, later moved to align with Christmas

Today, these two holidays are blended together, but historically they were separate celebrations that reveal how Northern Europeans viewed the sun, darkness, ancestors, and the turning of the year.

If you want to follow the actual date of Yule according to Norse tradition, you can find our Norse Calendar in the shop designed to hang on your wall and track every festival throughout the year.

[check out our Norse Calendar here]

 

Pagan Yule: A January Festival, Not the Solstice

The biggest misconception online is that “pagan yule” was the same as the “pagan winter solstice.” The first sources to attest Yule as being on the solstice are not until the 16th century in Scandinavia(Magnus Celsius, Olof Dalin and Olof Rudbeck). These claims were reiterated by the Grimm brothers in the 1800s later on.

But according to medieval Scandinavian sources, Yule would have been celebrated in mid-January, not on the solstice.

What the sources actually say:

  • Heimskringla(in the Saga of Haakon the Good) explains that Yule (Jól) was originally held later at the mid winter until King Haakon the Good—a Christian ruler—moved it to the date of Jesus’s birth to merge pagan and Christian celebrations.

  • Before Haakon’s reform, Yule involved:

    • A three-day feast

    • Boar sacrifice

    • Blót for a good crop

    • Drinking from a communal vessel

    • Toasts to the gods, the ancestors, and the king

    • A sacred peace period, when Vikings avoided fighting

  • Thietmar of Merseburg in the 10th century also records that the great midwinter feast at Lejre (Denmark) was held in January, confirming the same timing.

So while modern neopagan traditions often place Yule on the solstice, the historical pagan Yule was a January agricultural and religious festival, not a solstice rite. It was in all likelihood on the full moon after the solstice according to top Professor Andreas Norberg.

Pagan Holiday Winter Solstice: A Much Older Tradition

While Viking Age sources don’t describe solstice celebrations, the solstice itself held deep ritual significance across Northern Europe for thousands of years prior.

Evidence from older traditions:

  • The ancient Greek historian Procopius wrote that northern peoples lit bonfires on the winter solstice, likely symbolizing the rebirth of the sun.

  • Neolithic monuments across Celtic and Germanic lands(dolmens, cairns, passage graves, stone circles)were deliberately aligned so that sunlight illuminated their interiors at solstice sunrise.

These alignments strongly suggest that the solstice was spiritually important long before the Viking Age, perhaps symbolizing initiation, death and rebirth, or the return of divine light. Though the exact rituals are not recorded, it is almost certain that ancient people gathered at these sites during the solstice just as thousands still gather at Stonehenge today.

Pagan Yuletide: Medieval and Early Modern Winter Customs

Even after Christianity arrived, many older solstice themes survived through Scandinavian folk traditions. The medieval Primstav (a 12th-century wooden calendar staff) shows:

  • A sun symbol marking the winter solstice

  • A fire symbol marking St. Lucia’s Day

These symbols hint at solstice observances even though saga-age Vikings didn’t document such rituals.

St. Lucia’s Night: A Survivor of the Pagan Solstice

Originally placed on what the Julian calendar believed was the longest night of the year, St. Lucia’s night is one of the strongest candidates for a Christianized pagan solstice celebration.

Its rituals include:

  • The Åsgårdsreia (Ride of Asgard): gods, giants, and trolls racing through the night sky

  • Girls in white dresses with candle wreaths, symbolizing the return of the sun

  • Public processions of fire and light

  • Baking Luciaboller / Lussekatter, shaped like spirals representing solar cycles

Most scholars agree that St. Lucia’s Day preserves older pagan solstice traditions merged with later Catholic symbolism.

Pagan Holiday Yule vs. Pagan Winter Solstice: Why They’re Different

Pagan Yule (Jól)

  • January festival

  • Based on blót, feasting, and sacral drinking

  • Mentioned explicitly in Heimskringla and Thietmar

  • Agricultural and ancestral focus

  • No fighting allowed

Pagan Winter Solstice

  • December lunar-solar event

  • Archaeological and folkloric evidence

  • Bonfires, light rituals, cosmic symbolism

  • Reflected in Lucia traditions and megalithic alignments

  • Likely part of much older Indo-European religious frameworks

These were two separate holidays that merged only in modern times.

Yuletide Folk Customs Connected to Both Traditions

The Yule Log

While centuries old, the Yule log:

  • Has no Viking Age evidence

  • But was used in rural Scandinavia

  • Sometimes carved with runes

Årsgång / Aarsgang

A prophetic midwinter walk performed on the darkest nights to foresee events of the coming year.

Gløgg / Glühwein

Mulled wine, a winter tradition going back to medieval spiced ales and warming drinks during midwinter rites.

 

Sources

  • Ynglinga Saga (Heimskringla) — Snorri Sturluson

  • Thietmar of Merseburg, Chronicon

  • Procopius, Gothic War

  • Primstav (Norwegian medieval calendar tradition)

  • Scandinavian folklore and Lucia traditions

  • Archaeological research on solstice-aligned megalithic monuments

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