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Varg Vikernes
The Celebration Of Yule - A Germanic Feast
After a thousand years under the Judeo-Christian yoke it is now alas necessary to re-inform the Nordic people about the context of our feasts, so that our cultural heritage does not get forgotten or expelled by Judeo-Christian customs. Yule is a time we connect with ribs, Christmas tree, decorations, gifts, Santa Claus to mention some. I shall not go on about what the international Judeo-Christian power tries to get people to connect to this feast, but instead explain what Yule really is about - what it originates from…
Yule is the darkest time of year, when the nights are at their longest and days at their shortest. It is also the time when the sun turns and the days get longer. This our distant predecessors celebrated; the day when the sun turned and when it went towards lighter times. This was called "Yule" (wheel) of the simple reason that the sun-wheel (swastika) is our foremost symbol of the sun; the life-giving and life-preserving power. To symbolize this, it was customary to set fire to a wheel and to let it roll down hills in full fire and flame! Besides being a light-feast the Yule is also a feast for the dead, and a sacrifice for peace and fertility for the coming year.
One sang in the Yule by calling on the dead ones; "come those who want, join those who want" is an example of what the wife in the house could sing out while she walked around in the house singing the coming of Yule. Because everyone was supposed to able to get in it was forbidden to lock the doors and windows - they should actually stand wide open. The dead should not be hindered in coming home. Images and figures of our predecessors were put forth, so that they were remembered, and it was everyone's duty to toast to the dead and to our Gods. It is a religious duty to toast to Odin on the eve of Yule!
A great lot of food was set forth for decoration. Such food shall not be touched before the Yule is past; because the dead ones shall be the first ones to help themselves, and that which is left over the living shall have. This was cake-houses, nuts and much more. The eve of Yule the living should sleep in their living rooms and make their beds for the dead. Branches of evergreens were brought in. These were decorated with cake-men and cake-animals of different kinds. A spearhead was also fastened to the branches, in the top as a symbol for Odin's Gungnir (spear). This branch - or the whole tree in our days (a German custom from 1700s) - is a symbol of Yggdrasil; the tree of life, and we hang things in it to hold a symbolic sacrifice to the Gods - after the model of the Uppsala blot and other related sacrifices where animals and humans were hung in the trees as a sacrifice to the Gods!
While everyone is asleep "the white god" - Heimdall - comes back to his children to give them what they deserve. Some get grand gifts, whilst others get their sock filled up with charcoal from the chimney. He rides over the heaven - like Thorr - with his wagon, which is pulled by deer or rain-deer, the whole night of Yule and visits all his children. Not only was Heimdall given the mission to improve the human race by giving them blood from the Gods, he was also to guard over the humans; hear all that was said, see everything and reward the children who deserved it.
The Yule is not only a feast for the dead and living, for the returning sun, for peace and fertility in the coming year. It is in the Yule's last days the Åsgardsrei (The Ride of Asgard) fulfill the consecration of its new members. Then they fare forth in the night, disguised as animals and mythical beings, and then they go from house to house and empty their cellars for mead, bear and other things. Today we send our children out on every year as "Julebukker (Yule-goats)". This gang of berserkers and wolf-hides must have frightened more than one old lady up through the years…
There are more details, such as cakes decorated with swastikas, that we eat ribs because it is of Frey’s holy animal (the swine), that the wife in the house brushes out all dust and dirt after the Yule whilst she throws out the dead and bid them keep away until she calls on them again, but I hope you know a little bit more now: about what the Yule actually is, where it comes from and why we celebrate it…?!
Think about it - and have a MERRY YULE!
Yule is the darkest time of year, when the nights are at their longest and days at their shortest. It is also the time when the sun turns and the days get longer. This our distant predecessors celebrated; the day when the sun turned and when it went towards lighter times. This was called "Yule" (wheel) of the simple reason that the sun-wheel (swastika) is our foremost symbol of the sun; the life-giving and life-preserving power. To symbolize this, it was customary to set fire to a wheel and to let it roll down hills in full fire and flame! Besides being a light-feast the Yule is also a feast for the dead, and a sacrifice for peace and fertility for the coming year.
One sang in the Yule by calling on the dead ones; "come those who want, join those who want" is an example of what the wife in the house could sing out while she walked around in the house singing the coming of Yule. Because everyone was supposed to able to get in it was forbidden to lock the doors and windows - they should actually stand wide open. The dead should not be hindered in coming home. Images and figures of our predecessors were put forth, so that they were remembered, and it was everyone's duty to toast to the dead and to our Gods. It is a religious duty to toast to Odin on the eve of Yule!
A great lot of food was set forth for decoration. Such food shall not be touched before the Yule is past; because the dead ones shall be the first ones to help themselves, and that which is left over the living shall have. This was cake-houses, nuts and much more. The eve of Yule the living should sleep in their living rooms and make their beds for the dead. Branches of evergreens were brought in. These were decorated with cake-men and cake-animals of different kinds. A spearhead was also fastened to the branches, in the top as a symbol for Odin's Gungnir (spear). This branch - or the whole tree in our days (a German custom from 1700s) - is a symbol of Yggdrasil; the tree of life, and we hang things in it to hold a symbolic sacrifice to the Gods - after the model of the Uppsala blot and other related sacrifices where animals and humans were hung in the trees as a sacrifice to the Gods!
While everyone is asleep "the white god" - Heimdall - comes back to his children to give them what they deserve. Some get grand gifts, whilst others get their sock filled up with charcoal from the chimney. He rides over the heaven - like Thorr - with his wagon, which is pulled by deer or rain-deer, the whole night of Yule and visits all his children. Not only was Heimdall given the mission to improve the human race by giving them blood from the Gods, he was also to guard over the humans; hear all that was said, see everything and reward the children who deserved it.
The Yule is not only a feast for the dead and living, for the returning sun, for peace and fertility in the coming year. It is in the Yule's last days the Åsgardsrei (The Ride of Asgard) fulfill the consecration of its new members. Then they fare forth in the night, disguised as animals and mythical beings, and then they go from house to house and empty their cellars for mead, bear and other things. Today we send our children out on every year as "Julebukker (Yule-goats)". This gang of berserkers and wolf-hides must have frightened more than one old lady up through the years…
There are more details, such as cakes decorated with swastikas, that we eat ribs because it is of Frey’s holy animal (the swine), that the wife in the house brushes out all dust and dirt after the Yule whilst she throws out the dead and bid them keep away until she calls on them again, but I hope you know a little bit more now: about what the Yule actually is, where it comes from and why we celebrate it…?!
Think about it - and have a MERRY YULE!
Varg Vikernes
Translated from Norwegian by Wewarijaz