Of course, the Bible actually forbids the decorating of trees... (Jeremiah 10...) The Yule log must be of oak, must burn for 12 days, and the ashes should be saved to light the Yule fire with the next year.... Oak because that is Thor's tree, and Yule is his birthday, 12 days as in one for each of the major gods and goddesses.... Christ was almost certainly born between April and September, as those were the times when shepherds in Judaea would be "abiding in the fields with their sheep"... Father Christmas and Santa Claus, as any English child will tell you, are two different people... originally presents were given on St Nicholas day (6 December)... this became confounded with the tradition that a pagan god (Odin to us) rode through the skies on the night of Yule checking on the generosity of his people... this God became Father Christmas, who originally wore green robes trimmed with brown fur and gave gifts of health and meat... then Coca Cola got hold of it and gave him a hat to replace his hood, confused him with Santa and dressed him in their company colours of red and white... which the poor guy has worn ever since.... such is the power of advertising...
not odin, the scandinavian folklore said that the cariier for Tor(thor) was one of his goates, this was in Norse called Julebukk (meaning Yulegoat) later this goat was the carrier for the yule elf, in Norse JULENISSEN, who made his rounds delivering presents and receiving his offerings of porridge. Yule was a celebration of the winter solstice and they praised the evergreens as a symbol of rebirt and life in the midst of the dark gloom and white/snowy of the winter
Just to go a bit further with my county`s folklore. The idea of christmas peace, in Norway it was during Yule work had to be reduced to a minimum, no wheels had to be turned cause that would show impatciense with the sun(great wheel in the sky) they called this time Jule fred (Yule/christmas peace) Neither bird, beast or fish is trapped shot or netted to withold the jule fred
dont know where you got that Odin stuff from kirk, but around the 6th of december there is a thing for Odin him being the master of the wild hunt riding through the sky with reindeer followed by 42 supernatural huntsmen.
There is indeed... I'll agree about Thor, but here in England we had stories of odin riding through the land on sleipnir around Yule, after leaving his brothers in charge of Asgard.... that's Vili and ve of course... they weren't as generous as good old Odin, which is why we have autumn and winter, and Odin was worried that the hardship of winter especially would be too much to take... after punishing a couple of Kings and jarls for not showing him enough generosity when he arrived at their pads disguised as a beggar he was going to destroy everyone, but was stopped by the generosity of a poor farmer... taking to the skies to see whether generosity or grasping was inspired by winter, he had a good look around, and saw that most folk were gathering together and sharing their goods between them... so, instead of letting winter carry on, he went back to Asgard, kicked Ve off the throne, and became king again.... then he made sure to send winter every year, to encourage this generosity, riding out every Yule on sleipnir to check up on us... it is said that if odin once sees that the generosity has stopped, the sun will not begin to grow after Yule, but instead Odin will allow the Fimbulwinter, three years of sunless intense cold to begin... and with it, the Ragnarok....
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Dec 8th, 2004 12:31 AM
