Father Yule is coming to town - The pagan origins of Christmas

Hey there, traveler!

Christmas is just a few days away (yeah, I know, it’s still March for me too), so being the party poopers that we are, we thought we’d dissect this happy family holiday to it’s really pagan roots. So grab your candy canes, put on that Santa hat and hold onto the nearest eggnog - and let’s see what weird origins lay beneath Christmas’s surface.

The name Christmas literally translates to “a mass on Christ’s day”, but as I’ve read, it’s a fairly new name in terms of history. In the early days of christianity, people (or more precisely, clerics) really opposed the idea of celebrating someone’s day of birth, even that of Christ. Celebrating birthdays was seen as a pagan tradition, whereas christians celebrated the day worthy people (saints, martyrs, etc.) died and were allowed into heaven. However one day a historian named Sextus Julius Africanus (yeah, he was very Roman, but the Christian kind of Roman) made the first complete chronology, and in that he named the 25th of December the date of birth for Jesus. Since (allegedly) that was the date for a really popular Roman holiday called Sol Invictus (or dies nati solis invicti/ the day of the birth of the invincible sun to give a full name; sounds cool, eh?) so people were celebrating anyways, the good Christian tradition of putting their own twist on existing festivals followed, replacing the rebirth of the sun with the birth of the Son. The details are a bit shady on this, since there is few concrete evidence that this pagan holiday was prominent before the 4th century, or that it truly was the reason for Christmas, but nonetheless it’s a probable theory.

Okay, 25th of December is the big day, but we all know (at least from the ungodly christmas songs playing non-stop on the radio) that the festivities start way sooner. Preceding Christmas Eve is the Christian Advent and/or Christmastide. The latter name comes from a germanic folk tradition in the same time period - Yuletide. There has been a lot of guessing what the old norsemen were actually celebrating; Odin, the Wild Hunt, the time leading up to the equinox, among a few. Odin is a really interesting contender, since one of his names is “jólfaðr” which means Yule-father. Or Father Yule. A wise old man with a long white beard and half an eye comes down in these weeks to give his gifts (mainly strength in battle and magical protection against frost giants) to mankind. How cool is that? It’s Santa, but metal.

Another precursor to Christmastide is Saturnalia, another Roman celebration revering the god Saturn, taking part during the week before Christmas (or what is now Christmas). This is the main contributor to most holiday festivities - the partying, the alcohol, even the presents. There were also a few weirder traditions like choosing a King of Saturnalia. 

The concept of a Christmas tree has a shorter history than the rest, but it’s still interesting. Some historians claim the first concept originated in Eastern Europe (in countries such as Latvia and Estonia), during the Medieval times, although some sources argue that it has its roots in ancient pagan tree-worship like that of the Germanic, Egyptian and Hebrew people. However, the modern version came from Balcanic plays about Adam and Eve, where it filled the role of the Tree of Eden (the one Eve took the Apple from). Many ornaments originate in this, like the red orbs representing the apple, while the green (or any color, really) garland mimicking Satan in his snake form, tricking the first humans into committing sin. Originally it was set up in the Christmas crib, but as the holiday became more family oriented, the crib and the tree with it moved to households - thus began the well-known tradition.

 Another festive plant, the mistletoe originally appeared in germanic folklore, as a part of Yule decoration remembering the god Baldr. According to legend, Baldr was Odin's favourite son, the embodiment of masculinity and male beauty. He was so perfect everyone loved him - or, almost. Loki, the envious bastard he was, was pissed at how obnoxiously good Baldr was, so he plotted to kill him. However Frigg, Baldr’s mom took steps in advance to prevent something like this, visiting every animal, plant, even the stones and minerals and making all of them promise (yeah, don’t ask how a rock can promise anything, just go with it) that they won’t hurt Baldr even if they were forced to do. The only thing she didn’t visit was mistletoe, since the plant was seen as so young and harmless she couldn’t imagine it hurting anybody. Of course, Loki found this out. When the other gods were too preoccupied testing Frigg’s protection, throwing random things at Baldr only to see him come out unharmed, Loki approached the blind god Hödr, brother of Baldr with a magical arrow or spear (sources wary) made from mistletoe. Hödr shot the arrow/spear, which, guided by Loki, hit Baldr and killed him. Since this was seen as the first in a chain of events leading up to Ragnarök - you can imagine how much of a big deal it was.

Nonetheless, the take home message from history is that Christmas time can be whatever you want. You can celebrate the birth of Christ, celebrate the weather turning better, the dark night growing shorter, or celebrate just for the fun of it. I wish all of you a merry and joyful Christmas… or Yule… or Saturnalia.

Cheers,

Dar