News: Heathen Freehold Society

Yuletide Traditions Predate Christianity

Published in Village Views, Issue 9, Volume 1, Dec. 19, 2003

Yule customs associated with Christmas have been passed down from before Christian times, from the indigenous pagan religion of the Nordic tribes of Europe.

The Nordic people, also known as the Teutonic or Germanic tribes, migrated throughout Europe and beyond, founding the first known European settlement in the Western hemisphere, in Newfoundland, a thousand years ago. Germanic languages spoken today belong to one of two branches of the Indo-European language family, the North Germanic, including Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Swedish and Danish, and the West Germanic, including German, Dutch and English, among others.

The original religion of these tribes was centred around the Gods and Goddesses of the Nordic pantheon, many of whom are still fairly well known. The names of the days of the week, except Saturday, are named after the Germanic Gods. Sunday stems from Old English "sunnandag" or "Sunna's Day". Sunna is the Solar Goddess, Queen of the Light-elves. Monday is the day of the Moon God, Mani, the original "Man in the Moon". Tuesday belongs to the God Tyr, who is perhaps less well known that Wotan, or Odhin, chief of the Gods, whose day is Wednesday, and Thor, God of Thunder whose day is, of course, Thursday. Friday has long been a traditional day for weddings, being the day of the twin God and Goddess of love and peace, Freyr and Freya.

Germanic speakers have been calling the days of the week by their tribal Gods since well before Christianity was even known in Northern Europe. The expansion of the pagan Roman Empire pushed north into France and the German heartland, and the custom of naming the days after pagan Gods was likely borrowed from the Latin superpower. The earliest references to the Germanic tribes are to be found in the journals of Tacitus, a Roman who explored the North in the first century AD.

The name of the aboriginal religion of the Teutonic tribes is not known, although it was likely simply called "our tribal way". "Teutonic", is used today interchangeably with the word "Germanic" and "Nordic", comes from Old German "teuta" and related to Old English "theod", meaning simply "the people, the tribe".

In the last days of pagan Rome, the ruling elite converted to Christianity, most famously Constantine - the first Christian Emperor (285-337ce). From that time on Christianity became increasingly powerful. The first laws were passed banning discussion of religious matters in the streets. All forms of paganism were eventually made illegal, although it was nearly a thousand years before all of Europe was finally converted to Christianity.

This conversion was a slow and incomplete process that typically was accomplished from the top down. The first Germanic tribe, the Franks, converted to Christianity around 500ce. Heathen Kings were converted first, and they in turn promised to bring Christianity to their peoples. On Christmas of 597ce, for example, the Anglo King AEthelbert of Kent staged a mass baptism of his people, the Kentings, at the hands of the missionary Augustine.

And while the pagan religion of the Nordic tribes was effectively abolished, its temples through Europe were destroyed and its priesthood scattered, many of the folk-traditions simply could not be eradicated. Yuletide is perhaps the best example of how pre-Christian folk-customs survive to this day.

By 1500ce the various Christian European states, often at odds with one another, began hundreds of years of colonialist expansion that was to bring mass conversions to Christianity from across the planet. In Canada, state sponsored programs to convert native children in residential school programmes, not too dissimilar from "apartheid", continued until only very recently.

To the betterment of all, Canada was a signatory to the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, although its own constitution was not updated to reflect that declaration until the late 60's. Article 18 of the declaration paved the way for the modern revival of ancestral pre-Christian religions. The resolution reads "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion..." In the wake of this UN resolution England's "Witchcraft Laws" banning pagan religion were removed from the law-books.

Throughout the West more people have been slowly rediscovering the ancient tribal religions since the sixties. Given the new found freedom to legally explore the ancient ways of their ancestors, many forms of paganism have been gaining steady ground ever since, in what is being called a "pagan reawakening."

According to Statistics Canada, the number of people describing themselves as pagan increased almost 400 percent of the course of the last decade. It could be argued that the rebirth of modern paganism is the fastest growing religious phenomena in the world. Neo-paganism, as it has come to be called, shows no sign of slowing its amazing growth. Remove the legal barriers and enshrine freedom of religion as a basic human right, and the old folk-religions naturally seem to spring up again on a grass roots level all over the world.

Modern adherents to the aboriginal Germanic pagan religion, who call their religion variously "Heathenism", "Asatru" or "Theodism", have likewise seen an increase in numbers in the last 50 years. Modern Heathens seek to rediscover and reawaken the ancient religion of their Teutonic ancestors, and have gained ground in various countries.

For example, The Copenhagen Post wrote in November of this year, "Ecclesiastical authorities in Denmark have turned down repeated requests over the years from the group Forn Sidr, which actively promotes and worships the Nordic gods. But a new statement following Forn Sidr's latest application has given a ray of hope to the so-called Asatru organization. After 1000 years in the cold, the Nordic gods may be welcomed back into the fold, if Forn Sidr wins official recognition from the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs as a legitimate religious congregation in Denmark."

Progress towards legal recognition of Heathenism has also been made in the USA, Australia, and Britain. In Canada, efforts are being made in various provinces by groups of Germanic pagans seeking legal recognition. Perhaps farthest along is British Columbia's own "Asatru Freehold", a new religious society now in the process of registration with provincial and federal governments.

The Asatru Freehold of BC is a society dedicated to the rediscovery and perpetual preservation of the aboriginal religion and cultures of the Germanic Tribes, and their modern variants. The organizations goals are many, but include works of hospitality such as the celebration of the Heathen "holy tides" for the layman public.

The "2nd Annual Freehold Yuletide Feast" at Beaver Point Hall on Saturday Dec. 20 is one such offering to the local community on behalf of the organization. The evening is a traditional Yuletide celebration which will include the ancient ceremonies of blot, husel and symble and other folk-customs of the Germanic pagans.

The modern practice of caroling come from the pagan tradition of "Wassailing", when crops and trees would be blessed with song and given a votive offering, or "blot". The "husel" is a sacred, ceremonial feast resembling the modern formal dinner complete with toasts. "Symble" is a separate formal toasting ceremony. The word "toast" meaning to commemorate someone, comes to us from the pagan practice of putting bread-bits in the votive offerings to the ones honoured.

Thinking of a Yuletide family potluck feast, being grounded in folk-traditions most of us already observe in the holiday season, the festivities at Yule should seem very familiar to anyone.

The customs of venerating trees and yule-logs, wreaths, boughs of holly and mistletoe, the yule-ham, and caroling, of family gathering and gift-giving and well-wishing, including merriment on the eve of a new year, even Yule-Father, the Gift-Giving Elf, all stem from the ancient soul of one European people called the Germanic tribes. The ancient traditions have been kept alive as a folk-culture even in the face of millennia of outlawry, passed down through the generations.

After the feast, the Freehold Yule will proceed to an open-stage presentation of poetry, folk tales, folk music. What better way to spend the longest night of the year?