 |
 |
|
||
|
|||
 Origins of YuleIn a sense, the great festival of Yule on 22 December summed up the cycle of the Celtic year. The word Yule, according to the Venerable Bede, came from the Norse word Iul meaning ‘wheel’ and suggested that this was the time when the Great Wheel of Existence had completed its circle. By the time the festival came around, the countryside was firmly in the grip of winter; the sun was low in the sky, trees were bare and leafless and the ground was cold, iron-hard and sterile. The early Celts worried that their gods were dying and that darkness would remain forever. It was important that heat and vitality were returned both to the sky and the ground; thus all over Celtic Europe, great fires were lit.In later Celtic folk-belief, Yule had a dual meaning, it symbolised the death of the old year and heralded the birth of the new. Although the ground was cold, it would soon be warm again and Nature would burst forth at the festival of Imbolc. The low-point of the period of Yule became the central festival of a number of formal religions, one of which was Christianity. Before the Church accepted 25 December as the Christ Mass, it had been the symbolic festival of the Persian sun god Attis and his son Mithras – the festival was known as The Feast of the Unconquered Sun. Many of the Mithras legends – for example, virgin birth in lowly circumstances - Mithras was born in a cave – were incorporated into the Christian message. The date of Christ's birthday, placed in the depths of winter to coincide with the Celtic Yule festival, is highly significant. After Yule, the Great Wheel began to turn again, bringing the festival of Imbolc around once more. Gradually some festivals assumed less importance and four great functional festivals – Imbolc, Bealtane, Lughnasadh and Samhain dominated the Celtic year. Many of these became major Christian holy days - Imbolc became Candlemas (2 February) with its own rhyme: ‘On Candlemas Day, Throw a candle away’.In Ireland, because of its close association with the goddess Brigit, it became Saint Brigid’s Day. Where the festivals of local deities persisted, they became ‘pattern days’– the feast of a local or patron saint. Until very recently the tradition of pagan-festival become-Christian-holiday persisted in many country areas – particularly in Ireland and in parts of Scotland and Cornwall.
From Complete Guide to Celtic Mythology by Bob Curran |
[ Back to top ]
All Material © 1999-2006 Irelandseye.com and contributors
