The Origins of Christmas & Yule (Part 1)
And why Christmas didn't replace this Germanic sacrificial feast.
The Germanic peoples never celebrated the return of the sun on the winter solstice, nor did they celebrate the return of the sun at Yule, which never even took place in the month of December. However, Indo-Asian solar cults including early Christianity, did celebrate the return of the sun at the winter solstice. These cults influenced one another as they rapidly evolved over time and eventually left us with what we now know today as Christmas.
During the years of the Roman Empire, people began searching for a more personal relationship with their gods and emerging mystery cults associated with the sun offered them this very opportunity. The underlying premise of rebirth and happiness in this life and the next was extremely appealing to the newly initiated. These cults swiftly spread out from Persia via travelling merchants, slaves, diplomats and Roman soldiers.
The Cult Of The Unconquered Sun
Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, was a Syrian solar deity whose cult spread across the Roman Empire beginning in the second century. Emperor Aurelianus instituted the cult in 274 AD and even had a temple built in Rome. Sol Invictus became closely connected with imperial power and was popular with Roman emperors. The birth of Sol Invictus was celebrated on the winter solstice which was on the 25th of December in the Julian Calendar. The cult of Sol Invictus was associated with Mithraism and in Britain they became Sol Invictus Mithras.
The Cult Of Mithras
Mithraism was a religion that concerned itself with the spiritual journey from darkness to light and from death to eternal life. Mithras was the Indo-Iranian god of light, oaths, contracts, justice, protector of truth and guardian of cattle. He was also associated with the harvest and waters. Mithras was worshipped between the first and fourth centuries AD but some say he was honoured as early as the middle of the first century BC. There was another festival called Natalis Invicti which was also held on the 25th of December, but this was a general solar festival and not specific to Mithras. Mithraism was a closed mystery cult that only initiated men and was popular among Roman soldiers. There is no known date of any midwinter festival associated with this cult.
The Cult Of Saturn
Saturn was an agricultural deity whose festival took place at the winter solstice. His reign was regarded as a golden age of prosperity and the Romans believed that he had taught their ancestors how to farm the land. Saturnalia, which had been celebrated since 497 BC, was originally observed from the 17th to the 23rd of December and by the late Roman Republic the festivities lasted until the 30th of December. These celebrations for a bountiful crop were open to everyone and no work was permitted during this period. People were allowed to play gambling games in public and wear less formal clothes like soft caps which were called pillei. Slaves could also have time off and some were even served by their masters. The original reason for the Saturnalia was the construction of the temple of Saturn on the Forum Romanum. Another festival at this time of year was the Brumalia (from the Latin ‘Bruma’ meaning winter solstice) which was said to have been set in the calendar by Romulus (the mythological twin who founded Rome) beginning on the 24th of November and lasting thirty days. The revellers danced with torches, feasted and exchanged gifts to honour the deities Bacchus (god of wine making, orchards, vegetation, fertility and festivities) and Ops (a fertility goddess). Farmers sacrificed pigs to Ops and wine makers sacrificed goats to Bacchus.
Christianity
According to early Christian calendars, the birth of Jesus was originally between the end of March and the beginning of April, but in 217 AD pope Hippolytus changed the date to the 25th of December to assimilate the cult of Mithras. At this time, Christianity was not yet a state religion in the Roman Empire. Many of the customs of Saturnalia also became absorbed into the festival of Christ’s Mass such as merriment and goodwill, the lighting of candles, friends and family feasting together, the exchanging of gifts and possibly even today’s modern custom of wearing paper hats in England; a possible relic of the pillei?
Christmas gave hope to one and all that the light would return after the darkness. Jesus was portrayed as the Sun God and imagery as such can be seen on the vault of a third century AD tomb in the Vatican Cemetery under St Peter’s Church. The Hinton St Mary mosaic in Dorset, England, depicts the Chi-Rho behind Jesus’ head as radiating sun beams.
The solar festivals of old could not compete with the rising popularity of Christianity and in 336 AD the last of the winter solstice celebrations was absorbed into Christmas. Christmas ended up replacing festivals that were not much older than itself but were more than likely continuing to be celebrated alongside it for a little while longer.
The following three quotes discuss the birth of Jesus and the winter solstice.
Augustine of Hippo, a Roman bishop who died in 430 AD, stated in a Christmas sermon of his, “Hence it is that He was born on the day which is the shortest in our earthly reckoning and from which subsequent days begin to increase in length. He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase.”
Ephrem the Syrian, a Christian theologian wrote around 390 AD, “The Gentiles usually celebrated the birthday of the sun on December 25th, lighting up lights to mark the solstice. Christians also took part in these festivities. As Christians became aware of the cult, they consulted and resolved to sanctify the true birth of Christ on this day.”
In Carmen 14 (354 AD-431 AD) Paulinus of Nola writes, “After the solstice comes the time when Christ was born in flesh to change the cold winter time by a new sun, when he makes people witness their promise of salvation through his birth, commanding the nights to shorten and the daylight to grow with him.”
But The Winter Solstice Doesn’t Fall On The 25th Of December!
You may be wondering why the winter solstice was observed on the 25th of December and not the 20th or 21st. The Romans did not actually know which day the winter solstice was because during this time of year the sun appears to ‘stop’ in the sky for a few days. Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, naturalist and philosopher, believed that the winter solstice was on the 26th of December and Columella who wrote about Roman agriculture, thought that it was on the 23rd of December. Traditionally, the day of the winter solstice was proclaimed by the chief pontiff according to observation. This was very similar to the proclamation of the first visible light of the crescent moon at the beginning of each month known as the calends when their timekeeping followed a lunisolar calendar (I talk more about the lunisolar calendar in part 2 as well as my article discussing ‘The Celtic Wheel of the Year’). This was also practiced by the Greeks and most likely the Druids too. The chief pontiff was in charge of this calendar.
Those responsible for the Roman calendar were heavily influenced by the current political climate and would artificially lengthen months to suit whoever was in power at the time. However, by the end of the Roman Republic the calendar system was in complete disarray with some years being as long as 377 days. In order to remedy this, Julius Caesar who was himself chief pontiff, planned a calendar reform in 47 BC making the solar year 365.25 days long. The Julian Calendar was influenced by Caesar’s travels to Egypt where astronomers introduced him to their solar calendar. The area around the river Nile had been the centre of solar cults for thousands of years and was the place where Pharaoh Akhenaten established his new religion of the single sun god Aten who replaced the whole Egyptian pantheon in the 14th century BC.
In 46 BC, Julius Caesar’s official solar calendar placed the solstice on the 25th December because he wanted it to be on the same date every year. At its conception, it was not known that this calendar was eleven minutes and fourteen seconds longer than the solar year which meant that every 128 years there would be a difference of one whole day. An accurate calendar was vital for the Catholic Church to be able to calculate the date of Easter so the Gregorian Calendar replaced the Julian Calendar to stop it from drifting even further apart. This was done by changing the rule of where leap years were placed and shortening the year by 0.0075 days. The Gregorian Calendar was issued through a papal bull by Pope Gregory XIII and introduced to the Germanic peoples in 1582, including Catholic regions of Switzerland, Alsace in 1648, Prussia and Denmark in 1700 and England, Scotland and Scandinavia in 1752.
What About The Germanic Tribes?
It was a year ago when I first wrote about the origins of Christmas and Yule and since then I have done a lot more research on the subject. I have therefore decided to rewrite it which means that there will now be a part 2.
In 2023 I wrote about the historical festivals of the Celts and next year I will be doing the same but this time with the Germanic festivals of which there are actually only three: Yule, Sigurblot and Winter Nights. There are also smaller sacrificial rites which include the Disting, Alfablot, the Saxon Althing and Disablot which I will be covering as well. I will also be explaining why the Germanic peoples, like the Celts, did not celebrate the solstices and equinoxes.
If you have any thoughts or questions about this article then please feel free to leave a comment as I always enjoy chatting with you and if you enjoyed it then please share. The more people who know about the historical origins of Christmas and Yule the better.
Take care and brightest blessings,
Elissa
BILBLIOGRAPHY
The Moon, Myth and Image by Jules Cashford (2003) The Lunisolar Calendar of the Germanic Peoples by Andreas E. Zautner (2021) Stations Of The Sun by Ronald Hutton (2001) The Winter Solstice by Shirley Toulson (1981) Religion In Roman Britain by Martin Henig (1984) Dictionary Of Roman Religion by Lesley Adkins And Roy A. Adkins (2000) Jul disting och forkyrklig tiderakning by Andreas Nordberg (The introduction and summary is in English).
WEBSITES
Alsidu Old Saxon Heathenry is Robert Sass’ blog. He is extremely knowledgeable with over twenty years of research in Germanic Paganism. I highly recommend his work as well as his Youtube channel of the same name.
Hi Elissa, I’m always inspired by your investigations and appreciate your commitment to historical accuracy. So much was muddled up in the 19th century in regards to the “pagan past” in Europe. Clarity is good! Of course the “why” of the meddling and muddling in the 19th c is a fascinating study of its own. Looking forward to reading part 2.
An interesting piece but I do disagree on the dating of Christmas. It was known at an early period that Jesus died on March 25th, which was also the day on which he was conceived according to tradition. So his birth naturally took place on December 25th. There was no overt attempt to Christianise Mithraism by moving it to this date, it was based on an old dating tradition. Mithraism was a completely different religion which could not be assimilated and early Christians took great care to avoid mixing Christianity with paganism. This belief on Christmas dating linked to pagan practices is largely medieval and modern, particularly recently, as an attempt to undermine Christianity.
There is, though a lot of overlap between cultural practices in midwinter, I agree. One of the interesting things in England is how certain Catholic practices survived after the religion was abolished. Some practices survived for centuries so I definitely agree on the mixing of traditions with Christians adopting originally pagan traditions, in the same way that some Muslims, Hindus etc, put up fairy lights and Christmas trees at this time of year.