The Yule Goat - Julbock

Hello friends, yet another video!

The Yule Goat, or Julbock, is a festivity held at the end of December and has its roots on a Northern European pagan past. I hope you enjoy this video friends; give some love and support to Mr. Thorstein by subscribing to the channel ^^ See you on the next video! Tack för idag!

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Yule - A Pagan Tradition

Hey there friends! This is a video about the pagan roots of the Christmas season, focused on the Northern European Pagan traditions only. I hope you enjoy this video. Please subscribe to keep the videos coming; your support and feedback is greatly appreciated.

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Celebrating Yule in Finland

Well, I know it's still early to post something like this. We are at the last days of August and September is upon us. I can almost feel the cold in the air (not truly, unfortunately). Perhaps I'm just longing for winter to come, since the moment it ends. Anyway, to appease my yearning for cold and harsh weather I will leave you here with this post.

As you well know,Yule (or also knonw as Yule-tide) is one of the winter festivals that was initially celebrated the Germanic pagan peoples as a religious celebration. The Germanic peoples also include the Scandinavian ones, of course; historically speaking to the romans and in the first records about the Germanic groups, everyone in Germania up to the cold north of Scandinavia were considered Germanic. 

This celebration was later absorbed into the Christian festival of Christmas, and much of its essence still remains. However, Yuletide was originally celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. This festivity was placed on December 25 when the Christian calendar (Julian calendar) was adopted. Some historians claim that the celebration is connected to the Wild Hunt or was influenced by Saturnalia, the Roman winter festival. However, Yule in its true meaning dates back to the prehistoric times which had a great connection not only to the season but also to deities and spirits in general.

The word "Yule” are still used in the Nordic Countries for the Christmas time, but also for other religious holidays of the season. In modern times this has gradually led to a more secular tradition under the same name as Christmas. Yule is also used to a lesser extent in English-speaking countries to refer to Christmas. Customs such as the Yule log, the Yule goat (Julbock), the Yule boar (Sonargöltr), Yule singing, so on are greatly connected to thiscelebration. In modern times, Yule is observed as a cultural festival and also with religious rites by some Christians and by some Neopagans. 

To the Finns, many ancient customs (and pagan in essence) are still held, which is quite interesting because traditions are maintained and to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists this cultural traditions help us understanding the past of civilizations that left us little, or close to nothing, of written records about such festivities.

For example, on the eve of the Finnish Joulu (Christmas), children are visited by Joulupukki, which is a character similar to Santa Claus. The word Joulupukki means “Yule Goat” and probably derives from an old Finnish tradition where people called the nuuttipukkis, dressed themselves in goat hides and circulated arround others' homes after Joulu, eating leftover food, dancing, singing and a lot of other things connected to a more shamanic past and tribal behaviour. ANyway, Joulupukki visits people’s homes and rides a sleigh pulled by a number of reindeer. He knocks on the front door during Jouluaatto (Christmas Eve), rather than sneaking in through the chimney at night. When he comes in, his first words are usually “Onkos taalla kiltteja lapsia?“, which means: “Are there (any) good (well-behaved) children here?”. Presents are given and opened immediately. This character usually wears red, warm clothes and often carries a wooden walking stick. The colour red is probably something very new and modern due to the commercialisation of the Santa Claus figure. His workshop is in Korvatunturi, Lapland, Finland, rather than at the North Pole like Santa Claus, or in Greenland. He is married to Joulumuori (Mother Yule). 

The very typical Finnish yule dishes include ham, various root vegetable in casseroles, beetroot salad, gingerbread and star-shaped plum-filled pastries. Other traditions with a non-Christian yule background include joulukuusi (“Yule spruce”) and joulusauna (“yule sauna”).

The Yule Celebrations in Northern Europe

The December celebrations were held by many cultures throughout Europe; for instance, to the romans, the 24th of December was the day the deity Mithras was born. But in this post, I shall exclusively talk about the celebration of Yule.

Yule or Yule-tide is a winter celebration, initially commemorated by the Germanic peoples as a pagan religious festivity, later absorbed into the Christian festival of Christmas. The festival wasn't only held on a particular day. It was celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. However, this festival was placed on December 25th when the Christian calendar (Julian calendar) was adopted.


The term "Yule" is still used nowadays throughout Europe for the Christian celebrations and other holidays during this season, as well as to refer to Christmas. Apart from this, there are other minor Yule celebrations which are equally important, traditional and historically remote. For example, the Yule Log is another custom, or the Yule goat, Yule boar, the singing Yule carols) and so on.

In modern times, although Yule starts with the chiming of the church-bells in the afternoon of julaften (“Yule Eve” on December 24th), the previous day - lillejulaften (little Christmas Eve) - is when the tree is put up and decorated and the actual starting date for he 13 day long Yule celebration in Scandinavia begins. Julaften remains the main event and it is the reminder of the celebrations held by our ancestors in ancient times.

The time period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, is called romjul. Occasionally children dress up in costumes and visit neighbours, where they sing Yuletide carols and receive treats like candy, nuts and clementines. This tradition is called julebukk. In olden days, in certain areas of Scandinavia, adults commonly went from house to house to drink with their neighbors; an event called Toftirus, during the 13 days surrounding Christmas eve.

The history of Yule to todays Christmas

Yule or Yule-tide, yet another celebration that hasn't anything to do with christianity and we clearly know now that Christ wasn't born on December the 25th. In truth, Yule is a pagan festival that has been held throughout centuries, a winter festival to honor the female deities of the Norse/Germanic peoples, that is where it actually originated. But where do the pagan festivities and the christian beliefs met? and why?

Originally, the night where this festival took place was during the "new year's night" and it was so called Mōdraniht, meaning, Mother Night. During this pagan holiday a sacrifice was made and everyone involved, all the celebrants, would share the feast afterwards. But throughout history people have come together and mingle by means of trade or invasions and people end up adopting customs and ideas from each other. So there came a time in history when the Norse/Germanic lunar calendar was changed by the Julian calendar which was adopted and the date of the Yule festival changed to December the 25th. Since then it has been absorbed into the Christian holiday of Christmas as a form of propaganda, so the pagan peoples wouldn't feel much changes and still held their celebrations but now turned to a different faith and a different deity, slowly forgeting the old traditions by the force of habit, replacing their beliefs by foreign ones. Nowadays these pagan festivities have emerged again and it is now celebrated among Wiccans, and Pagans of Europe or European descendance during the winter solstice on December 21st. It is believed that the pagan Yule festival was influenced by both the Wild Hunt and the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia.
The Wild Hunt goes by many names, and its connection to Yule goes fat back to the folklore myth / legend of Odin's Hunt, and the most known versions of it are the christianized ones. "The legend is that a group of huntsmen with hounds and horses make a mad dash across the ground or through the sky in pursuit of something unknown. The huntsmen, depending on the folklore, are often undead, demon possessed clergy or fairies of the underworld. The legend goes on to warn mortals from viewing the hunt because if one sees it, a catastrophic event such as the plague, famine, or war could follow. Another warning in the legend against the viewing of the Wild Hunt is that the spirit or soul could be grabbed by the riders and taken to the underworld." The vision of the Wild Hunt takes place during the time of the year when the wind blows the strongest and storms begin to form.Odin's Hunt begins on October 31st and ends on May Eve or April 30th. However, the height of the hunt takes place on Yule, the shortest day of the year. Odin and his Valkyries ride across the sky searching for those worthy to join the ride, many heroes of old also join this hunt, along with the Einherjar, the Elite warriors of Odin. Also this is the time when souls are "collected" and bought to the next world. During christianization fear replaced the tales of old and Yule fires were lit to keep the hunters at bay.
Saturnalia was a Roman winter festival with the objective of honoring the dedication of the temple to the god Saturn, or Cronus to the Greek. Originally the festival was celebrated on December 17th but grew in popularity and was extended to a week long event. A lot of feasts were held during this week, trickery and tomfoolery. A common practice was for slaves to dress as masters and masters to dress as slaves.
Great feasts would take place during the week of Saturnalia after the religious rites were performed in the temples of course. Visits to family and friends would take place and the giving of gifts was a common practice. Such gifts included wax candles and lamps, very common gifts by this time. It was believed that this was to light up the area and chase the spirits of the dark away.

So Yule and Christiams at some point in history came together and made a fusion and we see nowadays in Christmass many things that belong the the pagan festivals of old, like decorating the trees, the type of food we eat during this time, many decorations with elves, goats (the story of the Julbock), Reindeer, snow, pine trees, fir trees, the colors of Red and White and so on, things that were never common in the lands where Christ was born, but to keep this time of the year with its true essence and magic, we kept Christmas in a very pagan manner. During Yule it is a common practice to light Yule logs for Yule fires and to eat goat or boar and fill the air with singing and merriment. During Christmas it is common to light a Yule log, celebrate the birth of Jesus through the Virgin Mary, feast with family and friends, give gifts and witness religious rites in church. Throughout history the combining of these pagan festivals made it easier to convert the heathen pagans to Christianity.

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Holy Tides / Yule 20th-31th December

Note: The drawing was made by me.

First of all i would like to talk about this season that is upon us, the Christmas, what in truth is this season, its roots, its importance and the true spirit of it.

Our ancestors have celabrated this season long before christ had even born, and still today all the free people with no christian belifs, still do, this is not the time where Jesus Christ had born, he was a real man all right, but no one realy knows the time of his birth.
When the Christian church started to spread all over Europe, they have adopted this season from the pagans and adapted its time to the story of jesus, they have invented this all thing that christ had born in the 24th of december, so that the pagans would see any meaning in the story and see that an important figure had born in this special day of their celebrations, it was a way to infiltrate Christianity into the so old roots of the free european peoples, and this was the start of the forgetfulness and almost the oblivion of the pagan roots.
Just as our pagan cousins the Celts celebrate the eight major sabbats that comprise the Wheel of the Year, for those of us in the Northern Tradition we too have somewhat similar key celebrations that we call holy tides (from the Old Norse hátíðir). Some of these celebrations are more significant and special than others, and these especially important holy-days are known as high holy tides.
Of these three documented High Holy Tides, it is Yule that far and away seems the most sacred to modern practitioners in the Northern Tradition, if for no other reason than so many of the ‘Christmas’ traditions that have survived into the present day. While the association of Christ with this ancient pagan holiday came about in Roman times as connected to the festival of Saturnalia and the Mithraic cult, the spread of Christianity into Europe brought the pagan customs in the root cultures of the Northern Tradition (Germania, Scandinavia, and Anglo-Saxon England) into direct connection with the newly Christianized holiday export. While some aspects of other pagan solstice practices were common throughout, it is explicitly a number of Northern Tradition practices that we see surviving in our modern Christmas traditions, including: carols, feasting and drinking, gift-giving, Santa Claus (and other variants), evergreen decorations and the Yule log.

If you’ve ever heard the Christmas Carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” modern heathens opt to celebrate this as the Twelve Days of Yule, with the last day culminating on 12^th Night. Since ancient calendars followed a different method of time, the solstice celebrations as well as later ‘Christmasy’ style observances can vary from place to place as to when they occur. Today, most pagans and heathens celebrate the yuletide as running from approximately December 20 – December 31 (but there are variations).
We do know that the celebration of Yule wasn’t always twelve days long. In the Norse text Heimskringla: The Saga of Hakon the Good talks about it once lasting for three days, or as long as the ale lasted. The night it began was known as the slaughter night, where animals would be ritually slain. Their meat later used to feed the community, as well as the Gods.  It was King Hakon of Norway, who as a Christian passed a law that the Christian Christmas Day (which was already a weird bastardization of the Christian story of the Nativity and Saturnalia/Mithraic customs) and the pagan yuletide celebrations were to henceforth be celebrated at the same time. While this only specifically impacted Norway (and its territories), it illustrates an intentional combining of the holy-days into one celebration.

These 12 nights are:

1. Mother’s Night
2. The Winter Solstice (and/or The Wild Hunt)
3. Virtue – Courage
4. Virtue – Truth
5. Virtue – Honor
6. Virtue – Fidelity
7. Virtue – Hospitality
8. Virtue – Discipline
9. Virtue – Industriousness
10. Virtue – Self-Reliance
11. Virtue – Perseverance
12. Twelfth Night

Well, about the Santa Claus mythos, you can also see my other post of December, about a very special mushroom, of course it is all about shamanism, but in the Northern Tradicion Paganism, it also about Odin the hight king of the Aesir, he also gives gifts and for that imformation, check what i i've written in the runes.

This celebration is also the time where winter begins, the dark nights of the world, and at the first day of Yule, the day and the night have the same hours, and after that the sun starts to grow in power and light, and the days will grow again, till we reach spring and the rebirth of nature. It is a time to survive, and to thank to the Gods and to Nature for all the good things you have got, all the food you have gathered to your family, the importance to be with your loved ones, happy and cozy. All you have made throughout the year, is reflected in these hard days of could, where nature is cruel and there is no way to escape its powers.