Pagan Holidays: Why Yule Looks so Much like Christmas

You visited your Wiccan friend last December, and were surprised to see a holly wreath on the door, mistletoe hanging from the rafters, and a great big tree, topped with a star and dripping with red and gold ornaments. What gives? You thought Pagans didn't celebrate Christmas.

Pagans have their own holiday in the mid-winter season that originated in ancient solstice festivals. The word solstice actually means "sun standing still." Astronomically, the Winter solstice is the shortest night and longest day of the year. It's the day when the arc of the sun reaches it's lowest point in the sky, and appears to stand still, before it begins it's journey again towards the Summer solstice, when it reaches it's highest point.

For ancient people who recognized this event, it became a time marked for celebration. Winter was a frightening time, and it was just beginning by the Winter solstice. They still had weeks ahead of them with harsh weather, dark days, and ever-lowing food and firewood stores. Every winter was a struggle to survive. The Winter solstice was viewed as the rebirth of the sun, and offered hope to everyone facing the challenges of nature. Because of this, it was viewed as a magical moment.

The ancient Celts marked the solstice at Stonehenge, with the towering stones placed perfectly to align with the rising sun on solstice morning, so that it appears as though they are giving birth to the sun. In Iran, firelight vigils were kept throughout the night in homes to help the sun defeat the darkness. Some Native American tribes celebrated the solstice for days. In Asia, the arrival of Winter was celebrated with a big feast.

Feasting at the solstice was a common part of the celebrations, though this might have been as much out of practicality than celebration. The last of the harvest had long been reaped, and food was preserved for the winter, but some of the more perishable food items left over from harvest season were starting to rot. No sense in letting good food go to waste, so people combined the last feast of the season with the celebration that offered a light of hope for the returning spring.

The Roman feast, Saturnalia, is probably the most well-known solstice celebration. The festival was one of the most popular in Rome, and lasted for days. Large evergreen trees were dragged to the center of towns and villages and decorated by people. Wreaths and garland made of evergreens, such as holly leaves, were put on doorways and draped over windows. People went "waissaling," visiting friends to share a spiced alcoholic drink. They wandered around from house to house, singing. Candles were lit and it was thought to be bad luck if they went out.

It was in this very celebration that the roots of Christmas traditions lie. When Rome was Christianized, Catholic Church leaders did not like the idea of people celebrating their old Pagan customs, however festivals like Saturnalia were such widespread and loved traditions, it was hard to get people to stop. Instead, in the 4^th century C.E., the Catholic Church set the date for Christmas during this time, urging that if people were going to celebrate, they should celebrate the birth of Christ. As the dominance of Christianity spread throughout the Western world, the old Pagan traditions were assimilated.

Christmas really took off as a favorite holiday around the world. Many people site it as their favorite, even in secular circles in which the holiday has little religious meaning. The beauty of the lights, songs, good food, traditions, and fond memories of celebrating seems to kindle a warmth in people's hearts during the middle of the coldest season. Though it's Pagan roots held firm, Christians really made the Christmas holiday their own as it was celebrated by generations, practically world-wide, over the course of 16 centuries.

With the Pagan revival, the solstice holiday was reclaimed. Of course, after 1,600 years of Christmas celebrating, many common Christmas traditions, some originating from the Pagan holidays and some that came later, were assimilated into the Pagan celebrations. Having so many things in common with the solstice, Christmas items, songs, decorations, traditions, foods, etc., were simply assimilated in the newly celebrated solstice, more commonly named "Yule," after the Germanic solstice celebration. NeoPagans, cut off by centuries from their religious roots, simply adapt Winter holiday traditions they grew up with and all of the Christmas items available to them at this time of year into their own holiday.

So while some Christians accuse Pagans of trying to steal Christmas, and some Pagans accuse Christians of having stolen their solstice holiday, the truth is, they are simply different fruits of the same tree. And they are not alone- the Hindu Diwali, the Jewish Chanukah, the African-American cultural festival of Kwanza, the Chinese Dong Zhi, and many other mid-winter festivals are celebrated throughout the world at this time of year, most of which are festivals of light and celebrations of hope.

When it comes to celebrating holidays, it really doesn't matter where a specific tradition began, or which cultures added to it or changed it. As cultures merge, divide, and evolve, so do our traditions. What matters most is what the season and all the traditions and celebrations mean to each of us individually, and what we make of it when we celebrate.