( Saturday is named after the Latin Saturni dies.) To what extent Saturnalia traditions influenced Christmas or the reverse is debated by scholars. Holly was used for decoration in the twelve-day Roman holiday known as the Saturnalia, ending on January 1, and is where we get the “ Twelve Days of Christmas.”ĭid you know that Americans spend more than $8 billion per year on Christmas decorations?Īs discussed in a previous article, the Roman celebration of Saturnalia to honor the head of the Roman pantheon of Titans occurred annually at the end of December.We are familiar with it by the more modern Anglo-Saxon “toast” wassail, which means “be thou hale” or healthy and is traditionally celebrated on Twelfth Night. The wassail bowl was first known in Scandinavia as the Old Norse ves heil.The Norse associated it with their goddess of love, Frigga, perhaps the origin of kissing under it, as we’ll discuss in a later article. The plant had no roots yet remained green. Mistletoe was prominent in the traditions of the Druids and the lore of northern Europe.
It was considered bad luck to let it go out. The large end would be lit with the remnants of the previous year’s log, wine would be poured over it, and each person would take turns feeding the whole length of the log into the fire as it continued to burn. Yule logs were not sweet confections but a whole tree that would burn for twelve days on the hearth.Evergreens played an essential role among Vikings who would decorate evergreen trees with food and carvings.Yuletide later became associated with Christmastide. It refers to a twelve-day celebration starting on or around December 21 among Norse and Germanic people associated with the Winter Solstice. The word Yule comes from the Germanic jōl or the Anglo-Saxon geōl.Let’s look at some of these familiar traditions and some connections to other folklore elements with which we may be unfamiliar. Many of the customs that we commonly associate with Christmas come from previous pagan or pre-Christian European backgrounds.