Yule Traditions And Tarot Read 2023

The festive energies are at their peak, as many holiday parties and dinners are happening. Homes, buildings, and street posts are flicking with festive lights as so many holidays are celebrated at this time: Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, and Yule. Yule marks the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere (Litha, the Summer Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere), which means it is the shortest day of the year.

Yule falls on December 21st, which it often does every year, and it is one of the eight Sabbats that pagans celebrate. Let’s review the sentiment behind Yule, as well as common pagan traditions, and then do a collective Winter Solstice tarot reading.

Yule Is About Rebirth And Renewal

Yule is a festival of the sun, and it is about rebirth and renewal, which is known as Midwinter. Samhain marked the death of the year, and Yule is when a new year is born. Since this Sabbat celebrates the return of the sun that has been waning to the point it reaches its lowest point during the Winter Solstice, the sun slowly begins to wax each day after the solstice. Light is a significant element in this Sabbat, so plenty of lights are flickering at this time of year. It does not matter whether they are lighting from bonfires, holiday lights, candles, etc, but these all represent the sun’s rebirth.

Yule provides the opportunity for you, whether you are pagan or not, to reflect on the year as you look forward to the upcoming new year. While this is a time for reflection, Yule is a time to spend time in nature (if the weather allows it) and to connect with your friends and loved ones. Before reviewing the common Yule traditions, let’s briefly review the history.

The History of Yule Celebrations

Europeans have celebrated the Winter Solstice for thousands of years. When you look at traditional winter customs, you can see the Norse and the Germanic pagans initially called the festival Jol. The celebration was partly to prepare for the long winter ahead of them as locals and farmers would head over to the heathen temple to bring food, and they did a lot of toasting to many gods, as Odin was the main one.

They used evergreen trees to represent new life, decorated them with ornaments, started giving gifts, and did caroling. There is speculation that Yule has roots in the ancient Roman week-long holiday, Saturnalia, which was celebrated around the time of the Winter Solstice and involved enjoying feasts, giving gifts, and celebrating and honoring Saturn, which happens to be the ruler of Capricorn. The season of Capricorn begins on the day of the Winter Solstice. The Celtic druids had their Yule celebrations.

Mistletoe comes from oak trees and was a blessing during the Winter Solstice by Celtic druids. They believed that the sun stayed stationary for 12 days and lit logs, known as Yule logs, to ward off evil and attract good luck. Wreaths made with oak or evergreen leaves were also known to represent life and to ward off evil.

Pagans and Wiccans today say that Yule is a time when the dark half of the year, represented by Holly King, gives strength to the Oak King, meaning the light time of the year. The Oak King is reborn during Yule, develops, and becomes more potent during Imbolc and Ostara until it reaches its peak during Litha. Then, after that, the Oak King loses its power as the Holly King begins to gain strength during Mabon.

Even though you know that Yule is a pagan celebration and one of the eight Sabbats, you can see that Christmas decorations stemmed from Yule decorations. Why is that?

How Does Yule Relate To Christmas?

The Christmas tree, feasts, ornaments, wreaths, logs in the fireplace, lights, and you can see how all of these from Yule traditions are now used for Christmas. When Christianity phased paganism out during the sixth and seventh centuries in Europe, Christmas celebrations included the pagan Yule traditions.

That is because people in European towns did not want to sacrifice those Yule traditions when they began to celebrate Christian holidays, so that is why they were incorporated into them. It is the same for Easter regarding the rabbits and eggs, which are also Ostara Sabbat traditions celebrating the Vernal Equinox. Yule traditions have stayed with Christian holiday traditions since then. Now, let’s go over how pagans celebrate Yule and how you can, too, even if you are not pagan but want to get into the Midwinter spirit.

How To Celebrate Yule

Yule is the birth of a new year, and this is the time for reflection and release; it is a great Sabbat to create plans and do some goal-setting. You don’t have to be pagan to reflect and release what is no longer good for you and to do some planning for the upcoming year.

What you can always do is make an evergreen wreath using pine, ivy, mistletoe, and yew, which represents prosperity and life. You can also create a solstice bush by putting those plants in the soil in a pot if that is what you would instead do. Yew is a tree that…