Celebrating Inclusivity: Yuletide vs. Christmas

Lest we forget our past, the one before Jesus, we must remember it again,

Every winter solstice, even if for a few seconds.

I never stopped to think what the word yule really meant until recently, when researching short words I thought I understood. (I know. Weird.) As I was heading towards the finish line of my review, I stopped on yule. “Glad tidings,” some people say during the holidays. Where did that come from?

It came from Yuletide. Thousands of years ago, before Christmas, Yuletide was celebrated by the Germans. “Yuletide had nothing to do with Christmas. Instead, it referred to a holiday celebrated by Germanic people. It comes from the Old English terms, ġéol, and the Norse term, jól.” (History Things.)

Yuletide was in essence what Christmas was before Christians and corporations took over the holiday season. That’s a fact, Jack.

They claim that they had assimilated with the Germans but they did not. Instead, according to Christianity.com “early Christian missionaries … incorporated Yule traditions [into Christian ones] to help locals understand the birth of Jesus.” That was their form of “appropriation” of pagan religions, so much so that it appeared to be assimilation.

I’ve decided to use that word now, Yuletide, instead of Christmas. I’m doing it not because of any Fox-propaganda War on Christmas-ideology I might or might not have, but because Christmas is simply not an inclusive term. It’s not inclusive of the vastness of the holiday celebrations existent in today’s world. The umbrella, so to say, is not open for anyone but Christians on Christmas. It is closed for all other celebrations, such as Yuletide, a pagan holiday. It also excludes such holidays as Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Día de los Muertos, Mardi Gras, and others. None of those are Christian, and all of those have non-Christian origins.

Christmas falls on one specific day and celebrates the birth of the Christian deity, Jesus. Yuletide falls during the period between Winter Solstice and New Year, a period upwards of a dozen days. (Puerto Ricans, our party-lovers, extended it to Three King’s Day, those devils!)

Yule is that period of the year when it seems that all the world calms down just a little bit. Many take off from work and equally as many look towards what they can do to ready for the upcoming year.

Science tells us (and my dad, a funeral home director, told me once) that it is the time of year when people commit the most suicide, a reminder that we must learn to love each other and communicate that love far better than we are doing now. To address mental illness better. And to recognize that showing compassion towards others is not a Christian thing; it is a human thing.

Yuletide season — with its yule log — its candles and pines scents, all beckon warmth and friendship. It arose from feasts in which everyone in their own villages celebrated. They were feasts where all were welcome.

Winter solstice affects all the world because of the movement of the Earth on its axis. It is literally an astronomical event! It happens when the tilt of the Earth ‘s axis is most oriented away from the sun causing the perception that our days have gotten shorter. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. It is the day that starts more seconds of sunlight every day until the summer solstice. It’s the season that looks forward to the future.

In fact, our days have gotten longer, according to The Atlantic, 12/28/24. They say “in the 20th century, each day on Earth got longer by between 0.3 and 1.0 millisecond. That rate has been increasing since 2000, and could nearly double by 2100. What does that foretell about the future of us on this planet?

I wish my readers a happy, filling, and uneventful Yuletide. I will write to you again on the other side.

Want to read more on this topic? Go to the Green Gardening Matters blog.

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_{Originally published 12/21/2024.}