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Yule love

Yule

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Christmas or the Christmas season, especially as traditionally celebrated in Northern Europe and North America with customs stemming in part from pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The season or feast of Christmas.
  • To celebrate Yule or Christmas.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Christmas or Christmastide; the feast of the Nativity of our Savior.
  • noun a large log of wood formerly put on the hearth on Christmas eve, as the foundation of the fire. It was brought in with much ceremony.
  • noun the yule log.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Christmastide, the Christmas season, the Twelve Days of Christmas (between December 24th and January 6th).
  • proper noun A pagan wintertime holiday celebrated by Germanic peoples, particularly the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon peoples, or a modern reconstruction of this holiday celebrated by neo-pagans.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English yole, from Old English geōl.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Middle English yole, from Old English geōl, geola ("Christmastide, midwinter"), either cognate with or from Old Norse jól. From Proto-Germanic *jehwlan.

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Examples

  • What is called the birch or “birk in Yule even’” was probably the _Yule clog_.

    The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Hugh Binning 1640

  • And the word "Yule" must be significant here as well, since pagans of all sorts have been roistering at the winter solstice ever since records were kept, and Christians have been faced with the choice of either trying to beat them or join them.

    Forced Merriment: The True Spirit of Christmas Christopher Hitchens 2011

  • They have imported Brown Ale, Pale Ale, Porter, Winter Ale which I call Yule Beer or Merry Christmas, or God Jul, and Imperial Stout.

    The chicks have left the nest. 365beer 2007

  • Like its counterpart in the winter, Giuli from which we get the word Yule, Litha was a double-length month, or two months of the same name, placed either side of the midsummer solstice.

    Litha (July) and Trilithi: the early English calendar Carla 2008

  • Like its counterpart in the winter, Giuli from which we get the word Yule, Litha was a double-length month, or two months of the same name, placed either side of the midsummer solstice.

    Archive 2008-06-01 Carla 2008

  • Like its counterpart in the winter, Giuli from which we get the word Yule, Litha was a double-length month, or two months of the same name, placed either side of the midsummer solstice.

    Archive 2008-07-01 Carla 2008

  • Like its counterpart in the winter, Giuli from which we get the word Yule, Litha was a double-length month, or two months of the same name, placed either side of the midsummer solstice.

    Litha (June): the early English calendar Carla 2008

  • The festive fires of Christmas were regarded as symbols of the sun, who then began his upward journey in the heavens, while the name Yule was traced back to the

    Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Clement A. Miles

  • The name Yule carries us back to the far-off ages when the heathen nations of the North held their annual winter festival in honour of the sun.

    Little Folks (December 1884) A Magazine for the Young Various

  • The word Yule itself means wheel, the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed 2009

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