Faith of North

Yes, and it's believed by many that the idea of Christmas was taken from Yule. The whole 'birth of the son' thing.

The vikings loved to travel to England and the like, to plunder and steal and rape... some even stayed. They got a LOT of silver from the king, just to get away, because they couldn't be beaten... so the vikings left.
And then came back after a year or two, because they wanted more silver. And that's why many english words are so close to swedish...
Husband is in fact two swedish words - hus like house, and band like ribbon, band, line... pretty much 'bound to the house', in a sense.

Yule sounds just like the swedish thing, we just don't have another word for it.

And I've heard christmas is in december because of the roman celebration (of the sun or such) that took place there. Everyone went to celebrate that, even the christians, so they needed something to keep them close to the religion even at that time.

You are correct CorpseQueen. In fact, all of the Christian holidays are based off of previous religions. I guess it's easier to believe yourself important if you have your own holidays.

SkieShauphen wrote:

You are correct CorpseQueen. In fact, all of the Christian holidays are based off of previous religions. I guess it's easier to believe yourself important if you have your own holidays.

I think the Christians did that in order to try to convert the Pagans. They incorporated elements of the Pagan celebrations and traditions into theirs, so that the Pagans would feel more comfortable in making the switch.

I've heard the same before. Most especially around Halloween and Yule. All Saint's Day was to contend with All Hallows Eve and Christmas was to contend with Yule. The funny part is that Jesus was actually born in the Summer....

Thurysaz wrote:

Here in Belgium it's not \"Christmass\" but \"Noel\"...


Mes hommages.

T.

From wikipedia:
Noel (or noël, sometimes written as nowell in English) is an alternate word for Christmas. The word comes from the French word Noël meaning \"Christmas\" which derives from the Old French word noël, a variant of nael. The Latin origin is the word natalis (\"birth\").

So it still has something to do with christ :blush: