Ancient Celebrations of the Winter Solstice

Christmas is a long-held, cherished holiday shared by countless cultures across the world, traditionally celebrated during the Winter Solstice (or the warm summer season if you include Australia, a country where Christmas is celebrated as an official holiday).

While Christmas is specifically a Christian holiday, Winter Solstice celebrations under other names were popular throughout ancient Europe long before the birth of Jesus Christ even occurred. The Winter Solstice has always been a time to celebrate and revel; in the northern hemisphere it takes place on December 21 and its purpose is to celebrate that the worst part of the year was behind them. It was at that point during the year that the cold months of winter began to shed its frigid coat; the days began to get longer, allowing people more time to spend outside working with crops or tending animals.

In Scandinavia during the Winter Solstice, men and their sons would head into the woods to cut down a sturdy tree. After the tree had been felled, a good-sized log was cut out of the tree and brought back to the home. This hearty log was dubbed a Yule log, and the family would burn it in their fireplace. As the fire licked away at the impressive log, the family would feast and revel. These periods of celebration were generally quite significant, because sometimes a Yule log would burn for twelve days!

The Yule log did more than present a timeline for the Winter Solstice celebration; it also was used to predict how bountiful the births of new farm animals would be during the coming year. As the log burned it would emit sparks from the fireplace. The family would gather together and count the sparks, believing that each spark represented a future pending birth of a cow, goat, pig, etc. This count was significant to Scandinavians back then since farm animals were primary sources of wealth.

Scandinavians were not the only people that possessed pre-Christmas celebrations during the Winter Solstice; Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a pagan holiday that worshipped the god Saturn. During this holiday Romans would ignore their existing social order – partying and jubilation were the hallmarks of the holiday. Servants and peasants were permitted to celebrate with and socialize with people of higher classes, which was a rarity to be sure.

Much like the Yule log celebration, Saturnalia was celebrated all across Rome for an entire week. During that weeklong celebration, shops and businesses were closed during the Festival of Saturnalia – the adage, "eat, drink and be merry" was the rule of the days. Saturnalia actually continued beyond the weeklong festival, but by then business returned to usual.

Saturn, the god of agriculture and farming, was not the only pagan deity celebrated by ancient Romans; they also worshipped Methra, a deity that was said to be carved from a rock. Romans celebrated the rock god's birthday almost as heartily as they did Saturnalia, considering it a time for celebration and togetherness between friends, countrymen and most of all family.