Yule is the one of the two wiccan solstice Sabbats and depending on the date that the solstice falls on, can occur between December 20 and 23 each year. Yule is the Sabbat that is the equivalent of the conventional Christian-based Christmas, which falls on December 25 every year and never changes. The Annual cycle can be thought of as roughly equivalent to the daily cycles, with Yule being midnight, or the end of the previous day and the beginning of the new.
The next major event of the day is dawn, which would be equivalent to Eostara and is similar to Easter; even the names are similar. This Sabbat is followed by the other solstice, the summer solstice. wiccans refer to the summer solstice as Litha. It is curious to note that Litha is one wiccan sabbat for which there is no major Christian equivalent. In past European times, the warm weather and budding crops, with the promise of the coming harvest, sparked annual mid-summer festivals thought to have come from the pagan recognition of this Sabbat.
However, these are not the most important Sabbat of the year. Instead, the Sabbat recognized as the most important is Samhain, which occurs on October 31 each year, the same day as Halloween and they are, for all intents and purposes, one in the same. The theme for this Sabbat is the honoring of the dead and the releasing of their souls to the universe. This follows the theme of Halloween and its focus on spirits and ghosts coming to homes seeking gifts.
The wiccan celebrations of this Sabbat is in stark contrast to Christian holidays, where Christmas is the most important. In fact, many Christians, such as Jehovah Witnesses and the Born Again Christians, do not celebrate Halloween because they believe it is evil, or the Devil’s holiday.
Which Came First?
This is a controversial subject, as annual festivals go back far in history and the study of the cycles of the sun, moon, and stars, which led to astrology, coupled with agriculture, forms the basis for the belief that major religious holidays of the Christian faith are derived from these pagan festivals. Most Christians are very uncomfortable with the idea.
However, modern advances in history and science have changed much of that attitude. Most people are now willing to accept that pagans have been celebrating the changes of the seasons and the cycles of nature for longer than Christians have been celebrating Christmas, Easter, and other significant dates.
For Wiccans and pagans, these festivals mark that passage of time and our experience of it and they are perfectly willing to accept other religions marking the same events in their own way. Science now teaches that the Solstices are the points during the year that the sun is farthest away and closest, the shortest and longest days of the year.
