Yule Festival

Month : December
Place : Germany
Famous For : Traditional Festival
Attractions : Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing

Yule is a popular winter festival celebrated in Germany. Also popular by the name of Yule tide, the Yule festival was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic peoples as a pagan religious festival. Later, the festival was equated with Christmas. Originally, Yule was celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. After the Christian calendar came into existence, the Yule festival was scheduled to be observed on December 25 from then onwards.

Major Attractions
The reference of festival Yule is still used in the Nordic Countries for the Christian Christmas, but also for other religious holidays of the season. In modern times this has gradually led to a more secular tradition under the same name as Christmas. Yule is also used to a lesser extent in English-speaking countries to refer to Christmas. Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule. In modern times, Yule is observed as a cultural festival and also with religious rites by some Christians and by some Neopagans. The word Yule is actually from old english words geol and geola. The former indicates a 12-day long festival of Yule whereas the later indicates the month of Yule. Both words are thought to be derived from Common Germanic and are cognate to Gothic (fruma) jiuleis and Old Norse jol. The etymological pedigree of the word, however, remains uncertain, though numerous speculative attempts have been made to find Indo-European cognates outside the Germanic group

Official Website :http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/yulethelongestnight/a/About_Yule.htm