[Manyfeathers]

Originally Posted by Hot Chocolate

Norse solstitial festival, the season of the sun's rebirth, assimilated to Christmas in the Middle Ages, along with its pagan trappings: holly, ivy, pine boughs, lighted trees, wassail bowls, suckling pigs, Yule logs, carols, gifts, and feasting.

Some said the god of Yule was Kris Kringle, i.e., a Christ of the Orb, a new solar king. But most northern folk remembered the reborn god as Frey. The said, "Yule is celebrated in honor of Frey."

In France it was celebrated in honor of another phallic god, like Cernunnos, whose phallus was identified with the festive log, called the Noel Log. Provencal folk songs mention the fertility magic of the Noel Log, the ashes of which were traditionally mixed with cows' fodder to help them calve.

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Cernunnos

Celtic version of the Horned God, shown in sacred art with antlers strapped to his head, seated in lotus position like a yogi. This contemplative pose was typical of Gallo-Roman deities in the first millennium B.C. Cernunnos was a consort of the Moon-goddess, whose Roman name Diana may have been related to Sanskrit dhyana, "yogic contemplation." Medieval romances spoke of pagan heroes who acquired godlike powers by falling into a trance of "contemplation" of the Goddess as lady-love.