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As the name suggests, the festival was celebrated in honour of Saturn, the father of the gods, the same deity after which the sixth planet in our solar system is named. In Ancient Rome, the festival of Saturnalia began on 17 December and lasted for seven days. Today the event is celebrated in some forms of Modern Paganism. Present day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from pagan Juul. Fires would be lit to symbolise the heat and light of the returning sun and a Yule log was gathered and burnt in the hearth as a tribute the Norse god Thor. The pre-Christian festival, the Feast of Juul, was observed in Scandinavia at the time of the December solstice. Here are some of the festivals celebrated internationally, past and present: Yule (Neopagan)

With the introduction of the Gregorian calendar the solstice slipped to the 21st, but the Christian celebration of Jesus’s birth continued to be held on 25 December. Under the old Julian Calendar, the winter solstice occurred on 25 December.

Winter solstice is an important time for cultures across the globe.

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