Editing Yule (section)

===Academic reception===
====Significance and connection to other events====
Scholar [[Rudolf Simek]] says the pagan Yule feast "had a pronounced religious character" and that "it is uncertain whether the Germanic Yule feast still had a function in the cult of the dead and in the veneration of the ancestors, a function which the mid-winter sacrifice certainly held for the West European [[Stone Age|Stone]] and [[Bronze Age]]s." The traditions of the [[Yule log]], [[Yule Goat|Yule goat]], Yule boar ''{{lang|non|[[Sonargöltr]]}},'' [[Wassailing|Yule singing]], and others possibly have connections to pre-Christian Yule customs, which Simek says "indicates the significance of the feast in pre-Christian times."''<ref name="SIMEK-379-380">{{harvcoltxt|Simek|2007|pp=379–380}}.</ref>''

Scholars have connected the month event and Yule period to the [[Wild Hunt]] (a ghostly procession in the winter sky), the god Odin (who is attested in Germanic areas as leading the Wild Hunt and bears the name ''{{lang|non|Jólnir}}''), and increased supernatural activity, such as the Wild Hunt and the increased activities of {{lang|non|[[draugr|draugar]]}}—undead beings who walk the earth.<ref name="SIMEK-AND-ORCHARD">{{harvcoltxt|Simek|2007|pp=180–181, 379–380}} and {{harvcoltxt|Orchard|1997|p=187}}.</ref>

{{lang|ang|[[Mōdraniht]]}}, an event focused on collective female beings attested by Bede as having occurred among the [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|heathen Anglo-Saxons]] when Christians celebrated Christmas Eve, has been seen as further evidence of a fertility event during the Yule period.<ref name="ORCHARD187">{{harvcoltxt|Orchard|1997|p=187}}.</ref>

====Date of observance====
The exact dating of the pre-Christian Yule celebrations is unclear and debated among scholars. Snorri in Hákonar saga góða describes how the three-day feast began on "Midwinter Night", however this is distinct from the [[winter solstice]], occurring approximately one month later. Andreas Nordberg proposes that Yule was celebrated on the full moon of the second Yule month in the [[Early Germanic calendar]] (the month that started on the first new moon after the winter solstice), which could range from 5 January to 2 February in the Gregorian calendar. Nordberg positions the Midwinter Nights from 19 to 21 January in the Gregorian calendar, falling roughly in the middle of Nordberg's range of Yule dates. In addition to Snorri's account, Nordberg's dating is also consistent with the account of the great blót at [[Lejre]] by [[Thietmar of Merseburg]].<ref name=Nordberg>{{cite journal |last1=Nordberg |first1=Andreas |title=Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning |journal=Acta Academiae Regiae Gustavi Adolphi |date=2006 |volume=91 |pages=155–156 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1366945 |access-date=26 March 2023 |archive-date=14 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314211256/https://www.academia.edu/1366945/Jul_disting_och_f%C3%B6rkyrklig_tider%C3%A4kning |url-status=live }}</ref>