Early Germanic festivals

Yule (, ) is a winter festival and time of the year historically observed by heathen Germanic peoples that was later merged with the festival of Christmas during the process of Christianisation. The oldest accounts describe two Yule-months around the winter solstice in early, and sometimes explicitly heathen, Germanic calendars.

thumb|right|Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.

Scandinavian Winter festival and period