Yuletide carols. Yule singing. Yule log. Yule goat. Yule boar.
Yule or yuletide is a pagan Germanic winter festival later absorbed into the Christian festival of Christmas. It was originally celebrated from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar. The festival was placed on December 25 when the Christian calendar (Julian calendar) was adopted.
95% of German families will snuggle up and watch TV on Christmas Eve and Day, and TV has actually been compared to the hearth (Feuerstelle) of the olden days. So I propose a new word: Yule TV!
This yule log video was looped on TV in the NY-metro area on Christmas Eve and morning throughout the 1980s.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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So … did you watch something?
Here, three generations sat down together to watch the Dr Who special, most of us from behind the sofa.
We don’t get the BBC, unfortunately!! Do you know how to circumvent the country limitations here on the continent? Since German TV series are not great, and I had seen all the (good) German films and refuse to watch Hollywood films in German, Helmut downloaded and I got DVDs of a lot of amusing and thrilling films. My favorite one so far was Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, Dany Boon’s film about a post office director who gets transfered for disciplinary purposes to the north of France… we laughed til the tears came, and watched it in three languages :). Last night we watched Ice Age 3 and almost died of cuteness. I also enjoyed a German film called “Shoppen” about speeddating, set here in Munich.
But now I’m hungry for the big screen, and have to see Where The Wild Things Are (I was worried that Spike Jonze might do a deed on it, but the reviews have been ok, and I liked Dave Eggers’ book version, so…). And I want to see Avatar.
Any thoughts on Avatar?