In Iceland, we have 13-days‘ yule, actually starting at 6 p.m. on the 24th Dec. Then our yule is from 25th to 6th of Jan. The 6th Jan is called þrettándinn (the thriteenth) - celebrated with a bonfire.
Winter solstice, the shortest day in the North, is on 20th, or 21st, or 22nd of Dec, (varies from year to year) actually the real ancient holiday of rising sun.
We have many jólasveinar (jóla-sveinar yule-boys), and according to Óðsmál reasearch they are our deceased forefathers visiting us during this holy season.
Perhaps we practiced ancestor-worship, not allowed, so the the jólasveinar were changed into some bad guys.
We still put a candle, an evergreen, and a tulip on graves at yule. Not banned nowadays.
Búi opens the boxes that contain all his yuledecorations.
He has a box full of decorations.
but he cannot figure out where to hang it up, the whole lot.
-I assume, Seppi, that we have to get a yule-tree for the two of us .... so that we can hang all our decorations on it, Búi says.
Note:
Seppi is usually not a proper name for a dog, but seppi can mean just: a dog, or addressing a dog whose name we don‘t know.
Seppi minn means my dear Seppi.
We use „minn / mín“ a lot on addressing a dear one.
Afi hefur plantað mörgum grenitrjám (greni-tré) sem nú þarf að grisja til þess að þau hafi nóg rúm til að vaxa.
Búi og Seppi fá leyfi hjá afa til að saga handa þeim jólatré. (jóla-tré)
Grandpa has planted a lot of evergreens, such as spruce / Norway pine
some of which now need to be cut down so that the others have ample space to grow.
Búi and Seppi get the permission from grandpa to cut down a yule-tree for themselves.
They go to grandpa‘s forest to choose a tree.
-Then I am going to fill all the yule-tree bags on my tree with chocolate and raisins.
-We are going to have many good things to eat during Yule, my Seppi. (fá sér í svanginn = eat)
Seppi looks forward to it.
On the 23rd of December, Búi starts decorating the tree.
Búi takes more and more out of the box and hangs everything on the tree.
Seppi is really surprised how much, actually, comes out of the box.
-Given that I own yule-decor, I am certainly going to use all of it during yule, Búi says.
When, at last, the box has been emptied, the tree can hardly be seen because of all this decor.
Its branches sway down from the weight of all that.
Að-fanga-dags-kvöld is a wonderful evening and they decide to stay up late.
They do not go to bed untill at midnight.
Búi got a candle.
Seppi got a bone.
Búi quickly falls asleep.
(sofa vært : sleep soundly)
But on this very yule-eve, Seppi wakes up as he hears some rumble in the other room where the tree is. Seppi decides, of course, to go and find out what is going on.
It turned out to have been all the decorations that Búi had -- falling off the tree.
There is just a heap on the floor.
But the tree anew spreads out its beautiful branches.
Seppi sees that all the raisins and the chocolate has fallen out of the bags, and is now just there on the floor.
Seppi starts gulping up.
Búi did say, remember, that during yule they would have lots of sweets.
And now we have yule, right?
Note: jól er fleirtöluorð (fleir-tölu-orð)
Yule is a plural word in Icelandic
But on the yule-day-morning, when Búi gets out of bed and enters the room, he is not so happy at all.
If there were not yule right now, he would most likely become terribly angry.
But no-one is angry during yule, so he has to retain himself.
Búi is not one of those who give up easily. Oh. no.
He gets the most powerful glue he can find.
The decor is going back onto the tree. As he owns yule-decorations he is going to hang them on the tree.
This turns out to be more than the tree can take.
On the 2nd day of yule, the needles are starting to fall of the tree.
Seppi is convinced that it will not make it (/last) till the thirteenth day of yule.
(þrettándinn is the last day of yule in Icelad on 6th of Janary)
Álfur and Erna are Búi‘s and Seppi‘s friends.
-Tonight we shall hava a bon-fire, the say. Bon-fire on the last day of the year.
Do you not have something to burn there?
-Well, I suppose we have to burn the yule-tree, even if yule is not finished yet, Búi says. It is completely ruined.
Now then, let us just take the decor off.
That turns out to be completely impossible.
The decor is just glued to the tree.
The only thing that comes off, is evergreenneedles.
Obviously, the decorations have to be thrown on the fire along with the tree.
The only option available.
Note: (+) means viðskeyti (við-skeyti), suffix
Búi is not happy while watching his yule-tree and all his decorations burn up. But the bon-fire is beautiful.
The old year is “saying good-bye“. A new year is beginning.
On new year‘s day, we have more new yule-snow, and it is freezing cold.
Búi and Seppi take a walk in grandpa‘s forest.
All the ever-greens have got snow-decor on their green branches.
-I think we should get a new yule-tree from grandpa, my Seppi, Búi says.
-The frozen snow-decor is much more beautiful than the decorations we burned last night.
-This is beautiful, my little Seppi.
Now we have a beautiful tree - lasting until the thirteenth day of yule.
Búi brings a new yule-tree - along with this frozen yule-decoration on it - into his house.
But of course, after a little while, the snow-decor starst melting.
Big water-puddles -- that grow ever bigger -form on the floor.
The snow-decor gets smaller and smaller.
Seppi is a good dog and laps up all the water-pools for Búi.
On the thirteenth and last day of yule, Álfur and Erna come for a visit.
-This is really a beautiful yule-tree, they both say.
-Are trees so beautiful even if there is no decoration hanging on them?
They decide to have fun, all three of them together, the whole thirteenth-evening.
