YullTide🕊

Happy YullTide! 🕊

Tuesday 21st December 2021 is the first of twelve days of the winter 'Yule' festival celebrating the winter solstice.

We've been using our own phrase/hashtag 'YullTide' for a while now but this year we've delved a bit deeper into the true meaning of 'yule' and 'yuletide' and how our very own version 'YullTide' has come about.

You may have heard of 'yuletide carol' and 'yule log' during the festive season but where do the words 'yule' and 'yuletide' come from?

The word 'yuletide' is a combination of 'yule', from the pagan winter festival Jol, and tide, which here refers to a midwinter festival celebrating the winter solstice, traditionally marking the halfway point of the winter season.

Traditions associated with 'yule' vary widely but most commonly consist of a hearty celebratory feast including caroling, drinking, and dancing. Later, christians adopted aspects of the pagan festival into a celebration of the birth of Christ. As Christianity began to spread in the 4th century, the Christmas feast day was set on December 25 by Pope Julius I to align with the Roman pagan holiday Dies natalis solis invicti, 'the birthday of the invincible Sun.'

In modern use, the word 'yuletide' is occasionally invoked as a synonym for Christmas.

Our own version 'YullTide' is a play on words and is a fun way of celebrating wearing Yull Shoes at Christmas time. When Yull Shoes was started in October 2010 the name was in honour of Founder Sarah Watkinson-Yull's surname and heritage.

Some of my family come from Norfolk and were bakers owning Yull's Bakery at 17 Church Street, East Dereham which specialised in bread, pastry and cakes. My grandfather George Albert Robert Yull (born in 1909) married my grandmother Gladys Watkinson from Hipperholme, Yorkshire and my father, George Watkinson-Yull was their eldest son.

So you can see retail is in my blood and I wanted to honour this when naming my own business.

YullTide might be used by us as a bit of marketing fun but when you think about it, it is a time to celebrate our family and their hard work and entrepreneurial spirit over the years.

Happy YullTide 🎄

Sarah

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