Is anyone else getting the feeling

[TheMightyMollusk]

Christmas in particular has strong roots in the Norse holiday of Yule. Santa was basically Odin, before Coca-Cola reimagined him as a jolly fat guy in the 1930s.

[AnimaAnimus]

Christmas in particular has strong roots in the Norse holiday of Yule. Santa was basically Odin, before Coca-Cola reimagined him as a jolly fat guy in the 1930s.

To be fair, that is another modern pagan misconception, just like the Futhark being used as fortune telling runes or having any religious significance at all. We just don't know but a lot of authors in the NeoPagan movement either have no historical evidence or they take possible theories or speculation and pass them off as fact and that goes for a lot of ancient cultures, not just Norse. There is very very little known about old Norse culture, especially religious practice or belief because it was quashed and destroyed by the church and then appropriated and twisted by the Nazi party. We do know the Norse were quite liberal, even by today's standards, but especially by the standards of their day and age which makes it all the more facepalming the symbolism and gods are invoked by white supremacists.

As someone who is of Scandinavian decent, I studied it quite closely in uni. We have the Edda, but that is also post-christian so its only considered to be partially accurate at best.