The Yule-Drylar

In the Mythos (Shaggy Sagenverden), Yule-proper runs from the day of Winter Solstice (Sunwend) through the day of Perihelion (Nearcome-sun) when Earth is closest to Sun.  But in practice, Yule is simply the fortnight from Yule Eve onward.  Yule Eve is called Mother Night and belongs to Gryla (~grue), the horrible hag-giantess who mothered the thirteen Yule-Drylar, to whom belong the thirteen days that come after-- hence, a fortnight in all.

New Year begins on the Solstice, the darkest time of Winter, when the sun is lowest in the sky and the day is shortest of all.  Till then, fearsome Gryla rules, and the unholy Draugs rise from their barrows and stalk abroad, wreaking bale-work in the land.  But when the Sun stops waning and then begins waxing upward, the dawning of a new year starts, and it is a time of festivity (frelsung) and merriment, and the thirteen Drylar-days are celebrated (frelsed) suchly.  And the frolicsome Yule-Drylar go out at once in behest of the Drygand to be his Wild Swarm, to harry and halse (exorcise) the fell Draugs so that all is safe from their attack (thrack) and the glee of  Yule-tide is freed to overflow.

Draug-- the undead monsters who dwell in barrows and who go abroad betimes to slay and devour and lay waste.

This year, Sunwend is Friday, 21st December at 6:12 AM EST.