Resources

Holidays in Ásatrú, Heathenry and Norse Paganism

The Many Holidays in Norse Paganism, Asatru and Heathenry

We have holidays in this religion. Lots of holidays. We have so many holidays, but we don’t all agree as to what they are. There are three that most people agree on, though the dates are not agreed on…

This is a living religion, so it gets complicated and everyone has their own way of thinking about it and interpreting the source material.

Asatru Holidays

You’ll see each holiday here listed with its reckoning and a link to a page which will give you some resources as to where we got the idea for these Holidays, as well as ideas for how you can celebrate these holidays at home.

This is just one example of a holiday calendar. You can take this one and run with it to see if it works. If not, feel free to make your own.
It’s commonly said in the Heathen community that the exact time a Holiday really begins is when everyone is at the party. What’s more important than dates is the people you share your Holidays with and how great of a time you have together. Always keep your loved ones and the special people in your life in mind when you’re looking at calendars and holidays.

Holiday Reckoning
Yule Winter Solstice
Midwinter First Full Moon after New Moon following Winter Solstice
Disting Full Moon following Midwinter
Summer Nights Begins First Full Moon After Spring Equinox ends at New Moon
Ostara First Full Moon After Spring Equinox (Begins Summer Nights)
Sigrblót First New Moon following Full Moon after Spring Equinox (ends Summer Nights)
May Day May 1st
Midsummer Summer Solstice
Lammas Full Moon after Autumnal Equinox
Harvest Home New Moon After Autumnal Equinox
Winter Nights 2nd Full Moon After Autumnal Equinox
Álfablót 2nd Full Moon After Autumnal Equinox (begins Winter Nights)
Dísablót 2nd New Moon After Autumnal Equinox (ends Winter Nights)
Sunwait 6 Weeks Before Winter Solstice

More Information on Holidays

First, let’s talk about the Heathen Calendar because it’s different than the one you’re probably used to.

The Pre-Christian calendar was a lunisolar calendar.

That means seasons and years were reckoned by sun cycles by months were reckoned by moon cycles. Months for Germanic people used to begin on the Full Moon and run to the next Full Moon.

There are, of course, mystical explanations for this having to do with energies and stuff like that but on a more mundane level, it’s pretty easy to reckon time by the size and shape of the moon. It’s something that consistently changes in the exact same way month after month and it’s always up there.

Don’t know what time of the month it is? Is it time to party yet? Just look up!

What are the Asatru Holidays and why doesn’t everyone celebrate the same ones?

There are two groupings of holidays that we will break down: those that are generally agreed on and those that are not. We will also indicate the times that each are generally celebrated. We will use the Full Moon calendar for the most part, though we will also reference some of the “Wheel of the Year” timing as well.

Keep in mind, there are some traditions, like Theodisc Belief or Urglaawe that follow different calendars. This is just one example of a way to put one together. This is not the definitive Heathen Calendar! It’s just one you could use.

There are three holidays we mostly agree on and that you’ll see across traditions.

  1. Summer Nights/Sigrblot
  2. Winter Nights/Alfarblot/Disablot
  3. Yule

These three holidays come to us mostly from sources like Snorri Sturlusson and the Hiemskringla.

Here are some of the Asatru Holidays we don’t all agree on, but many of us celebrate.

  1. Disting (Second Full Moon of the New year)
  2. Lenzen (Full Moon Cycle around Vernal Equinox)
  3. Ostara (First Full Moon After Vernal Equinox)
  4. May Day (May 1st)
  5. Midsummer/Litha (Summer Solstice)
  6. Lammas (Full moon after autumnal equinox)
  7. Sunwait (starts 6 weeks before Winter Solstice.

Holidays in Heathenry are more like “Holy Tides” than a single day

This can be difficult for a lot of new Heathens to understand but our holidays aren’t always just one particular day. They sometimes fall within an observance period that we call a “Holy Tide.” So, for example, “Disablot” happens during the Holy Tide of Winter Nights. Sigrblot happens during the Holy Tide of Summer Nights. Some of our Holy Tides are “kicked off” by a Blot like the Yuletide kicking off with a Blot on Mother’s Night (if you celebrate on the Solstice).

That’s why you see some holidays like “Harvest” split into a Holy Tide between First Harvest and Last Harvest.

An easy way to put it all together is to think that our Holidays begin with a Full Moon and then they “count down” till that Moon is gone.

How do you know that these were actual Pre-Christian Holidays?

Truth is: we don’t. We don’t know for certain if any of these were actual Pagan holidays. In fact, many folklorists today take an especially skeptical eye to the claims that modern holidays all had some kind of Pagan origin–or even if many of the traditions we celebrate have Pagan origins. It used to be a popular theory that everything we did to celebrate a holiday had its origin in pre-Christian practices, but we don’t know any of that for certain.

Why does it seem like everything has to do with farming?

In a lot of our research on Heathen Holidays, we had to tap into folk-traditions that mostly revolve around agriculture.

There are two reasons for why this is.

The first is that people in the early medieval period, whether Pagan or Christian, lived in an agrarian economy.

That means that most of them had their lives timed around agricultural activities. The theory was that many of the folk-customs that early farmers had were hold-overs from the Pre-Christian period. It was also assumed that since rural areas may have converted later, and conformity was harder to enforce, some of those Pagan practices might have been expressed more in those traditions.

Like we said before, some of that is possibly true, but it can’t be proven with any genuine certainty.

The second big reason is that we do not have any references as to the story of why any holidays were celebrated at all.

That’s the truth of it. Other religions have their holidays woven into the fabric of their religion with stories. Christianity has stories for Christmas, Islam has stories for Ramadan, and Hinduism has stories for Diwali.

Just like them, Pre-Christian Heathens likely had stories about why our Holidays were celebrated, but those stories are long gone and completely forgotten. Maybe someday we’ll come up with new stories, but for now we’re left to work it out with academics like anthropologists and folklorists to figure out what’s what.

“Hey! Where is Freyfaxi, Walpurgisnacht, Feast of Jarl Haakon, Eewische Yeeger and all the other holidays that I celebrate?”

Like we said, this is just a sample calendar of some possible holidays and not a comprehensive statement of the only holidays you can legally celebrate as a Heathen. Some people come from different traditions and have their own schedule of holidays or just call some of the holidays on here by different names.

This table is only one example of a holiday calendar that people use in Heathenry. You’ll find so much variation in our religion that trying to say that any one calendar is the definitive Norse Pagan holiday calendar is inevitably going to run into exceptions.

You’ll also find links in the Holiday column that will take you to an individual resource page for that holiday to tell you more about where it comes from and ways to celebrate.

Regardless of what you find in the calendar here, you’re going to see variation in timing and practice everywhere. This variation is totally normal in every single religion all over the world. Some Christians celebrate some holidays others don’t, or celebrate the same holidays but at different times, or celebrate the same holidays at the same time but in different ways.

Religion is weird and diverse because people are weird and diverse. That isn’t something we are going to try to deny or change and it doesn’t make your religion worse or better than anyone else’s.

Urglaawe

Urglaawe (The “Ancient Belief”) is a distinctive modern synthesis of Pennsylvania Dietsch folk tradition and culture with Heathenry or Germanic Paganism. The legends of the Dietsch immigrants and their distinctive dialect formed the inspiration for the modern religion and the holiday calendar. Though many who practice Asatru/Heathenry/Norse Paganism would recognize some of the traditions in Urglaawe, their unique approach and basis within this very specific cultural and linguistic context warrants a separate calendar and a different reckoning of Holidays.

Holiday Date
Feast of Fro January 1st
Entschtanning February 2nd – February 13th
Oschdre March 20th – March 22nd
der Ziegdaag April 1st
Wonnezeit April 30th – May 12th
Summeraafang und Dingsege June 18th
Hoietfescht July 30th
Erntfescht und Zisasege September 24th
Voryuul December 8th – December 20th
Yuulzeit Winter Solstice – New Year’s Day
Yuulsege Dec 24th
Berchtaslaaf New Year’s Eve

A Note on “Observance Periods”

One note here is the “span of dates” that are in the right column. This sometimes indicates that a holiday could fall anytime between that period of dates. For example “Yuulzeit” is what many of us would call the “Yule Tide” lasts from the time of the winter solstice on December 21st to the beginning of the New Year. “Yuulsege” or what we might call the “Yule Celebration” takes place for them on the 24th of December within the “Yuulzeit.”

Specific Rituals for Holdays

Some Heathens decide to do a special Blot for each holiday, but they all mostly stick to the same basic forms that we talk about in our page on Blot. For example, Winnifred Hodge Rose and Piper Perry contributed two Yule Blots that they have performed, but you’ll notice that there are common structures to each one.

While religious practice varies from place to place and person to person, we mostly stick to the same formats with our basic rituals and add in more elements around them for each holiday. One way to think of it is to imagine that Heathenry is a neighborhood full of pre-built houses. We all live in similar looking houses, but we decorate those houses differently for each holiday. I might put lights on my roof while my neighbor puts lights on the bushes she has outside.

We each do things a little differently, but we are doing those things with houses that are alike. When we think about those decorations, it’s important for each of us to remember that ultimately we are looking to delight any guests we might have in our homes.

How do you celebrate Norse Pagan holidays?

Blót

Many Heathen holidays come with a Blót, but they don’t all have to be a Blót. The three holidays we know of from Norse sources (Winter Nights, Sigrblót and Yule) all were said to come accompanied by a sacrifice (Blót). People associate different holidays with different Gods or spirits and if they feel inclined to make an offering to that God or spirit, then that’s exactly what they do!

Feasting

Feasting is a common Heathen practice at every holiday. Feasting doesn’t just mean eating good food, but also dancing can be part of the festivities, singing and giving gifts. Sometimes the feast is sponsored by a single person and is held at their home, other times it’s sponsored by a whole group and held in a small or large venue. Either way, the goal is the same: keep the frith, make sure everyone feels safe and then make it a celebration to remember!

Sumbel

Most of the time, Sumbel happens after the feast, as things are winding down. People begin to gather around a fire or just in a circle and they start passing around a horn of something good to drink. Everyone gets a chance to speak their peace and everyone not speaking holds space for the speaker. There are three formal rounds (hailing Gods, Heroes and then Ancestors) and then open rounds afterwards. More important than saying the right thing is making the space to truly listen to others.

Here’s a calendar of Heathen Holidays that we will update each year for you.

Is all this stuff about lunisolar reckoning just making you have to think too much? Giving you a headache? We get it. So we’re going to make this easy.

We want these holidays and our research to be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. All the holidays we’re writing about here we have put in this little public Google Calendar you can subscribe to. We will update it every year with the reckoning that we determined from our source materials. That way, you can at least have some kind of basic guide to get started. Even if you later on decide this calendar of holidays doesn’t work for you and your group, we won’t be salty about it.

All this is going to be based on “celestial” reckoning rather than “terrestrial” reckoning which means it’s going by what the moon is doing versus what’s going on in the world around us. Feel free to adjust based on the local circumstances.