PANTHEON
Just as our pagan cousins celebrate the eight major sabbats or holidays that comprise the Wheel of the Year, for those of us in the Northern Tradition we too have somewhat similar key celebrations that we call holy tides. Some of these celebrations, like the one now upon us known as Winter Nights, are more special than others and these are known as high holy tides.
Some practitioners of the Northern Tradition are celebrating Winter Nights around now, the time of the autumnal equinox so it is more in sync with mainstream pagan Mabon celebrations adjust to this time of year. Yet many more won’t be celebrating it until mid to late October, when it will be more in sync with the pagan celebration of Samhain. There are others who may not even celebrate it until November as that would be the approximate time when the harvest has concluded in their area.
The reason for the discrepancy is that as much as we sometimes treat the pre-Christian ancient German, Norse and Anglo-Saxon cultures as being part of a somewhat synonymous culture, the fact remains that we have regional differences as it applied to both methods of time-keeping, as well as it applied to when agriculturally related festivals were held based on that geo-specific culture’s natural cycle.
So then what exactly is Winter Nights?
In ancient Icelandic laws, as well as Bede’s description of the Anglo-Saxons, we see that the year is clearly divided into only two seasons: Summer and Winter. Thus the first day of Summer occurs sometime in what we might think of as the Spring today, and ‘midsummer’ or the summer solstice (known sometimes as Litha) occurs in the middle of the summer. The beginning of Winter occurs in the Autumn, and is marked by the celebration known as Winter Nights.
Snorri tells us that it’s one of the three high holy tides. Winter Nights denoted a major mark in the change of the year. In the more extreme Northern climes most of the harvest by this point had been reaped and preparations for storage had been made. There would only be enough fodder to help the breeding stock through the winter, so the livestock animals would begin to be slaughtered for their meat. To mark this part of the agricultural cycle offerings of harvested crops, as well as offerings of livestock slaughtered for winter meat would be appropriate. In this regard, Winter’s Night becomes a thanksgiving type affair where the people gave thanks for what they had, and made ritual sacrifices to the Gods to ask for a good year. Harvest Gods would be thanked at this time like Freyr, as well as deities like Thor and Sif are good to call upon as well. Modern practitioners may also honor Idunna, since it is at this time of year that apples are harvested.
In a time before central heating, modern refrigeration and air-tight storage methods anyone’s food could become contaminated by vermin, when people remained indoors disease would spread more in the enclosed areas, and people were left at the mercy of nature… any winter could potentially last weeks longer than others. If the harvest had been lean the year before that could spell disaster. It’s always a good idea to show respect to the natural world and those Holy Powers that affect it. It’s also a good idea to be kind to your neighbors… if your house burns down mid-Winter, or you find most of your food stores ruined by vermin you may just need to impose on one of them for shelter and food.
In some (not all) ancient communities we know it was celebrated for as long as three days. During this time all would gather and honor the Gods for the harvest and pray for a good year, and a good winter. But in some select communities, we know that they did more. Special rituals to honor the disir and/or the alfar Disir are understood to be divine females that may be comprised of select Goddesses, demi-Goddesses, powerful local wights (local river spirit, etc.), as well as female ancestral members of a tribe and or familial line. Many scholars theorize that the Norns and the Valkyrie may be specific types of Disir. Alfar are always elves. But the term can mean both a race of beings, is sometimes more generally used to refer to any sort of supernatural spirit or wight, and in a few instances is only used to denote a male ancestor.
In this we begin to see the sort of specialized rituals that honor the dead that pagans might identify more with Samhain celebrations, and other traditions honoring of the dead as seen with el dia de los muertos. It is important to note that while some areas in antiquity were holding special rituals for the disir at this time, in other communities this was practiced at completely different times of the year.
Summer was a time known for plenty, warmth and health… but Winter was a time known for cold, sickness and rationing. For this reason, as well as the fact that supplementing one’s food supply by hunting no doubt helped to give raise to the tendency among modern practitioners to honor the hunting Gods Ullr and Skadhi. At this time we also have more ominous type of hunting stories surface, that of the Wild Hunt. The Wild Hunt exists in many different variations throughout not only the Northern Tradition itself, but also into other parts of pre-Christian Europe. The Germanic Wild Hunt was associated with the dead, in some cases populated by the worst of criminals, in other cases a hunt that could catch someone living up into it, and thus killing them to become part of it. Populated with horses and hounds… suddenly you have a mobile army of spooky things, which seems more and more similar to Halloween as we think of it today. In the Northern Tradition depending on region the Wild Hunt is under the dominion of the God Odin, or the Goddess Holda, or Perchta.
Some who look more to Anglo-Saxon sources look to the names of the month as described by Bede. September is Haligmonath, or Holy Month. We know that many different types of rituals were held then, we just don’t know extant details about what in particular. My gut tells me, that as the various crops were coming in, there were little mini-rites for each crop harvested and were probably done more intimately between the farmer and his family than as a big communal gathering. Some will go ahead and hold one big Harvest celebration for this named for the month or simply called for lack of a better term Harvest, or Second Harvest (since the first one is usually celebrated as either Hlaefmasse or Freyfaxi). In turn they will in October celebrate Winter Nights, usually called by them as Winterfylleth, which meant winter full moon, and thus designates it as the first month of the winter roughly equivalent to our modern day mid-October.
In addition to Winterfylleth, some additional names for the holy tide used in the community are Veturnætur, Winter Nights, and in rare instances Winter Day. Winter Nights is a more accurate term, considering that the passage of time was marked by nights, not days. An example of this can be seen from Anglo-Saxon times as it applies to the English word ‘fortnight’ as a reckoning of time for two weeks. Just as traditional Jewish sabbat begins at sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday… it appears that the festivities traditionally kicked off at night. This allows participants to work to prepare for the party during daylight hours too. On occasion you may even see reference to the term Winter Finding. Some groups use this as being synonymous and interchangeable with the term Winter Nights. But others will call the harvest celebration at the autumnal equinox Winter Finding, and call the later October celebration Winter Nights instead.
So today we have a range of practice as it applies to this time of year. Some opt to celebrate it at the time of the autumnal equinox for sheer simplicity. But many others will instead decide to observe Winter Nights in October as that’s more in keeping with the traditional calendars. I’ve seen other’s who split the celebration up, observing a Harvest-tide celebration in September, and then in October they will instead opt to specifically come together to honor the ancestors. If you have children, incorporating ancestor veneration at this time helps to sync up to the Halloween décor that is on the market, and allow the children to have some similar dialogue amongst their peers.
As someone who lives in Texas, since the days are still reaching highs above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s hard for me to get into the colder winter spirit just yet. So I’ll be looking forward to celebrating it in a few more weeks personally. Last year I cooked up chicken cooked lightly in orange and pomegranate juices, with monterey jack cheese , red delicious and granny smith apples, and a little horseradish mustard as a pseudo quesadilla baked in a crisp flour tortilla for my offering. Don’t be shy in being inspired by the seasonal ingredients in your area, and incorporating them into dishes to serve at religious gatherings or to give in offering to the Gods, wights or ancestors.
Want to learn about other holy tides?
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