The Northern Way

Over the last twelve months, I have posted liturgies for some of the traditional ways to celebrate the changing seasons of the year, marking the turning points of the eternal cycle. This post offers an alternative to that, and is based on the feasts of the Northern people, the ancestors of many of we north Europeans. The pivotal points of the year are not based on calendar dates as such, but on an awareness of and connection with what is happening in the natural world - and even those of us who live in cities can surely find those essential links and be blessed by them. Another difference is that I am not here offering liturgies for the festivals, but things to do. I hope you may enjoy doing them... Put them in your diary or on your calendar, so you don't forget.

To start off with, here are the names of the months of the year, according to Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, and Norse traditions:

January, After-Yule, Winter month, Snow-moon

February, Mud month, Short month, Horning

March, Noise month, Lengthening month, Lenting

April, Eostre's month, Ostara's month, Ostara

May, Three Milkings, Joy month, Merry-moon

June, Dry month, Plough month, Midyear

July, Meadow month, Hay month, Hay-moon

August, Weed month, Harvest month, Harvest

September, Holy/Harvest month, Wood month, Shedding

October, Winter full moon, Grape harvest moon, Hunting

November, Sacrifice month, Harvest month, Fog-moon

December, Fore-Yule, Holy month, Yule

Below is a 'Viking Calendar'

For the people of the North, the year did not begin in what we know as January, but at the end of autumn. However, since I am posting this at the beginning of our Advent, I am choosing to begin at the end of the dark and cold Winter months, with the first of the Rites of Spring: Summer Finding. This could occur either around the Spring Equinox (around the third week of March) or any time during the first half of what we know as April. The significant 'findings' were the first flower of Spring, such as the violet, and/or the return of certain birds, such as the cuckoo, stork, or swallow, from their winter roosts. The later practices of both Easter and May Day derive from this festival time: for example, the hare, sacred to the goddess Ostara/Eostre, became the "Easter Bunny", and Hot Cross Buns derive from the ritual bread marked with the image of the horns of the ox sacrificed at the feast. The very word 'bun' derives from the Saxon word 'boun' meaning 'sacred ox'.

What to do: Keep a keen look out for the first signs of Spring - and, if it's a flower, don't pick it! Take a photo and put it up somewhere you'll see it every day.

Walpurgisnacht, the end of the period of the Wild Hunt (see Winter Nights, below) occurred around the end of April. Once a nine night festival, it was a remembrance of Odin's self-sacrifice on the World Tree, Yggdrasil. It was on the ninth night that he beheld the Runes, grasped them, and ritually died for an instant, during which all the Light in the Nine Worlds was extinguished and Chaos reigned before the Light returned (on the last stroke of mid-night) - marked by the lighting of bale fires.

What to do: Remind your self of something you've wanted to do or learn or see, and set whatever is needed in motion so that you get to do it - not necessarily hanging from a tree :-)

The Sun's Wending or Summer Solstice, like Walpurgisnacht, also contains an element of the commemoration of the dead, in this instance Odin and Frigg's son Baldr ('Beloved'), killed by Loki ('Knot'/'Tangle'), and of the hero Sigurd, whose story is thought to derive in part from the history of one of the Merovingian kings of the Franks, Sigebert. Despite this, the festival was kept with dancing, feasting, burning wheels, and bonfires, into which were cast garlands, herbs and blue flowers, such as larkspur, as a sign of throwing off an ill-fortune. Cattle were sometimes driven through the smoke of the fires, to cleanse or purify them.

What to do: Watch the sun set, and either stay up all night or get up early enough to see it rise. And treat your self to a really nice break-fast!

Þing-tide was celebrated around the third week of August. The þing (pronounced 'thing') also known as Alþing, was an assembly or meeting, held, unsurprisingly, at the þingstede. In Anglo-Saxon terms, it was a folk-moot, or folk meeting, during which legislation was laid down, chieftains and kings elected (one person, one vote), and legal judgments made. The annual public assembly of the Isle of Man, during which new Max laws are read out and petitions delivered, derives its name, Tynwald, from the þingvellir. Elsewhere, it became known as the wapentake.

What to do: Send a card (yes, a real one, not an e- one) to someone you regret losing touch with, just to say you're thinking of them, and including your current contact details.

The Feast of the Wains (wagons) takes place around the time of the Autumn Equinox (known in some circles as 'Mabon') and the Harvest Moon, and was in honour of those gods associated with fertility, wisdom, and the future. One custom which survived the Christian conversion was the leaving of some of the harvest for the gods and/or spirits, for example, the last clump of corn, or the last five or six apples. The reserved crops were decorated with ribbons, and from this arose the tradition of the Corn Maiden and the making of corn dollies.

What to do: If you have anything that you can harvest - herbs, fruit, veg, flowers - then harvest it, but leave a small portion, and decorate it with a ribbon.

Winter Nights occurs about a (lunar) month later, and was regarded as the start of winter. In the old days, this was celebrated with a feast and with prayers for a good winter, and both the spirits of the land and the ancestral guardian spirits were honoured, along with the remembrance of the dead and of one's ancestors. This festival was incorporated by the Christians as All Souls Day - the 'Commemoration of the Faithful Departed'. Winter Nights also marked the beginning of the Wild Hunt, which would continue until Walpurgisnacht (1st May) - a procession of the dead led by Odin (also revered as Wotan) on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir ('Slippy'), accompanied by dogs and horses, riding through the winter storms.

What to do: Plant something in memory of the people you love who have died, and, as you tend it and watch it grow, remember them with thankfulness.

Modraniht, Mother Night, is held on the night before the start of Jol - corresponding to Christmas Eve - in honour, of course, of mothers. Food was left out for the departed mothers and other ancestors, as well as for the álfar (elves) and for the Wild Hunt, and children would hope to receive a gift in return for this kindness - another link with Santa Claus and his elvish assistants.

What to do: Take time to appreciate your own mother and grandmothers, and, if you have them, your daughters. Do something  today to show that appreciation and love.

Jól (Yule) starts around the time of the Winter Solstice. The title of the feast may derive from Jólnir - one of the names of Odin (Óðinn), the All-Father (Alfaðir), the vital force of the vital forces which were personified as the gods, the breath of life, will, and power. According to legend, Odin played a part in the creation of the world, by the slaying of the primordial being Ymir, and granting the gift of life to the first two human beings, Ask and Embla, who were also given Midgard (Middle Earth) for their dwelling, and who were the father and mother of all people.

Some of our current Christmas customs find their roots in Jól: the lighting of the Yule Log (somewhat down graded to a chocolate cake!), singing, visiting one another's houses, Father Christmas/Santa Claus, riding across the sky in his sleigh drawn by reindeer - a gentle version of the Wild Hunt - and, of course, feasting.

The original feast centred around the boar (hence that mysterious Boar's Head Carol!), a creature associated with Freyr, the god of sacral kingship, over which solemn, holy oaths for the coming year would be made - which have dwindled down to our often desultory New Year Resolutions. According to some legends, the eve of the Solstice was when Freyr himself rode over the world on the back of his shining boar, bringing back Light and Love. Later the same eve was celebrated as the birth-night of the god Baldur... and, of course, it is when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. So it is at this darkest time of the year when the brightest hope re-enters the world.

What to do: Light a candle, and let it burn out naturally (and safely please!)