According to the moon, today (October 20th) marks the beginning of Winter Nights! If you don’t know, it’s a heathen holiday marking the beginning of winter—and if you want to know more about it, our special, Winter Nights Raid is still free for 2 more days! Go ahead and plunder it: https://fjorns-hall.com/calendar/winter-nights/
According to the moon, today (October 20th) marks the beginning of Winter Nights! If you don’t know, it’s a heathen holiday marking the beginning of winter—and if you want to know more about it, our special, Winter Nights Raid is still free for 2 more days! Go ahead and plunder it: https://fjorns-hall.com/calendar/winter-nights/
A heathen holiday is happening soon—not Halloween, but Winter Nights! And yes, there’s a difference. If you don’t know about it, I prepared Seasonal Raid that plunders the what, when, how, & why of the holiday (as best as sources allow). My Companions (aka subscribers) and I will be discussing and celebrating it on Discord, too.
Here’s an excerpt:
Winter Nights (vetrnætr) mark the beginning of winter in the Old Norse calendar. If you’re going by lunar phases, it takes place during the first full moon after the first new moon after the autumnal equinox. Yeah…that’s a bit hard for us to figure out on the fly, since we’re so used to the Gregorian calendar—but for 2021, that’s October 20th. Regardless of which method of reckoning you follow (lunar or Icelandic), it generally occurs during mid-October. Yet, even so, it’s not actually just a single-day celebration! Indeed, we get to party for at least three nights! But how did people celebrate? And what exactly was Winter Nights even for?
April 1: Loki Day. Loki’s Day is celebrated on April 1st by American Asatru groups and individuals influenced by the old Ostara festival held by the old Ring of Troth, which was a multi day campout that included April 1st when that date fell on a weekend. Loki Day was a day for pranks and jokes in honor of Loki, and toward the end of the RoT women who were awake in the early morning threw their hair-combings into the fire for Loki. When the Ring of Troth broke into two groups, the American Vinland Association kept the Loki celebrations intact, while over the years the Ring of Troth abandoned them due to the influence of new members who were Nokeans (see my post on Nokeans for a definition and discussion.) The Troth recently re-embraced Loki, so the old custom may or may not come back. Also on April 1st: Narrentag (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and the season of the possible date of Alp Aufzug begins (Switzerland.)
