#primstav
If you do it right, you can have four Yules:
Dec 21: Common modern Yule dates starting on the winter solstice and usually ending Jan 1st.
Jan 12/14: Primstav date for Midwinter (Julian calendar). Using this, Yule would start here and go for three nights. Some debate on exact date.
Jan 19: Primstav Midwinter converted to the Gregorian calendar. Still three nights.
Jan 16 (2022): Old Norse lunisolar dates for Yule. Held for three nights during the full moon following the new moon after the solstice. In 2022 this is Jan 17 at its peak and includes the two surrounding dates. Consequently, the dates move around between Jan 5 and Feb 2.
You can certainly pick one to go with, or even just wrap them all into Yuletide.
This is the third full moon after the Yule Moon, and that means that by both Primstav and Old Norse lunar reckoning the summer season and the month of Harpa have begun!
Vinternettene - Winternights
October 14th
It is customary that every year at sundown on 14th October, heathens will celebrate vinternettene (winternights), also known as høstblot (autumn blot), vinterdag (winter day) or vinternatt (winter night).
14th October was the day that Scandinavians would turn over their primstav to mark the beginning of the winter half of the year and welcome the cold weather returning, a tradition that pre-dates Christianity in Scandinavia. Marked with the symbol of a mitten (as it was customary to knit new mittens for the coming cold weather), it is also said that the weather on vinternettene will be a signal of the weather for the coming winter.
The sacrificial blot accompanying this was usually dedicated to Frøy (Freyr), alver (elves) and the diser (disir). Asking that Frøy will return swiftly to sow the seeds of rebirth and that we make it safely through the coming cold and snow.
Til års og fred!
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