by Tenebris

Created on: May 30, 2007

The Norse year begins at the midwinter solstice, with the 12 night celebration beginning on Jul. Where originally the fertility god Ingvi Freyr rode over the earth at this time of year to bring light and life back into the world, later Christian-influenced versions celebrate the rebirth of Baldur. While gift-giving is traditional at this time of year, some versions of Norse paganism have Wotan, the leader of the gods, distributing gifts in a similar manner to Santa Claus, sometimes in return for hospitality. To this day it is a custom in some parts of Scandanavia for children to leave their boots out by the hearth, filled with hay and sugar for Wotan's eight-legged horse Sleipnir.

The full moon of January, at the height of the bitter winter season, is the feast of Thurseblot, the sacrificial feast to Thor. Thor's power is requested to drive back the frost giants so that spring can return.

Disting, the holiday more popularly known as Imbolc and Christianised as Candlemas, is celebrated on February 2. At this time cattle begin to give birth, traditionally increasing the wealth of the household. If possible, the land is prepared for planting.

Valisblot, or Vali's Feast, is a February 14 borrowed holiday, apparently for no other reason than the similarity of the name of Odin's youngest son Vali.

The spring equinox is marked by the major fertility festival of Eostre/Ostara. The various goddesses of hearth and fertility are sometimes joined together in the image of Eostre, the goddess of spring. Gifts of rabbits and brightly coloured eggs invoke both fertility and the returning sun, and the giving becomes something of a magical ritual to ensure renewal.

Walpurgisnacht, also known as Hexennacht, the eve of May 1, may be best known through its use in Disney's Fantasia, for it is the night when the creatures of darkness slip into the living world. The name is derived from the Christian saint Walpurgis, but her story has little to do with the night of darkness which follows the instant of Odin's ritual death. For nine days and nine nights Odin had hung upon the World Tree Yggdrassil in search of wisdom. On the ninth night he dies and all the light of the worlds is extinguished; to be reborn with the knowledge of the Runes. With sunrise, the burning bonfires of Walpurgisnacht give way to the joy of Thrimilci, the beginning of summer and the agricultural season.

Celebrated on May 30, Einherjar is a modern Asatru holiday roughly corresponding in time and intent with the United

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