Germanic Calendar

This means, that the first of the Winter Nights would have taken place yesterday (Oct. 8), the second of the Winter Nights takes place today (Oct. 9), and the third one will take place tomorrow (Oct. 10).

It is finally beginning to be established in the online communities, that the old Germanic day began with the dusk, that the old Germanic holidays lasted three days and that they were celebrated on the Full Moons. But there still seems to be some confusion whether these three days began on the evening of the peak of the Full Moon or if the peak of the Full Moon was on the second night.
We would like to clarify this by using both common sense and basic observations of the night sky. Let us quote Jeff Magnum from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory:

“Technically, the point at which the Moon is ‘full’ lasts only an instant. To the naked eye, though, the Moon can appear to be full for upwards of three days.”

We think that since the Moon is the determining agent of when the holidays take place, it is likely that it is also the determining agent of the length of the holidays as well. Meaning that while the Full Moon peaks on a certain date in the modern calendar, this would likely be the second night of the holiday itself.

Due to the contacts of the Old Norse with the Finnic peoples, some influence on the latter can be observed. On specific occasions a comparison of these two can prove useful. The following account is reported by John Scheffer in the History of Lapland (1674), page 144, c. 10:

“Sámi men run a sharp knife through the heart of a reindeer buck and gather the blood from the heart. The image of Thor is placed on an altar and is offered to by drawing crosses with the blood on the chest of the deity. Some of the fat is also offered, and the horns of the sacrificed deer, the skull and its feet are placed behind the deity. The rest of the animal is placed in a coffer and is used in the household. The Sámi offered to Thor in the autumn.”

It is likely, that what we observe here may in fact be a Sámi adaptation of the Winter Nights celebration. Note also that the author identifies the Sámi deity with the Old Norse god Thor, whom we would expect to be invoked and sacrificed to in connection with the harvest.

Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Vol. II, 39.3-6:

“Within the shrine stood a huge effigy, its size surpassing the height of any human figure, and it was amazing to look upon in that it possessed four heads and necks, two of which looked over its chest, two over its back. They were so arranged that, before and behind, one head appeared to direct its gaze to the right, the other to the left. They were fashioned with shaved beards and cropped hair, so that you would have thought the sculptor had tried hard to imitate the Rügen style of head adornment. In its right hand the idol carried a horn embellished with various types of metal, into which the priest who was versed in the god’s rituals would once a year pour wine, and from the appearance of the liquid would predict the degree of plenty in the coming year. […] Its attendant worship was observed in this manner: once every year, after the crops had been harvested and when beasts had been offered as sacrificial victims, a milling throng from the whole island celebrated a ritual feast at the front of the temple to pay reverence to this idol. […] The next day, while the populace kept watch in front of the doors, the priest would intently examine the drinking-vessel, which he had taken down from the statue, and if the quantity of fluid there had at all diminished, he concluded that it pointed to scarcity in the following year. Once he had perceived this, he would give orders for some of the latest crops to be stored away against the future. However, should he have observed no decrease in its usual level of fullness, he foretold a coming season of agricultural fertility. As a consequence of the omen, he used to advise the people to avail themselves of the present year’s resources, sometimes more sparingly, sometimes more lavishly, as the case might be. Then, having poured away the old wine as a libation at the image’s feet, he filled the empty receptacle with the new vintage and, going through the motions of offering the god a drink, paid homage to the statue; afterwards, pronouncing a solemn formula, he begged prosperity for himself and his country, and increases in wealth and victories for its citizens. As soon as this was ended, he put the vessel to his lips and with great speed drained it in one uninterrupted draught, whereupon he replenished it with wine and restored the horn to the idol’s right hand. A round cake baked with honey was also brought as an offering, of such vast proportions that it almost matched the height of a man. Placing it halfway between himself and the crowd, he would ask whether he was visible to the islanders. When they answered that he was, the priest expressed the hope that they would not be able to see him in twelve months’ time. By this manner of request, he was not asking for his own or the people’s deaths, but for an increase in the harvest to come. Immediately after that in the name of the effigy he greeted the multitude assembled there, further urging them to complete their obeisance to this god by scrupulously carrying out the ceremonial rites and guaranteed that they could absolutely depend on land and sea victories as a reward for their piety. Once these procedures were accomplished, they passed the rest of the day consuming a sumptuous banquet, turning the sacrificial feast into an entertainment in which they gratified their stomachs, and making the victims consecrated to the god serve their own self-indulgence. At this festive meal it was thought devout to abandon all temperance, but wicked to observe one’s normal decorum.”

Comparing our own observations with those of the other Indo-European branches can not only tell us what was shared in common by these branches, but it can also shed some more light on our own practices. Read these two accounts written by Christian scholars, who report of a cognate Western Slavic festival. Not only was it focused on harvest and the new year, it also reports of their divinatory practices by which they gained knowledge of the upcoming year.

William of Malmesbury, Chronicle of the Kings of England, c. 12:

“But the [Wends] [1] worship Fortune, and putting her idol in the most eminent situation, they place a horn in her right hand, filled with that beverage, made of honey and water, which by a Greek term we call “hydromel.” St. Jerome proves, in his eighteenth book on Isaiah, that the Egyptians and almost all the eastern nations do the same. Wherefore on the last day of November,[2]sitting round in a circle, they all taste it; and if they find the horn full, they applaud with loud clamors: because in the ensuing year, plenty with her brimming horn will fulfil their wishes in everything: but if it be otherwise, they lament.”

[1] The original text says Vindelici, but this seems to be a historical confusion of the name of the Wends with the Vindelici tribe and sometimes even the Vandals.
[2] The Slavic people seem to have celebrated their festivals on New Moons rather than on Full Moons like we do.

The Winter Nights (vetrnætr) are frequently referred to with different names in the Old Norse sources, such as haustblót (harvest sacrifice) or dísablót (sacrifice to the feminine deities or dísir). The association with the dísir may seem quite mysterious at first. In a chapter of the Handbook of Pre-Modern Nordic Memory Studies, Terry Gunnell sheds more light on this:

“[…] this festival is firmly rooted in the pagan calendar, set in the liminal nights (always in plural) occurring between the end of summer (the old year) and the beginning of winter (the new year), a time at which (with the help of a sacrifice) those present can be granted insight into supernatural knowledge/memory of the future (ǫrlǫg ‘fate’), something which is commonly said to be in the hands of female goddesses […] and seeresses […].”
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110431360-074

Knowing what the new year holds for us would be a valuable insight. Therefore it makes perfect sense to invoke the dísir and perform practices by which one can attain this knowledge.

The sources for this celebration are plentiful in the Old Norse sagas, to name a few:

Ynglinga Saga, c. 8:

“Óðinn setti lǫg í landi sínu, þau er gengit hǫfðu fyrr með Ásum. […] Þá skyldi blóta i móti vetri til árs, en at miðjum vetri blóta til gróðrar, it þriðja at sumri, þat var sigrblót.”

“Óðinn set laws in his land, that had formerly been upheld by the Aesir. […] Then they had to sacrifice in the beginning of winter for a good year, in the middle of winter for a good crop, and a third time in summer, that was a victory sacrifice.”

Óláfs saga helga (Saga of Saint Olaf), c. 107:

“Þat haust váru sǫgð Óláfi konungi þau tíðendi innan ór Þrándheimi, at bœndr hefði þar haft veizlur fjǫlmennar at vetrnóttum. Váru þar drykkjur miklar. Var konungi svá sagt, at þar væri minni ǫll signuð Ásum at fornum sið. Þat fylgði ok þeiri sǫgn, at þar vær í drepit naut ok hross ok roðnir stallar af blóði ok framit blót ok veittr sá formáli, at þat skyldi vera til árbótar. Þat fylgði því, at ǫllum mǫnnum þótti þat auðsýnt, at goðin hǫfðu reizk því, er Háleygir hǫfðu horfit til kristni.”

“That fall, the king received news from Inner Throndheim about farmers holding well-visited sacrificial feasts on the Winter Nights. There was much drinking. It was reported to the king that the cups were blessed honoring the Aesir according to the ancient custom. Furthermore, cattle and horses were slaughtered, and the altars sprayed with their blood. The sacrifices were accompanied by prayers for a bountiful harvest. It is also reported that all people knew that the gods were irate because people from Halogaland converted to Christianity.”

Gísla saga Súrssonar (The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw), c. 10:

“Það var þá margra manna siður að fagna vetri í þann tíma og hafa þá veislur og vetrnáttablót en Gísli lét af blótum síðan hann var í Vébjörgum í Danmörku en hann hélt þó sem áður veislum og allri stórmennsku. Og nú aflar hann til veislu mikillar þá er svo líður stundum sem áður var getið. Hann býður til veisluþeim báðum nöfnum, Þorkatli Eiríkssyni og Þorkatli auðga og mágum sínum, Bjartmarssonum og mörgum öðrum vinum og félögum.”

“In those days it was the custom of many men to celebrate the coming of winter by holding feasts and a winter-night sacrifice. Gísli no longer sacrificed after he left Viborg in Denmark, but he still held feasts and showed the same magnanimity as before. And now he arranges the great feasts at the same times. He invites to that gathering both men with the same name, Þorkatli the son of Eirík and Þorkatli the wealthy, his brother-in-law, the sons of Bjartmar and many other friends and comrades.”

Gísla saga Súrssonar (The Saga of Gisli the Outlaw), c. 15:

“Þorgrímur ætlaði að hafa haustboð að vetrnóttum og fagna vetri og blóta Frey og býður þangað Berki bróður sínum og Eyjólfi Þórðarsyni og mörgu öðru stórmenni.”

“Thorgrim decided to have a harvest-feast on the winter-nights, and to sacrifice to Freyr. He invited his brother Bork, and Eyjolf the son of Thord, and many other great men.”

We find a mention of this time of the year even in other sources such as Bede's De Temporum Ratione from England:

“Unde et mensem quo hyemalia tempora incipiebant Vuinterfylleth appellabant, composite nominee ab hyeme et plenilunio, quia videlicet a plenilunio ejusdem mensis hyems sortiretur initium.”

“Hence, they called the month in which the winter season began ‘Winterfylleth,’ a name made up from ‘winter’ and ‘full Moon,’ because winter began on the full Moon of that month.”

On the following Full Moon (circa 8-10 Oct.) the Winter Nights festival ought to be celebrated.

It marks both the beginning of winter and the new year. According to the ancient custom, thanks are given for the harvest and sacrifices are performed so that the upcoming year may be good. It is also a very auspicious time to perform divinatory work, to find out what the new year holds.