12th Night

The birth of the new year from the destruction of the previous year. The ritual consists of Wassailing (offering with a unique song) an Apple tree, driving out negative spirits and Symbel to begin the year.

Ēastre

Spring time, the dawn of the year, representing the Earth’s increasing in power. Ritual consists of a hymn and offering to Ēastre, the goddess of the dawn, as well as a drama depicting Ing, a god associated with fertility) courting Gerð (meaning Earth). There is also an effigy of Winter that is ritually beaten with sticks and burned in a fire, in order to ritually banish winter and welcome spring. A similar ritual exists in Slavic religion, where the winter goddess Marzanna is ritually drowned in a river.

May Day

The celebration of the wedding between Ing and Gerð, May Day is a party to welcome in the summer, and features several fertility symbols; the most notable of which is the May Pole, on which ribbons are attached and wound about by dancing participants. It’s customary to make ribald jokes during the erecting of the pole.

Liþa (Midsummer)

The high point of the year, celebrated on the Summer Solstice, the longest day (and shortest night). A threefold ritual that celebrates the gods in the fullness of their strength, Liþa consists of a nightwake, where the ritual fires are kept burning until dawn in celebration of the sun at her height.

Harvest

A celebration of the fecundity of the earth and the harvest of all foods grown in the ground. The gods are gifted with fruits of the gardens, and fresh baked loaves of bread, in thanks for the bounty that the gods have given. Songs are sung heralding the beginning of the end of the year.

Winternights

Celebrated when winter has begun it’s hold. This ritual celebrates and honors the dead, specifically the ancestors who came before us. Grain and salt are burned, as the dead are named, and stories of their lives are told.

Mother Night

Celebrated on the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, this ritual represents the end of the world, the Ragnarok. All boundaries are broken, all order is destroyed. An effigy of the sun (in a wooden wagon) is burned on the ritual fire, symbolizing her death at the world’s end. Similar to Liþa, the fire is kept burning throughout the long night in anticipation of the sun’s return, and the world’s rebirth.