Yule Celebrations - Nordic traditions

Witchy Wisdom
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Merry Meet! For Yule this year, I did research leading up to last week on various traditions. I have decided that this year, I’m going to follow Nordic traditions as I celebrate each day of the 12 days of Yule. Each day honors a different set of gods/goddesses and/ or ancestors/ spirits. You also reflect on a specific virtue and month of the year.

December 20th: The first day of Yule is called Mōdraniht, or Mother’s Night. During this day/ night, you honor Frigg (goddess of motherhood and fertility), Freya (goddess of love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, and seiðr) , and Disir (ancestral mothers). The virtue to reflect on is industriousness and the month is Yulemonath (December).

  • Time to clean your entire house and spend the daylight hours preparing the home for Yule (decorating, cooking, etc.)

December 21st: This day is the Wild Hunt in which you honor the All-Father Odin and your ancestors. The virtue is Perseverance and the month is Horning (February). You also reflect on the past Imbolc.

  • Stay inside so you don’t become a part of the Wild Hunt! It is customary to leave an offering outside for Odin and his Army as they ride by.

December 22nd: On the third day, you honor Mani (god of the moon) and Darkness. Courage is the virtue of the day. Lenting (March) and the spring equinox are the focus for this day’s reflection.

  • Hold a blót, or “blood sacrifice” for Mani, share Wyrd with friends/ family, and build Frith (peace). Today, we sacrifice something of high value to us to the gods and goddesses.

December 23rd: On this day, we honor Aegir (god of the sea), Njord (god of the wind, seafaring, fishing, and the hunt), and Freyr (god of peace and fertility, rain, and sunshine). The virtue to reflect on is Love and the month is Ostara (April) and Sumarsdag (first day of summer).

December 24th: Here we honor our community. As this is the Christian Christmas Eve, this is a fitting honor as many of us spend this time with our non-pagan friends and family. We reflect on the virtue of Hospitality and the month of Merrymoon (May). We also reflect on the past Beltane.

December 25th: Christmas day for our Christian friends and family, this is a time to honor Eir (Valkyrie and healer to the gods) and healing. The virtue is Discipline and we reflect on Midyear (June) and Midsummer (Litha).

December 26th: Today is the day to honor Thor and children. The virtue is Fidelity and we reflect on Haymoon (June).

December 27th: We honor Skaði (goddess of the wilderness, bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains) and Ullr (god of winter, skiing and snow sports) on this day. Truth is the virtue of the day and we reflect on Harvest (August) and Freyfaxi (Lammas/ Lughnasadh).

December 28th: Today is a counterpart to Mōdraniht where we honor Odin and fathers. Our virtue of the day is Honor and we reflect on Shedding (September) and the autumn equinox (Mabon).

December 29th: Today is the honoring of Sunna (goddess of the Sun) and Light. Our virtue is Justice and the mont is Hunting (October). We also reflect on winter nights and Samhain.

December 30th: Today is the day we honor the Valkyries and warriors, including today’s soldiers. We reflect on the virtue of Self-Reliance, the month of Fogmoon (November), and the Feast of Ullr (hunting festival that focuses on the blessing of hunting weapons and one last big hunt before winter).

December 31st: The Twelfth Night is a time to honor all our divine friends. It is the last big party to celebrate the passing of the darkness and return of the sun. On this night, we reflect on the virtue of Wisdom, and the month of Snowmoon (January). This night is also Oath Night, where we make oaths that will shape our wyrd (fate, destiny) in hopes of a bright year ahead.

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This is such an in-depth yet easy to understand breakdown of the 12 days of Yule and Nordic traditions. Thank you! I’ve definitely learned something new with this as it isn’t my usual way of celebrating. :heart: I appreciate the work you put into this for everyone!

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Merry Meet @Amaris_Bane,

Thank you for this in depth look at Nordic traditions! As someone fairly new to the different Deities and relating cultural traditions, this was fascinating and mind expanding, which I love! Very cool.

Be well,

~Amber

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This is awesome! Thank you @Amaris_Bane :clap: I am going to save this for my BOS. My wedding anniversary is ‘Oath day’ 31st :wink:

:butterfly:

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@Amaris_Bane such great information for Yule. Saving and will try to follow. Interesting that I cleaned my house today :blush::broom::woman_mage:

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I love this, @Amaris_Bane thank you so much! :heart:

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This is great, thank you so much for sharing!

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You are most welcome everyone! I enjoy sharing my knowledge all most as much as I enjoy learning it.

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So glad they’re ya dat of skiing in there! This is a very cool sequence of events. So glad you shared this :honeybee:

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As someone who doesn’t work with the Norse Pantheon much, I really enjoyed the multiple ways that one could focus on the 12 Days of Yule- the deities, the virtues, and the month reflections. All such neat way to direct your Yuletide celebrations! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

A quick question, if I may- for the final month, is the goal to reflect on the previous year’s January or look ahead to the January that is coming?

Or perhaps, if we continue with the spiral idea from the other discussion, reflect on all Januarys (those that have been and will be)? :thinking:

Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together, @Amaris_Bane- I really enjoyed reading it, and I have a feeling that I will be referencing it often in the future! :heart::blush:

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I appreciate you compiling this list, as my daughter and I are taking a more focused approach to Yule this year!

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I am so grateful for this post and discussion! (Hi, I’ve been away for a couple months – life is being life again.)

I was just coming on now to see if anyone else ended up celebrating Yule / Solstice “late” … and here this is a whole calendar of honoring and celebrating, YAY!

Every year I tell myself, “next time I’ll be more organized with Solstice and Yule”… but this time of year is the busiest for my family / life.

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This is a good question, @BryWisteria! I couldn’t find specifics but I plan to do both. Reflect on last year while also planning for the new.

:raising_hand_woman::raising_hand_woman::raising_hand_woman::raising_hand_woman: I do this myself! This is my first year being fully organized. I’ve also been planning since Thanksgiving, lol.

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Thank you, Amaris! That seems fitting- the previous year feeds into the new one, all part of the never ending cycle of the months :blush:

Blessed celebrations for the remaining days of Yule! :heart::raised_hands:

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