One of the greatest duties of the believer in the gods and goddesses of the North is to keep the holy feasts, or blessings, of the year, which bring humans together with both the seasons of the Earth and the
might of the deities which is shown forth in the changes of the world. The holding of these feasts, alone or with a group, is one of the things that all Troth members have in common: it lies at the very heart
of the Northern religion. At our blessings, we meet with the gods and goddesses and with the spirits of our ancestors: we hallow ourselves together with the worlds around us.

The festivals of our forebears were largely based on the chief points of the agricultural year. Although most of us are no longer sowers and reapers of crops, the turning of the year that we see in the fields
also mirrors its turning within our souls and the worlds beyond. The fruitfulness that we plant and harvests that we bless are the fruitfulness and harvests of all our works in every aspect of life (and we do
not forget that those of us who do not tend the fields with our own hands still trust in their crops and the fruitfulness of farm-animals for our own food). The inner beings of our gods and goddesses have
not changed since the days of our forebears, nor have our souls; though our rites may be carried out in different ways sometimes, we do not forget the roots from which they sprang. Each ritual is a
transformation of soul as well as of the earth; each ritual brings forth in this world and in our hearts the changes which take place in the great worlds about us, with the blessing of the gods, goddesses, and
spirits. Further, as rites embodying our love and worship for the natural world, these rituals also help to keep the balance of storm and Sun, Earth and sea - which, if not supported, tilts and leads to natural
disasters such as droughts, earthquakes, and floods.

The greatest blessings of the Germanic year were Winternights (end of harvest/fall slaughtering festival, early to mid-October), Yule (Midwinter), and the feast held at the beginning of the summer half of the
year (probably spring equinox in Germany and England, closer to May Day in Scandinavia). Though Midsummer is not spoken of as a festival in Norse sources, its great importance in folk practice
throughout the Germanic world hints that it, too, was seen as one of the greater feasts.

As well as these, there are several other blessings which were more local in character. These included the Icelandic Thorrabl—t, the Swedish Disting, and the festival held at the beginning of harvest in
Germany and England, known under the christian church as 'Loaf-Mass'.

From these, we have worked out a general calendar of chief blessings. This is not a re-creation of the feasts held at any given time by any particular Germanic tribe, but rather a compilation of those which
seem to have been most important through most of the Northern world. It is also not some kind of "orthodox liturgy; as in the elder days, some folk may keep certain feasts and not others, or hold them at
different times or in different ways: what matters is not precise time or ritual, but that our god/esses and forebears are hailed together with the turning of the Earth and the worlds around us.

Traditional Blessings:

Yule - Dates for this vary, but it is generally agreed to have lasted twelve or thirteen nights (the German Weihnachten - 'holy nights'). Most Troth members hold the feast during the span from the Winter
Solstice to New Years'; however, there is evidence that it may sometimes have taken place slightly later in the year. In England, 'Old Twelfth Night' was January 17th, while in Norway, the season was
considered to end on 'St. Knut's Day', January 13th.

Yule is the holiest of all the Germanic feasts. The name is too old for its meaning to be easily traced, but the most common guesses derive it from a root meaning 'wheel', perhaps related to the wheel of the
Sun herself, as seen by the sun-wheels which were sometimes burnt in Germany as part of folk-festivities at this time. Yule is the season at which the gods and goddesses are closest to Midgard: our deities
were called 'Yule-Beings' by the Norse, a title which survived among the Lapps at least until 1674; and Odin himself is called 'J—lnir', 'Yule-One'. Yule is also the season during which the dead return to earth
and share the feasts of the living. Elves, trolls, and other magical beings roam freely at this time, and must either be warded off or invited to come in friendship and peace. Yule is the time of the year at which
the Wild Hunt - Wodan's host of the restless dead - rides most fiercely; it is dangerous to meet them, but gifts of food and drink are left out for them, for they can also bring blessing and fruitfulness.

Yule is also the border-time between years at which fates are set. It was the practice in Norse Heathen times to swear oaths on a hallowed boar (the living emblem of Frey and/or Freya). This survived in
Swedish folk-custom; a large boar-shaped bread or block of wood covered with pigskin was brought forth at Yule for this purpose through the beginning of this century, and boar-cakes are used for
Yule-oaths by most Heathens today. Especially meaningful oaths were also sworn on the horn or cup while drinking at the Yule-feast. The 'New Year's Resolution' is probably a somewhat diminished form
of the holy Yule-oath.

The fir- or pine-tree which is carried into the house and decorated is a German custom, brought to America by German immigrants, England by its German royal house, and reaching Scandinavia only at the
end of the last century. The tree on which holy gifts are hung was Heathen in origin; in Germany, those who kept the old custom hid it inside lest their neighbors notice, but in England and Scandinavia, the
trees and various wights got their gifts outside. In those latter countries, it was a candlelit and ribbon-bedecked wreath, the ring of which may have reflected the holy oath-ring or the Yule sun-wheel, that
was traditionally brought in to decorate the home.

The Yule-log is also an old Heathen custom. This log was supposed to burn all night during the longest night of the year to symbolize life lasting even in the time of greatest darkness, its fire rekindling the
Sun in the morning. Its ashes or pieces were used as protective amulets during the rest of the year. Troth folk today who lack large fireplaces often use 24-hour candles instead.

The first night of Yule is called Mothernights, according to the Anglo-Saxon chronicler Bede, and Frigga and the disir (female ancestral spirits) are especially worshipped on this night. At the end of the
Yule season, trolls and other such beings are ritually chased out of the house to mark the return to ordinary life.

Thorrabl—t (the Blessing of Thorri) - an Icelandic feast reinstituted in the 19th century, taking place near the end of January. 'Thorri' (not related to Thor, despite the seeming likeness of name) seems to
have been an Icelandic winter-god; his wife, G—a, represents the coming mildness of spring. In Iceland, this is held as a holiday celebrating traditional Icelandic culture, at which folk-foods such as h‡karl
(rotted Greenlandic shark, every bit as delicious as it sounds), sheep's-head, and fermented whale blubber are eaten, and much brenniv’n (Icelandic schnapps) is drunk, by Icelanders bent on showing that
they are as tough as their Viking ancestors.

Modern Heathens, however, often hold this date as the 'Feast of Thor', since it is in late January that Thor's help is most needed against the frost giants and the darkness of mood that comes over folk at this
time of year.

Disting - also called 'Charming of the Plough' after the Anglo-Saxon spell/ceremony. Recorded as a regular feast only in Sweden, this blessing takes place in early or mid-February. The name means 'Thing
(assembly) of the Goddesses'. In Sweden, it was apparently the first public moot/fair of the year; in Denmark, this is the time when the first furrows were ploughed in the field (an activity much hedged
about with folk custom). This is a feast of new beginnings, at which the work of the year to come is blessed.

Ostara - In England and Germany, this feast probably took place sometime between the spring equinox and the following full moon - the beginning of the summer half of the year. It is named after the
goddess Ostara (Anglo-Saxon Eostre), who was so much a part of early English culture that the christian spring feast, according to the Venerable Bede (a christian chronicler with no reason to invent
Heathen goddesses), took its name from her. Her name is related to the Germanic words for 'east' and 'glory'; she was probably the embodiment of the springtime. She was known only to the Anglo-Saxons
and Germans, not the Scandinavians, who called the feast at the beginning of summer 'sigrbl—t' (victory-blessing). Since there is so much overlap of folk-tradition between this feast and the May Day
festivities, it is quite possible that May Day could have been the summer-feast in the colder Scandinavian climate.

Heathen folk customs associated especially with Ostara's feast include the painting and hunting of Easter eggs, which, according to German tradition, were brought or laid by the 'Easter Hare' (the earliest
form of the slightly diminished American 'Easter Bunny'). Diana Paxson suggests that the Hare was the holy beast of Ostara, slain and eaten only at her blessing; in Germany, bakeries sell hare-shaped cakes
at this time of year. Fires were also kindled on the hilltops at dawn, especially in Germany.

Another common folk-custom which still survives in rural areas is the performance of plays at which Summer battles with Winter and drives him out, or at which an effigy embodying Winter is beaten,
burned, or drowned.

Today, Ostara is seen as the feast of awakening - for the Earth, the gods and goddesses, and the human soul. Life becomes brighter and more joyful after the Ostara feast has been rightly held.

Waluburg's Night - no true Germanic Heathen name survives for May Eve; the German Walpurgisnacht is derived from the well-documented christian St. Walpurga. In order to avoid confusion, and
because no better name survives, the Troth has replaced 'Walpurga' with the name of the second-century Germanic seeress 'Waluburg'.

This festival marks the beginning of summer in Scandinavia. In all the Germanic countries, it is seen as a time when witches are particularly active, a belief memorialized in Goethe's description of the
witch-moot on the Brocken (Faust, Act I) and Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain". It is also a night of love: young men are expected to go out into the woods to gather green branches and
wildflowers with which they decorate the windows of their beloveds (the Germanic equivalent of Valentine's Day). For both these reasons, Heathens consider Freya to be the ruler of this festival, as she is
mistress of both witchcraft and love.

The traditional 'Maypole' or 'May Tree' is also a part of the celebration of this feast; in Scandinavia, the 'May Tree' is carried about in processions, a practice which probably goes back to the Vanic
fruitfulness-procession of earliest Heathen times.

Fires were kindled on gravemounds or other high places on this night; it is traditional for folk to leap through the flames for luck. A fire kindled by friction (the 'need-fire') might also be used to protect cattle
against illness or cure them.

Midsummer - this feast is held on the eve of the summer solstice (June 20-21). Folk traditions include the making of wreaths, the kindling of fires, the burning of a corn dolly (human figure made out of
straw), and the adornment of fields, barns, and houses with greenery. Since the Icelandic Thing (judgement-moot) was held in the summertime, modern Heathens see Midsummer as particularly a time to
make blessings to Tŕr and Forseti, the gods of justice. Model Viking-ships are also sometimes made out of paper or thin wood, filled with small flammable offerings, and burned at this time. 

Midsummer is the high point of the year, the time when deeds are brightest and the heart is most daring. This is the time when our Viking forebears, having got their crops safely planted, sailed off to do
battle in other lands. It is a time for action and risk, for reaching fearlessly outward.

Loaf-Feast - again, no purely Heathen name has survived for this festival, which takes place at the beginning of August, roughly corresponding to the Celtic Lughnasad (July 31-August 1). The christian
name in England was 'Loaf-Mass' (Scots 'Lammas'), as this was the time when the first fruits of harvest were brought to the church as gifts; since this may well have been taken over from Heathen custom,
the festival is called 'Loaf-Feast' today.

In English and German custom, the First Sheaf was often bound and blessed as an offering to Heathen deities or the spirits of the field at the beginning of harvest, just as the Last Sheaf was at its end.
English folk custom also includes the decoration of wells and springs at this time. In Heathenism today, the feast is especially thought of as holy to Thor as a harvest-god and his wife Sif, whose long golden
hair can be seen in the rippling fields of ripe grain.

The warriors who had gone off to fight at the end of planting season came back at this time, loaded with a summer's worth of plunder and ready to reap the crops that had ripened while they were gone.
Loaf-Feast is the end of the summer's vacation, the beginning of a time of hard work which lasts through the next two or three months, while we ready ourselves for the winter.

Winternights - in Iceland, this feast was held (roughly) around the 12th-15th of October. The Anglo-Saxons called it "Winter Full-Moon", suggesting that they kept it on the first full moon after the
autumnal equinox. Winternights marked the end of harvest and the time when the animals that were not expected to make it through the winter were butchered and smoked or made into sausage. The festival
is also called "Elf-Blessing", "Dis-Blessing", or "Frey-Blessing", which tells us that it was especially a time of honouring the ancestral spirits, the spirits of the land, the Vanir, and the powers of fruitfulness,
wisdom, and death. It marks the turning of the year from summer to winter, the turning of our awareness from outside to inside. Among the Norse, the ritual was often led by the woman of a family - the
ruler of the house and all within.

One of the commonest harvest customs of the Germanic people was the hallowing and leaving of the "Last Sheaf" in the field, often for Odin and/or his host of the dead, though the specifics of the custom
vary considerably over its wide range. The Wild Hunt begins to ride after Winternights, and the roads and fields no longer belong to humans, but to ghosts and trolls.

The Winternights feast is also especially seen as a time to celebrate our kinship and friendship with both the living and our earlier forebears. It marks the beginning of the long dark wintertime at which
memory becomes more important than foresight, at which old tales are told and great deeds are toasted as we ready ourselves for the spring to come. It is a time to think of accomplishments achieved and
those which have yet to be made. Winternights also marks the beginning of a time of indoors-work, of thought and craftsmanship.

Lesser Feasts; Days of Remembrance

There are a number of lesser feasts or holy days that Heathens of modern time keep, as well as holding the traditional ones. Most of these are "Days of Remembrance" for great heroes and heroines of
Northen Heathenry; a few are modern holiday adapted for Heathen practice.

January 9 - Remembrance for Raud the Strong (a Norwegian chieftain whom Olaf Tryggvason killed for refusing to convert. The end of a metal horn was put down Raud's throat; a poisonous snake was
then put into the horn and the other end heated to drive it along...).

February 9 - Remembrance for Eyvind kinnrifi (whom Olaf Tryggvason tortured to death when he refused to convert, by putting a metal brazier filled with burning coals on his belly).

February 14 - Folk etymology has led to this day being called 'Feast of Vali' in modern Asatru. Actually, St. Valentine has no demonstrable associations with Vali, nor to the thinly disguised Pagan
Lupercalia rites which take place on this day. Nevertheless, many Heathens make blessing to this god at this time.

March 28 - Ragnar Lodbrok's day, when we celebrate this famous Viking's sack of Paris.

April 9 - Remembrance for Haakon Sigurdsson (Haakon the Great), one of the Jarls of Hladhir, a great defender of Heathenism in Norway during the brutal period of conversion.

May 9 - Remembrance for Gudrod of Gudbrandsdal, whose tongue was cut out by the Norwegian king 'St. Olaf' (not to be confused with Olaf Tryggvason despite the similarity of names and methods. St.
Olaf, otherwise known as 'Olaf the Fat' or 'Olaf the Big-Mouthed', was canonized for his efforts to convert Norway by slaughter and torture).

Memorial Day - Celebrated as 'Einherjar Day', in which the fallen heroes in Valhall are remembered.

June 9 - Remembrance for Sigurd the Dragonslayer (known in German versions of the story as Siegfried).

July 9 - Remembrance for Unn the Deep-Minded, a woman who was one of the great chieftains of the Icelandic settlement.

July 29 - death-date of Olaf the Fat.

August 9 - Remembrance for King Radbod of Frisia, who, standing at the baptismal font, changed his mind and refused conversion when told that his place in the christian Heaven would mean his
separation from the souls of his ancestors.

September 9 - Remembrance for Hermann the Cheruscan, embodiment of German freedom, who kept Germany from being over-run by the Romans and suffering destruction of their culture and language
such as was experienced by occupied Celtic Gaul.

October 28 - Remembrance for Erik the Red.

Columbus Day - Remembrance for Leif Eriksson and his sister Freydis Eriksdottir, leaders of the earliest European settlement in America.

November 9 - Remembrance for Queen Sigrid of Sweden. Wooed by Olaf Tryggvason, the relationship ended sharply when she told him that she had no intention of leaving the gods of her fathers and he
slapped her across the face. She was the chief arranger of the alliance that brought him down.

Thanksgiving - Weyland Smith's Day, celebrating the greatest of Germanic craftsmen.

December 9 - Remembrance for Egill Skallagrimsson, great Viking Age poet, warrior, and rune-magician.

Other Blessings:

In addition to the yearly feasts, there are a number of rites of passage which we celebrate as holy. These include birth; the man-making or woman-making at puberty; marriage; and death. They are generally
community, or at least family, rituals. All of these rites are largely based on folk tradition; much Heathenry survived in the customs surrounding birth, marriage, and death in the more rural areas of the
Northern world. The central rite of birth is the name-giving, whereby the child is accepted into the family line and given a soul and fate. For marriage, the central rite is the swearing of oaths before the
god/esses and folk and the hallowing of the bride with the Hammer. The chief rites of death include the wake by the dead and the drinking of the memorial ale after the funeral, as well as the cremation or
burial itself. For those not born into the Troth, we also have a ritual slightly adapted from the customary name- and soul-giving of the birth-rites, by which someone wishing to declare him/herself for the
Northern way may either be brought into the ring of a group or hallow her/himself alone before the gods and goddesses.

Special blessings are sometimes held at need, either to ask the holy folk for help or to thank them for giving help: to Eir, goddess of healing, regarding serious illness or injury; to Thor for bravery,
protection, and help while travelling or in case of storms; to Odin for inspiration and victory; and so forth. 

There are also the small daily blessings of our lives. Of these, the making of the Hammer-sign to hallow food and/or drink is the most common. Some folk bless the Sun at midday or at her four stations
(dawn, midday, sunset, and midnight). The welcoming of a guest or friend into one's house, especially at a holy feast, is marked by the ritual offering of drink (alcoholic or non-) and the blessing of the host
by the guest. Milk, beer, and/or porridge are often put out for the little spirit (variously known as kobold, tomte, or nisse, similar to the Scottish brownie) who looks after the house and family. Many folks
make a small toast to a god or goddess whenever they lift a drink.

How Blessings are Made:

The ways by which Troth members hold our blessings are not set as doctrine, and vary according to what is possible for a given group at a given time. However, there are certain elements which are very
frequently found in our members' rites. The main holy tools we use are a Hammer (used for cleansing and blessing; represents the Hammer of Thor); a drinking horn (the horn is seen as both more
traditional and more holy than a cup); a blessing-bowl into which drink is poured; and a blessing-twig for sprinkling. The most traditional form of altar is an outdoors cairn of stones or large boulder, but
small wooden cabinets, tables, or mantlepieces are often used for indoors workings. Some folk center their rites around god-images of wood or clay, just as our forebears often did. These make good focuses
when they can be found or made, but they are not necessary; it is enough simply to call the names of the god/esses and feel them around us.

Troth rituals are usually written in "Saxon English"; that is, an English vocabulary based on words with Germanic roots. A few folk prefer Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse as a liturgical language, but the Troth
as a whole holds that since the worship of the Northern gods and goddesses is the root of the English-speaking world's heritage, there is no need for us either to try to turn back in time or to look to other
languages (even closely-related ones) for our holy speech. Our preferred poetic forms are those of traditional Germanic poetry such as that found in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf or the Norse Poetic
Edda, which use stressed alliterative syllables rather than end-rhyme.

Our rites can be done by anyone; the only things for which official Troth clergy status might possibly needed are those ceremonies regulated in some way by the government, such as marriage (and
organizational recognition as a minister is not even required for that purpose in all states). Although many of our published rituals are written for groups, they can easily be adapted for the solo worker as
well. There is little emphasis on sexual polarity of the sort that some other Pagan religions use, and nearly all roles can be carried out by a worker of either gender.

Ritual garb is not always work in Troth ceremonies. Some folk prefer to dress in modern clothing marked out only by a Thor's-Hammer or similar piece of jewelry showing their troth, based on the
understanding that the Troth is a religion for the folk and life of today. Others choose to wear traditional Northern garb, usually reconstructed from the Viking Age or the late Iron Age, as a sign of their
oneness with their forebears and to set the holy feast apart as a special event. These kinds of things are left up to the individual or group.

To begin a rite, we usually start with a brief hallowing of the place where the ritual is being held, done by swinging a Hammer towards each of the directions and calling on Thor to bless the place and drive
out all wights of woe. This does not form an unbreakable magical circle; it merely sets the place apart as a hallowed stead where only beings of good will can pass in and out. The hallowing is followed by an
invocation to whatever gods and goddesses are best suited to the ritual. After this, other activities depend on the rite, the folk, and the circumstances: for instance, a fire might be kindled for Ostara,
Waluburg's Night, or Midsummer; the holy boar-bread carried around for oath-swearing at Yule, the Last Sheaf brought forth at Winternights, and so forth. Someone may read or retell a myth or tale suitable
to the rite, especially if it is being held as a memorial; short ritual dramas (such as the battle between Summer and Winter, or dramatized exerpts from Norse myths) are sometimes performed.

In the old days, the slaughtering of the animal whose flesh provided the holy feast was an important part of ritual. The blood was caught in a bowl and the folk and temple sprinkled with it; it was then
poured out for the gods and goddesses. This was not done simply to please the holy ones with blood; rather, the animals slain were usually those that would have had to be killed anyway at the autumnal
slaughtering or slain to provide food for a large feast. Instead of a reason for killing in itself, the sacrifice was the hallowing of a necessary slaying.

In modern times, since very few of us live on farms where we do our own butchering, this has been largely replaced with a rite that is easier for most folk today to perform (and can also be worked by those
who may object to slaying food animals on moral grounds, or feel that the religion, the god/esses, and we ourselves has grown past the point where living sacrifices are needed). We fill a drinking horn with
mead or ale and pass it around, each person sipping from it. When the horn has made its round, what is left is poured into the bowl in place of the blood of earlier times, sprinkled on the gathered folk, and
then poured out on the Earth or left to stand on the altar as our gift. The drinking and sprinkling are often limited to those folk who are members of the group, or at least to those who are known to be true to
the gods and goddesses of the North. Sometimes, especially at Winternights, an animal made out of bread is also brought forth and symbolically 'killed' over the blessing-bowl as a reminder of the sacrifices
made by our forebears and the gifts of life given to us by all the animals whose flesh we eat during the year.

Rituals are usually followed by feasts at which we renew our friendship and kinship with each other and the god/esses and ghosts who, unseen, share our rites and the joy of our celebrations. Since ale and
mead are very much a part of the Germanic tradition of feasting, Troth hosts are expected to make sure beforehand that all their guests who plan on vigorous merrymaking have safe rides home or can stay
overnight.

Another usual element of Troth events, which can be done either separately from the main rite or as a part of it, is the ritual known as symbel. During this rite, the horn is passed around the circle of folk
three times. In the first round, each person makes a toast to a god, goddess, or other holy being. The second is the round of memory, where each person toasts a hero or ancestor. The third round can be
drunk to whoever or whatever one wills. This is the round at which boasts of deeds carried out and oaths are often made. Symbel was the time at which our Northern forebears showed off their-word-craft,
the skills of making poems and singing which were prized so highly in Germanic culture; and thus it is today. Words spoken during symbel are especially powerful, for the horn of holy drink is seen as the
earthly embodiment of the Well of Wyrd, where all fates are laid; an oath made on the horn must be fulfilled, and careless words spoken while toasting often lead to disaster. If the symbel is done as part of
a rite, the drink left in the horn after each round is usually poured into the blessing-bowl and the horn refilled. Otherwise, it is simply refilled as necessary and drained on the last round.