Most Neopagans celebrate eight holytides a year, commemorating the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days.  Many Heathens, especially those who started off in some form of Wicca or Neopaganism, continue to celebrate eight holidays.  There are many Asatruar who criticise using a holytide calendar based on the equinoxes and cross-quarter days besides the solstices.  They will mention there were only three major blótar a year in Iceland.  They are correct.  For a Norse Asatruar, if you are modeling your holytide observances on the calendar of Iceland you should not have more than three holidays: Yule, the Summer Solstice, and Winternights.

However, while I cannot speak for all Vanatruar, a fair number of us are Anglo-Saxon Pagans - the Angles were Ingvaeones, so England is essentially "Ing's Land" and the culture is very Vanic.  Most of the Anglo-Saxon Pagans I know celebrate eight holidays:

•    Yuletide - Winter Solstice to New Year's Day
•    Charming of the Plough - around February 2nd
•    Eostre - Spring Equinox
•    Walpurgisnacht, May Day - April 30th/May 1st
•    Midsummer - Summer Solstice
•    Lammas/Loaf-Fest - around August 1st
•    Harvest/Winterfinding- the Fall Equinox
•    Hallows/Winterfylleþ - late October

The observance of Charming of the Plough, Eostre, May Day, Lammas, Harvest Home, and Hallows are all English folk holidays and most seem to originate in the time of the pagan Anglo-Saxons.   More to the point, these holidays neatly line up with the equinoxes and cross-quarter days of the Neopagan calendar, and also neatly line up with a Vanic-focused cosmology which is based in the changing of the seasons particularly as it relates to the agricultural (or horticultural) year, and the way the life of the community revolves around those seasonal changes.

Yet, herein lies the conundrum.  The Vanir are the Germanic Gods of nature - the Powers of the Land.  To honor the Vanir with the changing seasons is a worthy thing, and to celebrate the days the arch-Heathens celebrated is to tap into the same awareness that brought these Gods forth into consciousness, and to give worth to the elders whom without we would not exist.  Celebrating the solar cycle commemorates the ties between Vanaheim and Middle-Earth – “as above, so below”.   But, few of the people who are reading this article live in Northern Europe (Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands, and England).  The holytides of the Icelanders, Anglo-Saxons, and other Germanic tribes were based on the seasonal changes of the land where they lived, not dates set in stone.  Ergo, Winternights in September/October in Iceland really does feel like winter, but in the southwest US the sting of winter is nary to be seen.  Indeed, many of this site's readers will be living in North America, and while some parts of North America are similar in topography and climate to Northern Europe - most notably New England, which is very similar to England yet not entirely the same - there are other parts which are as far removed as one can get from Northern Europe and still be on the same planet.  The seasons don't turn in the same way.  Where I live in Southern California, there is no snow on the ground at Yule; it's somewhere in the 70s F and nobody is afraid of freezing, let alone starving.  The last thing I want to do at Midsummer is hail Sunne over a bonfire - give me an ice cube!

How, then, does one honor the Powers of the Land through the changes of the Land, without completely chucking familiar celebrations and going against the traditions of our ancestors?

I have long pondered this question, and ways to make things work.  I think there are a couple of options.

The first is to look at parallels in the seasonal changes where you are, to theme of the holiday, even if it doesn't line up neatly with the seasonal changes of Northern Europe.

For example, the holiday of Midsummer traditionally celebrates the longest day of the year and the life-giving power of the Sun, and often with festivities such as a bonfire.  Where I live, I like to celebrate Midsummer at the ocean, rather than in front of a bonfire.  But it's still a reminder that the Sun does good things - in this case it makes the ocean warm enough to be comfortable, and certain local fruits and vegetables are in season.  Midsummer is a good day to honor the vitality of Frey and the life that He gives us, the light that He gives us to enjoy life and give one another good cheer.

I honor Lammas as the day when Frey is sacrificed each year, His life given to the land in exchange for taking up the harvest, a gift for a gift.  The death sting of Lammas is especially felt where I live, as there is high heat, often drought and fires.  Frey dies so the land may live, sacrificed to feed the land and protect it against disaster.

Yule is traditionally about the return of the Sun, and the promise that even in the dead of winter, the days will eventually grow longer and give way to spring.  Where I live, Yule is about mild weather, sometimes rain, but a time where instead of drought and fire, the Land is nourished, and regenerates.  It is still about rebirth, but in a different way.

Ewemeolc is the height of the rainy season in Southern California.  It also falls around my birthday, so it is a good time to honor Nerthus as She drinks in the rain and becomes lush and green, full with the promise of new life.

Eostre marks the end of the rainy season and the beginning of longer days and warmer weather.  The land-spirits become more active.

At May Day, there are many baby animals out and about - birds, lizards, squirrels, kittens.  My garden is blooming, and you can feel the power of fertility in the air.

As you can see, these are the ways I modify my perceptions of the different stations on the wheel of the year, to keep the traditional holidays while honoring the Powers of the Land in a way appropriate to the subtle changes the Land makes where I live.

In other cases, sometimes severe weather conditions during the seasons will prohibit doing the rite as traditionally scheduled.  Where some people live, doing Charming of the Plough in February is not feasible because there is still snow on the ground, and often more coming in.  Thus, it makes sense to push this rite ahead to when the snow stops and the planting season is about to begin, in March, April, or even May.  Those who live in the Southern Hemisphere may decide out of necessity to do their holidays in reverse - so Yule is held in June instead of December, Eostre is in September instead of March, and so on.

In yet other cases, the holiday may observe a season that doesn't really exist and finding parallels for what is going on with the land v. the theme of the holiday can be difficult if not impossible.  When I first moved to Southern California, I tried in earnest to observe the holytides associated with the spring and fall - however where I live you don't have spring and fall, there is rather a cool rainy season (December-March) and a season of heat and drought (by degrees) from April-November.  The land is very far removed from what it is like in Northern Europe.

For the nearly fifteen years I have been Pagan, I've had a problem with Hallows, a holytide I don't really "get".  I feel like a fraud doing a holiday based on connecting with (and hoping for visitations by) the ancestors when I know for a fact I'm headblind with the dead and I give the ancestors honor every day, not just on Hallows.  Others get a major charge off it, but I think it's better not to do a ritual at all than do one half-heartedly and grudgingly, and reserve that energy to expend on the holytides most meaningful and relevant to one's spiritual practice.  So, until I see a good reason to do so, Hallows is omitted from my seasonal observances.  That brings me to another important point: sometimes a holiday may not be personally relevant, and not worth celebrating.

That said,  Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is observed by the locals at the end of October/beginning of November, and a number of its customs are based in indigenous pagan traditions, so there does seem to be a connection between Hallows and the land here.  I have noticed September/October is the peak of the Santa Ana winds, which raise the temperature, make everything dirty, and have some legends attached to them, including the urban legend that the homicide rate goes up when the Santa Anas blow.  I decided in the interest of keeping some tradition, to observe Winterfylleth at the beginning of October - literally "Winterfilth" - where it gets filthy in preparation for the rains of winter.  While Eostre six months prior is celebrating with the land spirits, Winterfylleth to me is more about appeasing them, including the Santa Anas which are known to also carry risk of fire.

I would encourage those who read this to have a close enough relationship with the land where you live, that you notice even subtle details in the way the flora and fauna behave, the way the weather affects the land and by extension the people and their activities.  This involves spending time outside, in fair and foul weather, and just noticing what is going on. For those of us who honor the Gods of the World especially, we cannot truly know Them unless we know the world where we live.  So, this is an important spiritual discipline not just for the right practice of holidays, but for having right relationships with the Vanir, Themselves.


© 2009 Svartesól.