Much of our information about festivals observed in Northern tradition is derived from Icelandic sources.
The festivals mentioned in these sources, however, are largely of an exoteric nature and involved the whole community.
 Of these, there were three main festivals: Thorriblot at Yuletide, Siggiblot in spring, before they went "a-viking," and a harvest festival in which any surplus animals were sacrificed.
Festivals were more or less in accordance with the English calendar, in which the solstices and equinoxes are celebrated. For this reason I have chosen to adhere to this
tradition and have constructed a system of festivals in keeping with the well-known eight pagan festivals, which are combined with appropriate runes in futhark order and related to the Northern myths. This is then superimposed on the yearly calendar.
Starting with the third aett, which for this purpose can be regarded as the first aett, the first three runes (namely Teiwaz, Berkana and Ehwaz) correspond to the first pagan festival of spring, the spring equinox. This festival of birth corresponds to the runes when applied in the following manner: Teiwaz as the Skyfather, Berkana the Earthmother, and Ehwaz as the newborn life, like the foal, born in spring. A ritual could then be constructed along these lines.
 The next festival is known in England as Beltane and in German tradition as Walpurgis night. Beltane or Walpurgis night was sacred to Freya, and the runes corresponding to it are Mannaz, Laguz and Inguz; Mannaz represents the intellect, Laguz the intuition and Inguz the integration of the two. Mannaz also means "men," whereas Inguz
is female; Laguz then is the force of attraction between these two polarities. This can be symbolically enacted in a ritual
featuring the sacred marriage between the God and the Goddess, or the Lord and the Lady within the framework of the Northern
mythology. The oldest Germanic tradition used Wodan and Frija. Also, any pair of twins, like Niord and Nerthus or Frey and
Freya, are suitable for this sort of ritual |
