L and I have been talking a LOT about what we want to do in terms of holidays with our kids lately. In addition to the regular American holidays, we plan on spending a little bit of time talking about celebrations from other cultures: Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan in the fall, for example.
We seem to have hit an impasse, however, when it comes to trying to figure out *what*, exactly, the Norse and Germanic peoples celebrated. Asatru calendars (examples[url=http://odinsvolk.ca/O.V.A.%20-%20SACRED%20CALENDER.htm] here[/url2], here and here) seem to vary dramatically in content and intent based on the individual group in question.
I can't fault them for that...they are building a tradition that works for them, personally. A great deal of the content, though, often seems to be a meshing of Norse content with Celtic-influenced sources (particularly things like dividing the year into quarters).
On the other hand, in this article, the Viking answer lady claims that the Norse broke up the year into three seasons, not four, which makes sense in a very cold climate like Scandinavia (or, say, Idaho ). In her research, the beginning of winter was celebrated in what is now October, Yule celebrations were most likely moved from January to December to sync up with Christianity, and the beginning of spring was celebrated in May or June.
All in all, it seems to me that there wasn't so much attention to a solar or lunar calendar as there was in other places. It makes me wonder whether the focus was an event, rather then a day(for example, the first snowfall).
This makes me rather curious what others on here do in terms of holidays, if anything at all. Do you celebrate based on a specific date? Do you follow a quarter year calendar, or a three season model? Do you celebrate privately, without any specific link to season, and otherwise simply observe traditional cultural holidays?
We seem to have hit an impasse, however, when it comes to trying to figure out *what*, exactly, the Norse and Germanic peoples celebrated. Asatru calendars (examples[url=http://odinsvolk.ca/O.V.A.%20-%20SACRED%20CALENDER.htm] here[/url2], here and here) seem to vary dramatically in content and intent based on the individual group in question.
I can't fault them for that...they are building a tradition that works for them, personally. A great deal of the content, though, often seems to be a meshing of Norse content with Celtic-influenced sources (particularly things like dividing the year into quarters).
On the other hand, in this article, the Viking answer lady claims that the Norse broke up the year into three seasons, not four, which makes sense in a very cold climate like Scandinavia (or, say, Idaho ). In her research, the beginning of winter was celebrated in what is now October, Yule celebrations were most likely moved from January to December to sync up with Christianity, and the beginning of spring was celebrated in May or June.
All in all, it seems to me that there wasn't so much attention to a solar or lunar calendar as there was in other places. It makes me wonder whether the focus was an event, rather then a day(for example, the first snowfall).
This makes me rather curious what others on here do in terms of holidays, if anything at all. Do you celebrate based on a specific date? Do you follow a quarter year calendar, or a three season model? Do you celebrate privately, without any specific link to season, and otherwise simply observe traditional cultural holidays?
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