How to Celebrate Vetrnætr/Winter Nights for Modern Heathens

Winter Nights begins on the first full moon after the Autumn Equinox and lasts three days. This places Winter Nights starting on October 17th and ending on October 19th, 2024. Using the Eddas, archeological research, and historical records, Winter Nights included three blots, or sacrifices: Alfablót, Disablót, and Haustblót. 

Alfablót and Disablót were believed to be celebrated more privately while Haustblót was a community event. There is some suggestion that Disablót was also celebrated publically, and in some parts of the world, it still is. I, however, have chosen to make this a private celebration. Alfablót and Disablót are both celebrations of our ancestors, local spirits, and deities, each focusing on a different group. Alfablót celebrates our male ancestors, spirits, and Álfar, while Disablót celebrates our female ancestors, spirits, and Dísir. Haustblót, on the other hand, is more of a thanksgiving to celebrate the abundance of the final harvests, give thanks, and honor the spirits and deities that made such a bountiful harvest possible. One last hurrah before the cold sets in and the earth withers.

Modern Heathens can celebrate Winter Nights (Vetrnætr) in various ways that honor both traditional Norse customs and contemporary pagan practices. As with any celebration, your rituals, feasts, and sacrifices should be personal. If there is an ancestor you do not wish to work with and celebrate, don't. You are not required to include problematic ancestors in your rites and rituals. If you are unable to have a bonfire, light a candle or turn on a video of a fireplace burning. Don't eat meat (like myself) or drink alcohol, and therefore don't feel comfortable buying it as a sacrifice? Offer a hearty mushroom and root vegetable stew or grape juice instead. Your celebration methods are valid, even if they aren't "historically" accurate. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

With that said, how can you celebrate Winter Nights? I have broken this list down into what you can do each night, starting with Alfablót and ending with Haustblót. There is significant overlap between Alfablót and Disablót as they are very similar holy tides, so I have grouped them up for this list and made a note if an idea is better suited for one or the other.

Alfablót and Disablót

Honoring the Álfar and Dísir

1. Honor Your Male & Female Ancestors with Offerings 

Honor your ancestors by preparing a special meal and offering food and drink to them. You can create a small altar with photos or symbols of your ancestors and leave offerings such as mead, bread, or seasonal foods. Hold a blót (sacrificial rite), symbolically offering food or drink to the gods, spirits, and ancestors, and share a portion with them. 

Offering Ideas: Mead, bread, smoked meats, hearty vegetable stew, or honningkaker (honey cake/cookie)

2. Light a Sacred Fire or Candle 

Light a fire or candles to represent the transition from light to darkness as the days grow shorter. Fire is symbolic of protection and warmth, driving away the cold and spirits of the dark season. Sit around the fire for storytelling, sharing tales of ancestors or myths from Norse sagas. 

Alternative Ideas: If you cannot light a fire or candle, use an oil warmer or space heater, or pull up a video of a fireplace.

3. Peform Rituals for the Álfar & Dísir 

Honor the Álfar, protective male spirits or ancestors, and the Dísir, protective female spirits or ancestors. This was traditionally done with offerings of food, drink, or symbols of respect. A quiet, reflective ritual for each can be held to seek their guidance and protection throughout the winter months.

Ritual suggestion: Cleanse and clear a space for your working. Set up a simple altar with images of your ancestors, spirit guides, and deities. Light a candle and invite your ancestors to join you in your ritual. Ask them for guidance and protection and to send you messages through the flame of your candle. Focus on the candle flame and record any visions or insights you receive. Leave an offering of thanks for their assistance and guidance.

4. Cast Runes during Disablót

Practice divination by casting runes to gain insight into the coming winter or to seek guidance for the season ahead. Ask questions about your future, challenges, or personal growth during the dark season. Divination is particularly powerful during Disablót because such a practice was considered "women's work" and because the Dísir include the Norns (the Fates) and Freya (goddess of divination and magic).

Runic Spread Suggestions: Three Norns Spread (Past Actions, What Will Likely Happen, Influencing You Now) or Runic V (7 rune spread).

5. Meditation and Quiet Reflection 

Set aside time for meditation or quiet reflection on the shifting seasons, your connection to nature, and your place in the cycle of life and death. This can be done outdoors or at an altar, focusing on the themes of transformation, survival, and rebirth.

6. Reflect on Cycles of Death and Rebirth 

Use Vetrnætr as a time to reflect on personal transformation. As winter symbolizes death and renewal, consider meditative rituals focused on releasing old habits, behaviors, or aspects of your life that no longer serve you, and setting intentions for growth.

Ritual Idea: To break a bad habit, combine chili powder, ginger, ground cinnamon, and rosemary to create an incense. Light a black candle and a charcoal disk. Add your incense to the charcoal disk. Take a flammable image or other flammable representative of your bad habit (such as a written description or cigarette) and tear it up. As you do so, visualize the bad habit leaving you for good. See yourself happy and healthy without the habit. Place the destroyed habit on top of your charcoal disk and incense and say, "I release this my bad habit of [insert habit name here]. I banish it from me to be rid of it forever and always. I am transformed and free, so it shall be." End your ritual by cleansing yourself with smoke or water. Allow the candle and charcoal to burn out completely. Bury the spell remains away from your home or throw it in the trash away from your home.

Haustblót

Celebrating the Final Harvest

7. Seasonal Feast with Family & Friends

Prepare a feast with seasonal foods, particularly hearty dishes like meat, root vegetables, and grains. Traditionally, this time marked the end of the harvest, so incorporating harvest themes into the meal is symbolic. Invite family, friends, or members of your kindred to share in the meal, fostering community, warmth, and gratitude.

8. Perform a Group Ritual Outdoors

If you have access to natural settings, consider hosting an outdoor ritual. Offer libations (such as mead or ale) and seasonal fruits or grains to the land spirits (landvættir), asking for their blessings during the winter months. Make a group sacrifice to say thanks to the land and gods for providing you and yours with such abundance and ask for their blessing and protection in the coming harsh, winter months.

Offering Ideas: Mead, ale, smoked meat, honey, apples, stew, bread, grains

9. Seasonal and Ancestral Crafting

Engage in seasonal crafting as part of your celebration. Making handmade items like rune sets, wool garments, or seasonal decorations can connect you to the traditions of your ancestors, who prepared for the harsh winter with practical and creative work. This is the perfect time to can, smoke, and otherwise prepare foods to store through the winter months.

Craft ideas: Make runes, can seasonal vegetables, prep freezer meals, tan hides, dry apples and oranges to make a garland, or decorate pinecones with peanut butter and seeds for wildlife.

10. Craft Seasonal Charms or Wards 

Create protective charms or wards to safeguard your home and family during the darker half of the year. These can be made from autumn herbs, plants, or natural materials gathered during the season, such as dried leaves, acorns, or pinecones. This is also a great time to redo any protection wards you may already have. Take them down, perform a cleansing ritual, then put them back in place. Remember, wards trap things inside so you want to occasionally take them down to let any built of negativity or unwanted energy leave.

Charm Ideas: Create protective bind runes and draw them in protection oil on your doors and windows or create them out of sticks and hang around your home.

11. Set up a Seasonal Altar 

Design an altar for Vetrnætr that incorporates symbols of autumn and the coming winter. Use candles, seasonal herbs like mugwort or yarrow, and animal totems associated with the season (like ravens or wolves). Add offerings to the gods or ancestors. 

12. Storytelling and Saga Share

Storytelling is a way to pass on wisdom, entertain, and bond with others during the long nights. You can gather with loved ones or your kindred and take turns reading or telling stories from the Eddas or other mythic tales. This is also a great time to just talk and visit, sharing stories from your life and learning about the lives of others. If you are celebrating alone, why not read a book or watch a movie?

14. Hold a Sumbel or Symbel

A sumbel is a drinking ritual in which a horn or goblet of mead or other alcoholic drink is passed around. A series of toasts are made, usually to the gods, ancestors, or heroes followed by boasts of great deeds performed throughout the year, and oath-making for the future year. As with all things, be careful of the words you choose, as any oath made during this time will turn the wheels of fate. A sumbel is a ritual that celebrates and strengthens the community but can also include a blot or sacrifice to the gods if a sacrifice of mead is also made to them. (I plan to post a complete guide to symbels/sumbels in the future so keep an eye out for it!)

Other drink suggestions: Beer, ale, wine, cider, juice, sweetened milk, or tea

15. Hail the Gods and Goddesses with a Ritual Sacrifice

During Vetrnætr, you can honor specific gods or goddesses who are associated with the season, such as Freyr (for fertility and harvest), Hel (goddess of the underworld), or the Norns (weavers of fate). Include offerings and prayers in their honor during your ritual. Winter Nights is composed of three blots, or sacrifices. This sacrifice can be an offering of blood (fresh meat, prick your finger, etc) or a sacrifice of something of value to you, such as food, money, or your time.

Again, how you celebrate Winter Nights is entirely up to you, but it should honor those you have loved and lost and give thanks for the blessings you have received. I am excited to celebrate my first Winter Nights this year (which happens to fall right at my birthday, ha!). Remember, plan early and thoroughly so you don't feel rushed and out of sorts when it comes to celebrating. This does not have to be an elaborate or over-the-top sort of celebration. Quiet and thoughtful is just as powerful as loud and raucous.

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