Corn and beans are about to be harvested. In my area, gardens are yielding their final gifts. The cycle of reaping what you sow can be seen in the land all around.
I hope you enjoy reading their responses as much as I did. I would like to thank all who took time out of their busy schedules to articulate their relationship to this time of the year. There is a wonderful diversity in the answers they gave. Regardless of historicity, the late-September celebration can be deeply meaningful for those who include it in their ritual practice.Īs in my column “ Nine Heathens Speak of Spring,” which centered on celebrations of the spring equinox, I asked Heathens from a variety of locations to tell me what the autumn holiday means to them personally and how they and their community celebrate it. As with so much of modern Heathenry, the specifics of historical practice are up for debate. The Heathen holiday celebrated on the equinox is today variously known as Haustblót, Harvest Blót, Winter Finding, or another related term. The U.S.-based Troth also marks Winter Nights in its ritual calendar. The modern Icelandic Ásatrúarfélagið (Ásatrú Fellowship) celebrates Veturnáttablót (winter nights blót) in the second half of October, when members of the organization thank the god Freyr for his autumn gifts and ask the deities for a good winter.
“The Harvesters” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565). However, there is more documentation for the historical celebration of the main autumn ritual not on the equinox itself, but approximately a month later. If “toward winter” can be interpreted to mean “in the fall,” the first rite mentioned may be the Haustblót of Egill’s Saga. There should be sacrifice toward winter for a good year, and in the middle of winter sacrifice for a good crop, a third in summer, that was victory sacrifice. Þá skyldi blóta í móti vetri til árs, en at miðjum vetri blóta til gróðrar, hit þriðja at sumri, þat var sigrblót. The Ynglinga Saga of Snorri Sturluson tells of laws established by the god Odin, including the timing of the main annual sacrifices: Haustblót (autumn sacrifice) is mentioned by name in the saga of the Icelandic warrior-poet Egill Skallagrímsson. Those who practice modern forms of polytheistic religions rooted in Northern Europe have revived, reconstructed, and reimagined a variety of practices and rituals to mark the turning of the year from summer to autumn. The fall equinox is celebrated in many different ways by practitioners of Ásatrú and Heathenry.
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