Tag: Winterfylleth

Observing Winterfylleþ

RoseLeave a comment

It’s already late September, and it feels like this year has just flown by. Those of us in the northern hemisphere are officially in what Americans consider to be “fall” (Personally, I prefer “autumn”). For Anglo-Saxon heathens and Fyrnsideras that means Winterfylleþ (Oct 17th) is nearly upon us.

What is Winterfylleþ?

Hence they called the month in which the winter season began “Winterfilleth”, a name made up from “winter” and “full Moon”, because winter began on the full Moon of that month.
De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time), The Venerable Bede

We know from the Venerable Bede that the Old English word translates to “Winter Full Moon” and that moon marks the beginning of Winter1… and that’s pretty much all he has to say on the subject. As usual, Bede gives us just enough information to whet the appetite and make some inferences.

For me, Winterfylleþ is one of my four “big” holy days, along with Geol, Ēostredæg, and Midsumor. For me, it is a time for both thanksgiving and propitiation. I consider it to be the beginning of the Wild Hunt, which will end around Geol. I don’t really have strong textual evidence for this last assertion, but I think it is thematically fitting. Many other cultures and pagan paths consider this time between summer and winter to be liminal, the connection between the world of the living and the dead stronger. For example, pagans with a more Celtic lean are getting ready to celebrate Samhain. Norse heathens may be gearing up for Alfablot. In Mexico, the Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1st, and of course, we can’t forget about Halloween and All Saints Day. Seems to be a running theme, no?

Because we have little textual evidence for how the Anglo-Saxons might have celebrated this hinge in the year, I look to comparative traditions to inform my praxis. And so, my Winterfylleþ celebration will be three nights with three parts:

  1. Welcoming my honored dead and beloved ancestors into my home.
  2. Saying goodbye to seasonal deities who I will welcome back with summer’s return.
  3. Offering to the gods with prayers for a safe and comfortable winter.

Welcoming the Honored Dead

This can be accomplished in several ways. I like to make an offering and invite my ancestors to linger in my home before preparing a nice dinner. The offering could be anything, really, but I often offer my ancestors coffee because most of my known ancestors enjoyed it during their lifetimes. I may also offer my grandfather’s favorite cigarettes or some pipe tobacco this year.

Once dinner is prepared, I will then set aside a portion of the meal at an extra place setting as an offering. (If more of my living family were pagan, I would invite them to this dinner as well, but alas, they are not). I am incapable of being quiet, so I don’t do the silent supper I often see suggested for Samhain. Instead, I prefer sharing stories of loved ones who have gone on before. Telling stories and toasting the memories of our beloved dead is a very Anglo-Saxon heathen thing to do, in my opinion. 

After dinner, an additional libation offering or dessert offering at the altar may be an excellent choice. For me, this is also a good time to break out my oracle deck and see if my ancestors have anything they’d like to communicate with me. I derive a lot of comfort from these talks.

Saying Goodbye to Seasonal Deities

To me, this is a time to say goodbye to Eorthe for the season as she enters her winter slumber, awaiting Eostre’s return in the spring. This year, I will be placing my representations of them in a special place to “rest” until Hrēþe’s victory over Winter in the new year. This is, of course, largely based on my own UPG and SPG I share with others that suggest Eostre and Eorthe grow quieter in the winter months. 

Prayers for a Safe and Comfortable Winter

In our modern world, the harshness of winter often seems softened by electric lights and gas furnaces. However, it doesn’t take much for those luxuries to disappear, if only temporarily. In my part of the world, we’re sometimes one bad storm with blackouts away from freezing. In my mind, it makes sense to make offerings to the gods in hopes that such storms will pass us by and that death stays away for another season.

As previously mentioned, I consider this to be the beginning of the Wild Hunt. Therefore, it is a good time to ask Woden to steer his Hunt away from my door. Frīg is also a major part of my praxis, so I will be asking for her aid in managing my family’s resources well through the winter months. My offerings will consist of grain, wool, whiskey, and incense. It may seem overboard, but as I said, I consider this one of my “big” celebrations.

The gods that you choose to honor for Winterfylleþ may be completely different. Some Norse heathens choose to honor Freyr (Ing in Fyrnsidu) and the elves for Alfablot at this time. Patricia M. Lafayllve’s A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Asatru2 suggests a Winternights ritual honoring the wights, for example.

Final Thoughts

I view Winterfylleþ as a hinge of the year, a beginning and an end. The practices I am building around this holiday reflect this mindset. As time goes by and I grow in my praxis, these things will likely evolve. It will be interesting to look back at this post next year when I’m preparing for the holiday again.

I’d love to hear from you. Do you celebrate Winterfylleþ? Samhain? Something else? Do you have a favorite tradition associated with this time of year? Let me know in the comments!

Photo Credit: Gippe

  1. The Anglo-Saxons, much like their Norse cousins, recognized two seasons or halves of the year, Summer and Winter. What we think of today as Autumn/Fall and Spring are split between the two. Bede also mentions this before explaining Winterfylleþ. ↩︎
  2. Chapter 14 https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-practical-heathen-s-guide-to-asatru-patricia-m-lafayllve/8763949?ean=9780738733876 ↩︎

Further Reading

Ancestor Veneration

Winterfylleþ

Finding Your Holy Days

Rose2 Comments

One of the interesting and—dare I say it—fun things about developing your own pagan practice is deciding what holy days you will mark and how to celebrate each occasion. Just choosing which days to observe—never mind the how—there exists a dizzying array of choices. Odds are that you will not observe exactly the same holidays as another pagan in your social circle, even if you nominally follow the same tradition. (If you doubt me, just look up the Anglo-Saxon and Norse heathen debates on the correct dating of Gēol/Yule). Because of this, I think it is important to note that you do not have to observe every holiday ever conceived of. You do not have to observe a holy day just because it has historical attestation, nor because it’s what “all the other [x] pagans do.”

Personally, I don’t celebrate all the holidays on the common Wheel of the Year, nor all the holidays you might find listed by various heathen organizations. My big holidays for the year are as follows:

  • Ēosturdæg
  • Midsumor
  • Winterfylleþ
  • Módraniht/Gēol

I list Modraniht and Gēol together because Modraniht is very much a subsection of the ongoing Gēol festivities for me that take up the entire month of December. In fact, you could almost say that Winterfylleþ kicks off my Gēol season, and Modraniht is my early New Year. But as you can see, this is a very abbreviated calendar compared to other lists you may find. They also line-up in time and culture with big observances going on around me: Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. Which brings me to my next point…

Modern Observances

It’s also okay to weave in wholly modern observations. Sometimes the old holy days just don’t quite line up with the schedules and rhythms of our modern lives, especially for those of us who aren’t deeply connected to agriculture. Incorporating our heathenry into holidays our culture is already celebrating is a great way to start knitting these pieces of our identities together. For example, I have been trying to work the secular Earth Day into my own spiritual calendar. Is there an attested Eorthedæg in Anglo-Saxon heathenry? Not that I’m aware of. But there’s certainly enough precedence for the worship of an Earth Mother. To me, it makes sense to dedicate time to this important figure, and lining it up with a pre-existing modern secular holiday makes sense.

Here’s some ideas for other modern holidays (as observed in the US) that you could give a heathen spin:

Earth Day – A húsel or blot to Eorthe or another earth mother goddess is an obvious option. Perhaps less obvious is signing up for some volunteer opportunities and showing the goddess your love through service. Park cleanups and tree plantings can be fun events that help tie you not only to the Earth, but also to your local community.

Mother’s Day / Father’s Day – These holidays are an excellent opportunity to incorporate ancestor veneration into your praxis. A húsel celebrating the mothers/fathers from which you come can be a lovely way to mark the occasion. You could hold a symbel and give everyone an opportunity to share stories about Great-Grandma Evie and Great Aunt Maude. Even if your living family do not share your faith, you can still give an offering on your own. 

Memorial Day – Particularly if you come from a military family, Memorial Day can be a wonderful time to incorporate ancestor veneration. You could also petition gods and ancestors for peace in ongoing conflicts. Many of us do this regularly anyway, but Memorial Day may be a time for special emphasis. Deities to consider might be Twi, Woden, or Hella.

Valentine’s Day or Sweetest’s Day – These days can be made into an opportunity to honor a god or goddess of love. Perhaps an offering to Frīg? Or if you’re of the witchy persuasion, maybe a spell or ritual to spice up the bedroom (with your partner’s consent, of course).

This is hardly an exhaustive list, of course, and rather US centric, but the principle applies to any special observation, really.

Timing & Dates

Depending on how heavily you get into reconstruction, determining the date of certain holidays can be… fraught. My advice to you is to decide how much you care about historical accuracy vs what fits into your life. Personally, I’m fairly confident that the gods are happy that you make offerings around the time of certain observances, regardless of whether you do it Tuesday or Thursday.

If you want to celebrate Gēol on December 21st every year, regardless of the exact date of the astronomical solstice, go for it. If you would prefer to celebrate Gēol on the 25th when the rest of your family is observing Christmas, I think that’s grand, too. (For the record, not all Christians agree on the dates of some of their holidays either and calculating Easter used to be basically a science).

So what holy days do I observe?

Putting all of this together, here’s how my spiritual calendar has shaped up:

  • Ēosturdæg – Full Moon following the Vernal Equinox
  • Arbor Day/Earth Day
  • Mother’s Day 
  • Father’s Day 
  • Midsommer – Summer Solstice (Around June 21st)
  • Winterfylleþ – Full Moon following the Autumn Equinox
  • Módraniht – (Around December 20th)
  • Gēola – Winter Solstice (Around December 21st)

As you can see, it’s a mix of shifting and fixed dates, historical and modern observances. I don’t mind working out the shifting holidays and making plans around them, so that’s what I do.

But I want to hear from you. What holidays do you incorporate into your spiritual calendar? What’s one of your favorite traditions? Tell me in the comments!

Suggested Reading

This may seem like an Albertsson heavy recommendation list, but he was extra relevant!