The „Winter Nights" open winter – and, in the old calendar, the new year. It is the quietest, most domestic time of the ring of feasts, devoted to the ancestors and the house-wights.
When Vetrnætr Falls
Winter begins in the Old Icelandic calendar on a Saturday between 21 and 27 October. An older strand placed the Winter Nights on the first full moon after the autumn equinox.
The Winter Blót „til árs"
Snorri counts among the three great blóts the winter blót til árs, „for a good year" (Ynglinga saga 8) – held „í móti vetri", toward winter. For many Germanic peoples the turn of the year fell not in high summer but on this dark threshold.
Álfablót & Dísablót
Into the Winter Nights fall two especially private feasts. The Álfablót is attested by the skald Sigvatr Þórðarson (Austrfaravísur, c. 1019): travelling through Sweden he is turned away from farm to farm – they are just then sacrificing to the elves and let in no strangers. The Dísablót was for the dísir, female ancestor and guardian spirits; at Uppsala the great Dísaþing was bound to it. Both are household rites honouring the dead and the protecting powers of the kin.
Celebrating Today
Honour the ancestors and house-wights: set a plate aside, light a candle, name those who went before you. A quiet, domestic holiday at the edge of the dark – the crossing into the dark, inward-turned half of the year.
A verse for the feast
of the dark year
I set the plate,
I light the flame.
You who have gone,
today are guests –
the fire burns
for you as well.
And now you: write your own short verse for this feast – four or five lines are enough, it need not rhyme. Recite it next time by the fire or at the sumbel. That is the finest honour one can pay a feast.
Sources
Snorri, Ynglinga saga 8 (winter blót til árs, public domain); Sigvatr Þórðarson, Austrfaravísur (Álfablót, c. 1019); Dísablót & Dísaþing (Uppsala); Old Icelandic calendar.