Heathens do not on the whole follow the eightfold wheel of the year. However like most things if you really want to make it fit it can do. Though there are Heathens who would beat me about the head with a battleaxe for even suggesting such a thing. And that is the whole point about Heathenry: we all tend to do things our own way depending on our own personal interpretation of the Eddas and Sagas.

While we all take the Eddas as our starting point we, try to relate what is contained there with historical and archaeological evidence. Much still remains up to personal interpretation. Heathenry is a reconstructed path, we do not claim to have a line of initiation stretching back to Saxon times. What we do have as evidence leads to the conclusion that worship of the Gods of the Aesir varied from place to place and changed down the centuries in any case.

So what festivals were observed? Well, there are many Heathens who observe just three festivals. Firstly there is Disting also known as Disablot, which is held sometime in February or March. It is a festival held in honour of the Disir who were originally female spirits associated with fertility. In later sources they are seen as synonymous with Valkyries. Disting therefore was held as a festival to bless the fields it was also a time when the crews of the long ships were decided before another season of going a‘Viking began.. Freya is often seen as the chief of the Disir, indeed one of her names is Vanadis which means ‘Lady of the Vanir‘. She is also seen as choosing the slain from the battlefield, but she also takes the first cut for herself and whoever is left ends up in Valhalla with Odin.

Next there is Summer Finding at the Midsummer Solstice. This was most likely originally a purely solar festival celebrating the height of summer. And in the regions of the far North, days in which the sun never sets. A common tale from the Eddas to be remembered at this time is the slaying of Baldur by his brother Hodur. Baldur being the most wise and beautiful of the Aesir this story can be seen as symbolic of the fact that: till Yule the sun is going to be loosing its power . Whether this is how the Vikings or Frisians, for example, saw it, is debateable.

Finally there is Yule. A festival which has many symbolic similarities with the Christian celebration of Christmas. The Holy, the Ivy and pine trees are all evergreen. A reminder that the dark of winter( and again in the far north the nights were even longer,) was going to be over soon and the sun would return. Again some Heathens see this as Baldur returning. Though it can be argued that he does not return from Hel till after Ragnarok this in itself can be seen that even after the destruction of Midguard there is still hope for the future.

This also brings to mind festivals in other traditions of the Holly King and Oak King, and certainly comparisons can be made with the general intent of Yule.

So what other festivals might there have been?

Well we know of a Goddess named Eostre, That she was worshipped at Easter time seems likely. The Christians often took names from the Old religion and made festivals their own. In this way they made an attempt to blot out the previous religion and convert all the people to Christianity. The real answer is that if there was a festival of Eostre; that the Christians Effectively destroyed all evidence of it save its name.

Some Heathens see Walpurgisnacht ( May Day) as a traditional Heathen festival, but its medieval origins are far too late for me to consider it a pre Christian remnant.

There was probably a festival some time in August or September to celebrate the harvest. Most cultures seem to have a need to have a similar kind of festival. It is unlikely the Germanic/Norse peoples of Europe were much different, though I cannot provide at present any original source for this.

November was a time of preparation for winter. The Saxons called it Blotmonath: Blood month. It was a time when any livestock which they did not have fodder for over the winter were slaughtered and the meat salted. It seems likely that there would have been enough fresh meat to have a pre winter feast as well. This fits in well with the more modern festival of Samhain. Through the death of the animals, the people would have enough food to keep themselves alive over winter.

There are also historical records of the worship of a Goddess named Nerthus. Nerthus is an Earth Goddess often seen as one of the Vanir and wife to Niord. (Mother of Frey and Freya) Tacitus, a Roman general wrote a diary of his travels in North Europe and Britain. He relates a weeklong festival held in the Rhine Delta region. Where her cart was pulled from her sacred island round all the neighbouring villages for a week. There was to be no fighting during this time. When the week was over the slaves who pulled the cart were strangled and their bodies thrown in a lake as an offering.