"Let’s talk about Heathen holidays a bit. I created the first “Little Viking Heathen Holidays” calendar for 2013. It was a wall calendar with pictures taken by myself and my wife over the years, mostly in Pennsylvania but with a few shots from our honeymoon in Massachusetts and a vacation in Delaware. It was religiously neutral imagery. The point was to have a calendar that a person wouldn’t be shy about displaying in their home or office around people who may or may not share their religious beliefs, but still listed the dates of the Heathen holidays. The 2013 calendar was a bit of an experiment. It had flaws that I worked out and perfected before the release of the 2014 calendar, and I am happy with the results.
While researching the exact dates of these holidays, it didn’t take long to notice that most traditions and large organizations were not in complete agreement about names and dates, even if the general season was the same. I had to come up with a standard for each holiday that would be both traditional, and yet useful and meaningful to us today. Some of these holidays correspond to equinoxes and solstices, others are based on the traditional Icelandic calendar. As for the names of the holidays, the names I use are a combination of traditional names and the names most commonly used today.
In the Heathen Holiday calendar, I included the traditional Icelandic calendar and months, electing to use modern Icelandic month names, since that list is complete. First, I placed all of the Heathen holidays that follow the solar calendar at their appropriate date. These are Yule (Mothers Night), Ēostre, Midsummer, and Harvest Home. These four holidays are fixed by the date of the corresponding solstice and equinox of the year, which do not change regardless of which type of calendar they appear on.
I then placed all of the holidays that are determined by the Old Icelandic calendar, which are ᚦorrablót, Sigrblót, and Winternights. Most importantly for me, this forces a separation between Sigrblót and Ēostre, which many Heathens treat as the same day or interchangeable, but the whole spirit of the holidays are not the same.
Next, there is Vappu, which takes place on April 30th – May 1st, overnight, which is neither Old Icelandic nor Gregorian based. I left the date as it is.
Finally, Charming of the Plow and Freyfaxi did not seem to have established dates, just times of year. I locked them in where it seemed most appropriate, at least until I find conclusive proof of a more appropriate date.
You will probably notice that I call Walpurgisnacht by its Finnish name, Vappu. This is because Walpurgisnacht is named after a Christian missionary, the English Saint Walpurga. I didn’t think it appropriate to use the name for a Heathen holiday, so I didn’t. Instead, I chose to use the name used by a similar culture from a nearby part of the world for the same holiday. Also, I chose to call Winterfinding by its less common name, Harvest Home. This is strictly to avoid confusion with the next holiday in the calendar cycle, Winternights.
The old Heathens did not have a concept of a new year in the same sense that we do today. This chart arbitrarily starts with ᚦorrablót because I treat 12Th Night as a kind of New Year’s Eve, even though they don’t necessarily coincide. We’ll talk more about that later."
Below, you can find a breakdown, holiday by holiday.
ᚦorrablót: The first day of the Icelandic month of Þorri, which falls on the first Friday in January after the 19th day of the month.
Charming of the Plow: Also called Landsagan, I somewhat arbitrarily picked the third Saturday in February.
Ēostre: Spring Equinox, around March 20th.
Sigrblót: This falls on the first Thursday after the 18th of April, the first day of Harpa, and of summer by the old Icelandic calendar.
Vappu: Night of April 30th to May 1st.
Midsummer: Summer Solstice, around June 20th.
Freyfaxi: Arbitrarily the first Saturday in August.
Harvest Home: Also called Winterfinding, this is held on the autumnal equinox, around September 20th.
Winternights: Saturday, the first day of Gormánuðr, between October 21st and 28th.
Yule: Begins on Mōdraniht (Mothers night), at sunset before the longest night of the year. Ends on 12th night, at sunrise after the 12th night of Yule has passed.