Mother Night of Yule - Traditionally held on the evening before the Winter's Solstice, Mother's Night is a time when the world between the living and the dead are very thin. It is a time to celebrate family, exchange gifts, and look with wonder to the year ahead. The 12 days of Yule are a time to remember our past, and tell the stories of our people. It is our tradition to celebrate a blot each night during Yule, because each night of Yule corresponds to a month of the year ahead.
Yule - Celebrated on New Year's Eve - it is a time to ring in the new year, and to make oaths & resolutions concerning the year ahead.
Thorrablot - Traditionally held in the middle of January, originally to make a show of strength against possible starvation (Thorrablot/thorriblot means 'starvation time blot', more or less), it has become a blot dedicated to Thorr.
Feast of Vali - Held around Valentine's Day in mid February, this blot celebrates the actions of the younger Gods, particularly Vali. Ravenswood Kindred celebrates its founding on this feast.
Oestara - Held on the Vernal Equinox, Oestara is a time to welcome Spring with colored eggs, fertility symbols, and related festivities. The name comes from an ancient Germanic Goddess of Spring. We traditionally greet the Sun with drawn steel on this day.
Walburga - Held on May Eve, this is a celebration of fertility magic and psychic powers. Dedicated to Odin and Walburga, another German Goddess - of magic in this instance, we traditionally celebrate with home brewed May Wine and a bonfire.
Midsummer - Held on the Summer Solstice, Midsummer is a celebration of the peak of Summer's power, and an acknowledgment of its' mortality. Bonfire's are another tradition for this blot, as is a special blot to Balder and his wife Nanna.
Thingstide - Ravenswood holds its' annual Thing in late July. It includes a blot to Tyr, God of justice and war, as well as a business meeting.
Freyfaxi - Held in mid August, Freyfaxi is a Frey's blot, where we celebrate the first (wheat) harvest.
Winter's Finding - Held on the Autumnal Equinox, Winter's Finding is a celebration of the first stirrings of Winter, in which Ravenswood remembers and re-enacts the three ordeals of Odin to prepare ourselves for the coming season.
Winter Nights - Held in late October, Winter Nights is traditionally a Disablot, and a celebration of the last (corn, i.e.. maize) harvest. At this time we remember the departed matriarchs and other female ancestors in our line. We believe this time to mark the beginning of the thinning of the walls between the living and dead which reaches its' peak at Yule.
Feast of the Einherjar - In mid November, with the bite of Winter beginning in earnest, we offer a toast to the departed warriors who will issue forth from Valhalla on the last day to fight the Fenris wolf, and the Jotun hoards - it will be REALLY cold then!
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