Svenska
Location: Gamla Uppsala, the Royal Mounds, Sweden
Date: January 31
Time: 16:00
Blót Officiant: Pontus Arthursson
Assistant: Elin Sundin
Contact person: Elise Lövqvist, [email protected]
Blót kindred Ymer invites you to a Midwinter Blót in Gamla Uppsala.
We gather at the small parking lot outside Gamla Uppsala Church.
Together we perform blót for a good coming harvest, perhaps with differing interpretations in modern times.
Originally, this blót is the second blót that Odin establishes by law in Ynglinga Saga, a blót held at midwinter.
According to pre-Christian reckoning of time, the middle of winter (miðjum vetri) referred to the middle of the winter half of the year, which fell in February (corresponding to January 14 in today’s Gregorian calendar).
Midwinter only became synonymous with the winter solstice as late as the 18th century.
Sources mention hokunótt taking place at midwinter
(January/February), and it was hokunótt that marked the beginning of the heathen Yule season.
The Midwinter Blót / Yule has long been debated when exactly it occurred and what its origins were.
What is certain, however, is that Yule was not celebrated at the winter solstice, nor on December 24, nor on what is now known as Lucia.
The original time for the heathen Yule was in January/February, during the true midwinter period.
This is a blót open to the public, and everyone is welcome.
Dress warmly, and feel free to bring a drinking vessel and a blót offering (vegetables/plant-based offerings).
Political opinions are kindly asked to be left aside.
Til árs ok friðar.
Blót kindred Ymer
(Photography and videotaping may occur at all Blót and community events and subsequently published on the community’s various platforms).
