FORN SIDR of VALLEJO

Site overview

We are working on upgrading our site but with the Vetnaetr festival fast approaching we decided to put up the announcement. We are Norse Pagans that celebrate the Forn Sidr (Old Ways). Many of our beliefs are past down in Norse Lore. We do not impose our beliefs on others and expect the same respect and courteousness from others.

Norse Paganism is a religious movement based on the practices and beliefs of pre-Christian Scandinavia. The origins of the Norse Religion date back to the Germanic people of the Iron Age and its development continues up until the Christianization of Scandinavia.

Upcoming Helgar: Norse Festival

29 October to 2 November

Vetrnætr

Vetrnætr (Winternights) is the second most significant Norse festival after Jól, spanning over the course of 3 days, and celebrating the dead and our ancestors.

Vetrnætr represents the end of the harvest, the beginning of winter in Scandinavia, and the start of the winter hunting season. It is also marks the end of the summer season, and thus, the end of trade and travel.

Vetrnætr marks the beginning of the Wild Hunt led by Óðinn, on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, throughout the skies, and accompanied by the valkyrja as well as the dead warriors who reside with him in Valhöll. Vetrnætr is therefore a time to remember and honor the dead and the ancestors. Vetrnætr represents a weaker division between the worlds, allowing the forces of chaos to potentially enter the realms of order. It is a the time when roads and fields no longer belong to humans, but are taken over by ghosts and trolls. During Vetrnætr, whoever can sit an entire night on a grave, without becoming insane, acquire full divinatory powers.

Vetrnætr is a great feast and a ceremony of wild abandon. Animals not expected to make the winter are butchered and shared over a lot of mead.