Norse Festivals

Below is a list of annual festivals that were celebrated by the pagan Germanic and Scandinavian peoples. Some of the dates match the time of the solstices and equinoxes, and usually had to do with agriculture and fertility.

Some of these festivals were usually known by the Old Norse word as blót, which means "sacrifice". Sacrifices didn't necessarily mean blood sacrifices (eg. animal, human, etc); some sacrifices of the ancient Germans involved depositing money and weapons into lakes or bogs.

In modern times, the pagan religion of Wicca has adopted some of these Germanic festivals.

Disablót		The sacrifice to the Dísir - either minor deities or spirits. Disablót was sometimes called disfest (Feast of the Dísir) They were protectors of the household, and fertility spirits. The sacrifices were held some time between around the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. Very little is known about disablót.
Feast of Vali	February 14	This day was to commemorated the god Vali, son of Odin and Rind. Vali was the god who avenged Balder by killing Balder's twin, Hod. Vali was one of the survivors of Ragnarok.
Ostara	March 21	The feast of Ostara was celebrated on the spring equinox, when the day and night are equal in length. Ostara was a German goddess of the sun and fertility. Her festival was important because it celebrated fertility, when farmers began to plough and sow the field. She was equated with the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, who was identified with the Easter festival. Christians originally called Easter in Greek and Latin as Pascha, the celebration of the resurrection of Christ on a Sunday. Ostara was a time when children would decorate eggs with vibrant colours and patterns. Eostre was the goddess of spring and her sacred animal was the rabbit, which symbolised fertility. The eggs and rabbits were pagan symbols of fertility and rebirth of life and the seasons. Christians adopted these pagan customs of spring fertility. Even today the Easter eggs and rabbits are as much symbols of modern Easter as resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ostara was always held annually on the spring equinox, but the Christian Easter Sunday is held on a different day. With Easter, it's held on the first Sunday of the full moon (the paschal moon) on or after the Spring Equinox. So the date of Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between March 21 and April 25. This is the date used by the Christians in the West, which may differ from the dates celebrated by the Orthodox Christians in the East. Since finding Easter Sunday relies on the equinox and the lunar calendar, it was further complicated when the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, replacing the Julian calendar. A new way of calculating the Easter Sunday was required for working out with the new calendar. It would take too long to explain here how Christians calculated the date of Easter.
May Eve	April 30	May Eve coincided with the later German Walpurgis' Night, because it marked the last day of winter. It is a German version of the Celtic Beltane's Eve (see Celtic Calendar). May Eve marked the last night that Odin hung from Yggdrasill (the great cosmic Ash tree). Odin had a noose around his neck for nine nights, between April 22 and April 30, as a sacrifice to master the nine mighty rune spells. See Search For Wisdom. May Eve also marked the time when the spirit world roamed free on the earth's surface, while witchcraft and sorcery was the most potent at this time. After midnight, bonfires were lit to celebrate beginning of summer (May Day or May 1), which also marked the end of the Wild Hunt. According to Germanic and Scandinavian folklore, Walpurgis' Night marked the occasion of the witches' coven or revelry at Brocken on Harz mountains; one of the important sabbats in the witches' calendar. The celebration was linked to Walpurgis or Walburga (AD 710-779), a Benedictine abbess and saint, whose feast day was held on February 25. She was sometimes confused with a pre-Christian fertility goddess named Waldborg, and also with Waluburg, a second century Germanic seeress.
Mid-Summer blót	June 21	Mid-summer sacrifice or miðsumarsblót fell on the day of the summer solstice, when the northern hemisphere experiences its longest day of the year. I did not much find much reference to this solstice celebration.
Fallfest	September 23	A minor festival marking the day of the Autumn equinox. It was a day to commemorate the bountiful harvest.
Winter Nights	October 31	Winter Nights or Vetrnætr marked the beginning of winter as well as the beginning of the New Year, according to the Norse calendar. The Celtic people called this night Samhain eve, a mid-autumn festival (see Celtic Calendar). Like the Celtic counterpart, the people used to celebrate this night by lighting large bonfires to frighten away spirits and demons, because on this night they freely roamed the world. It was also on this night that Odin was supposed to lead the spectral horsemen and hounds in the Wild Hunt. The Wild Hunt lasted throughout winter, peaking at Yule's night before ending the following year on May Eve (Walpurgis' Night). The last night of October is celebrated by some modern English-speaking countries as Halloween (All Hallows' Eve), which is the eve of the Christian All Saints' Day, where children dress in costumes, going from door to door in the neighbourhood, demanding trick or treat. The treat that is usually given is candy.
Yule	December 21	Yule was a midwinter festival, celebrated by the Norse/Teutonic and Celtic peoples as a day of merrymaking. It was commemorated with a Yule cake and giving out gifts. It was a day sacred to Odin, Thor and Freyr. Yule was the night when the Wild Hunt was at its peak. Odin rode his eight-legged horse, named Sleipnir. Odin led a band of spectral horsemen and hounds in a hunt through the night sky. On the night of Yule, children usually placed socks filled with hay outside their doors to feed Sleipnir. Since Yule marked the shortest day in the year (though the winter solstice now lands on December 22), the Wild Hunt was at its greatest height, because the night was at its longest duration. Christians have adopted many of the pagan customs of Yule in celebrating the day of Christmas (December 25), such as giving out gifts to children and the decoration of fir trees. Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus as he is popularly known today, and his reindeers, replaced Odin and Sleipnir of the Wild Hunt. The Roman version of this day of merrymaking was known as Saturnalia, which was celebrated between December 17 and 24.