What are the chief festivals of the Odinic Rite?
In ancient times there were three great festivals: Yule (the Midwinter Festival), Summer Finding (or spring equinox) and Winter Finding (autumn equinox). To these we nowadays add the Midsummer Festival. Yule, the popular Festival of Midwinter (sometimes called the Festival of Light), heralds the beginning of the Odinist year. It is the birthday of the unconquered sun, which at this time begins to new vigor after its autumnal decline when, having descended into darkness, it pauses, kindles the fire of germination and ascends renewed with the fruit of hope. The Midwinter Festival includes the Twelve Nights of Yule, encapsulating the twelve months of the year in miniature, and culminates in the celebration of Twelfth Night. Summer Finding, in March, is the Festival of Odin. It celebrates the renewal, or resurrection, of Nature after the darkness of winter. It was transformed by the Christians into their Easter (named after the Odinist Goddess of the Saxons, Ostara), Rogation and Whitsun a
