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From Elfwort comes this topic:
“For the topic can you talk about the Alfablot?”
I do not generally celebrate Alfablot myself, so the beginning of this is mostly going to be from the perspective of other folks and my reflections on it.
From TheLongship.net, a source I highly recommend, comes this:
Winter Nights (Vetrnætr), celebrated in modern times in mid-October. It is a three-day celebration of the harvest and includes both Dísablót, a sacrifice to honor the female ancestors, and Álfablót, a sacrifice to the god Freyr and the elves (male ancestors). Though Dísablót was a public celebration, according to Austrfararvísur, Álfablót was not celebrated communally but by families in the privacy of their homes. The Swedish holiday Disting, which is a modern incarnation of Dísablót, is celebrated in February instead of October.
Huginn’s Heathen Hof had this to say:
There’s not that much known about the pre-Christian Álfablót. It’s mentioned by the Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson in his Austrfararvísur – when he was travelling through the western part of what is now Sweden (close to where I live, actually) during autumn, he came upon several farms that would not let him in, which was a grave breach of protocol. They told him they were Heathen, celebrating Álfablót, and that they couldn’t let him in for fear of the wrath of Odin, but nothing else about the blót itself is revealed.
…Sometimes connections are drawn to the blót in Vǫlsa þáttr, since it’s described as occurring during autumn. The elves, disir, Odin and Frey are all mentioned in connection with the autumn blót, and there are arguments for this being a festival of the dead. Not the least because of a perceived association between elves and ancestors – elves live in mounds, such as people would be buried in, and how Olaf Gudrødsson upon his death came to be revered as a local deity called Olaf Geirstad-elf. British historian Ronald Hutton, however, has argued that festivals of the dead were celebrated between March and May in european pre-Christian religions and that neither the celtic Samhain nor the norse festivals celebrated at this time of the year would be that.
What to make of all this? As I do not see the Álfar as human or our male Dead, it does not make much sense to me to celebrate it as a festival to that end. We celebrate Vetrnætr, or Winternights, around this time of year. For those that do see the Álfar this way it makes sense to celebrate in this way around this time of year.
I am going to pivot from talking about Álfablót to holidays in general, since there is not much more I can add about it. It may not make sense for folks without a connection to the Álfar to celebrate this blót. This is equally true for any of the holidays one could celebrate as a Heathen. Why?
We exist in relationship with our Gods, Ancestors, and vaettir. With the interaction between these groups of spiritual Beings it may not make sense with regards to our local environment to celebrate Vetrnætr around the last week of October into November, or to celebrate it at all if it starts getting colder/snowy at a different time. This is where the metal of reconstruction as a method meets us in the work of revival. We can and should work with the Ginnreginn to develop our holy cycles. Does it make sense for your local ecosystem to incorporate winter rituals when it is still summer or fall weather?
We need to deeply think about what we are doing, and especially why we are doing it. That is not to say we need to ignore practical questions of ‘can I get this time off?’ and ‘can I do this ritual in a meangful way now?’ We need to get to questions like ‘What function would this ritual have served then, and what function does it serve now?’ We also need to be open to the idea that when we discard a holiday that it may be that another one is waiting for us that better fits the season, the timing, and/or our relationships with the Ginnreginn. We also need to be open to the idea that certrain holidays will not work for us.
Starting now and opening ourselves to living in sync with our local environment together with our Ginnreginn, we can develop our own meaningful holidays and calendars that fit into our right relationships as we live them now. So, if a given holiday or a whole calendar does not work for you, explore that a bit. Maybe another region’s sacred days are better suited to your environment. The landvaettir may have ideas on how to live well with Them in celebrating Their cycles. The Gods may have new celebration cycles They want to start where you are. The Ancestors may want a different cycle of holidays for Them based in the land where you are rather than where They were. Explore, research, ask, divine, and make choices on how you will celebrate throughout the year. When changes need to be made, whether for reasons of environment, schedule, or the input of the Ginnreginn, then make them. Our practices do not need to look the same for all of us to be authentically Heathen.
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Sarenth Odinsson 