Yule...

So this past Saturday we held a Yule blót at our home followed by the feast. I must say this was an extremely moving and emotional day, even more so than our Midsummer blót. I took off the day prior to make final preparations to ensure the house was how I wanted and to get last minute supplies and Lisa got up early to begin preparing the stew for dinner that night as well as taking my father-in-law once again to go pick up the pig at the farm. The pig was roughly half the size of the one we blótted at Midsummer so she was about 45 pounds once she was dressed. The guests started arriving early evening and we had good conversation and good food while we all eagerly anticipated the next day.

Speaking of the next day...5am came early, I woke up grabbed myself a cup of coffee and took the apples that I soaked in mead the evening prior out to the shed where the pig stayed and began to feed them to her so she would be relatively calm. I also gave her some mead soaked corn, the rest of the house started to slowly awaken as the sun began it's ascent above the trees and people began to prepare, both mentally and physically for what lie ahead. We had originally planned on holding blót around 7am and this was simply done from our experience in how long it took to actually cook the pig at Midsummer. We did it differently this time but still wanted to err on the side of caution.

We gathered to go over the roles and what would be taking place and i made my final mental and physical preparations and made sure Grandpa Harry's .22 was loaded and ready to go. We brought the pig to the grove and got settled as everyone else made their way slowly down giving us ample time to get ready. Once everyone was positioned  I opened the cage, put some more corn down and she slowly made her way out and began to feed on the corn. I steadied the rifle awaiting the shot and the instant I pulled the trigger and the gun cracked was the exact same instant she decided to lift her head and turn. I caught her not where I wanted and as my mind raced...oh boy did it race, I'll get to that in a minute... I instinctively and quickly chambered another round and touched it off. In that instant she dropped and was quickly lifted onto the altar where I made my cut and her blood was collected by my sister Alicia into the blót bowl as Cat then collected what remained into a separate bowl. The idols and pillars were reddened as was the Odin idol Josh Rood carved and that he and i placed in the grove earlier.


Once all the blood was collected I began, saying the words I prepared...and actually remembered to memorize this time...as I used the pine branch boughs Lisa fashioned for me to sprinkle the blood on myself and all those in attendance.

I gotta take a step back for a moment...At Midsummer I was sooo nervous and wondered if all would go well, some of you may remember the post I made about it and this time I was a little more confident. I even remembered to tell everyone to watch for any omens. In my case, the initial shot not being the killing shot, seemed to be a bad omen for me personally and while the blood was being collected and people sprinkled the same somber, tear filled reactions that happened at Midsummer were present. I thought though that this time it was different. I was unsure if it was because I had muffed the shot when she lifted her head, I just didn't know.


Anyways...once the blót was ended everyone made their way back to the house and myself, Josh Rood, Josh Heath, Jon and Jeff stayed behind to begin the process of field dressing the pig...the entrails were left in the same hole left behind from one of the rocks that formed the rock wall as was the entrails from the Midsummer blót...and then brought it back to the shed to begin quartering it up to cook. It was then my mind really started going bananas and it wasn't until I actually said something that people began to mention the way I handled it spoke volumes and even though it seemed like an eternity it was actually only about 20 seconds. I felt a little better and asked about the mood inside the house and was told it was festive and that everything was ok which was a great load off of my mind.


At that point we quartered up the pig, prepped it for cooking and began to mingle with our guests as we waited for everyone else to arrive, the pig started cooking at noon and we were done by 3...


Which leads us to the feast...The rec room was set up and the tables decorated and as lady of the House Lisa brought everyone down to be seated as Jesse and Christine brought around to each of them a water bowl and tray of hand towels so that they may "wash their hands" and have a towel to dry them. once everyone was seated I stood and welcomed everyone to the feast and again said the words I had prepared (prepared and only partially memorized) at which point I opened the sliding glass door and invited my Grandpa Harry to join us. The first Yule feast I ever went to was at Bob Stine's home in Ohio back in 2004 and this was something they did, he opened the door and invited all his ancestors to come join us in the feast at which point everyone present followed suit, the same thing was done at Yule last year when Jesse and Jeff came and this is a tradition I shall continue, to say it was an emotional moment is an understatement but not by a longshot the most emotional part of the night.


Once everyone had invited their ancestors the feast began, and in true form it was loud, fun and good cheer, good conversation and good food was had by all. We had decided also that after dinner we would hold a sumbele, I gave a brief explanation of what sumble is and it's purpose as we had 10 non heathen guests in attendance (Lisa's parents, cousin and his girlfriend, my parents and sisters and Christine's boyfriend) and I wanted them to be aware of what we were doing and why, Josh Rood then explained a little about the role that Lisa was playing in being the one passing the horn around as Lady of the Hall and it's historical significance and place of honor. We chose a three round sumble, first round gods, second round ancestors and third round open. I will not go into any detail about what was said by anyone but let's just say the second round was simply amazing, emotional and binding. I will never forget it.


After the sumbel we went back upstairs in preparation for the Klandestine Krampus Gift Exchange in which Dan dressed up as the AmeriKrampus and The Baby Harry had his own little set of foam horns and played the Mini Krampus.


All in all it was an amazing weekend, an amazing feast and sumble filled with family and friends new and old and hopefully next year will be just as good if not better. I apologize for not going into details but those that were present know how special it was.

Oh and the omens? yea on Sunday there were plenty...