Asatru Holidays - April 2024 - Jarl Haakon ｜ Stubba ｜ Hexennacht
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Summary
On April 9th, we celebrate the Day of Remembrance for Jarl Haakon, on April 10th we celebrate a day of remembrance for John Yol Stubba, and on the last day of the month we celebrate May Day.
Transcript
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and folk of all ages, you know what time it is.
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It is the 1st of April, and that means it's time to go into our Holidays, Holy Days, and Days of Remembrance for our people.
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On April 9th, we celebrate the Day of Remembrance for Jarl Haakon.
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The very next day, on April 10th, we celebrate a Day of Remembrance for John Yol Stubba.
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And on the last day of the month, April 30th, we celebrate Hexenocht.
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Now, conventionally, in modern times, we observe the Hexanoct officially on April 20th for this year.
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That being the third weekend of the month on the Saturday,
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and a nice easy time for our folk to get together amongst jobs and life,
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just to smooth things out and ensure that we can hold a proper holiday devoted to our gods.
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Now the interesting bit, and we'll of course go into it next month, but with the holiday of Hexenokt being held on April 30th, the very next day on May 1st is May Day.
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but if you do have the folk around you to observe
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a proper holiday on the proper days it would be
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April 30th and May 1st. Now I'll drop next month's video
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on May 1st, so keep an eye out for that, but if you do need any information on May Day
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beforehand, there will be a link in the description to the write-up over on the Runestone sites
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where you can get all the information you need about May Day, and of course you can
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always reach out to me, any of you, Gothar, Folk Builders, or anything like that if you
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Alrighty, so let's get into it and actually go over some details surrounding these special days.
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On April 9th is the Day of Remembrance for Jarl Hakon, or Hakon Sigurdsson, son of the Norwegian Earl of Lod.
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He was exiled to Denmark after the murder of his father by Harold II Greycloak.
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He soon allied with Harold Bluetooth and they overthrew his father's murder.
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While Hakan became the sovereign in the West, Harold Bluetooth annexed southeastern Norway.
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The two would again join forces when Bluetooth needed aid in fighting against the Holy Roman
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Though forced into baptism, Hakan's faith in his gods was so strong that he was not
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only able to revolt against Bluetooth's efforts to Christianize Norway for the time, but also
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In the end, powers that he could not control began to sway the attitudes of his men, and
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Bjarro Haakon was the last Asatru ruler of Norway, his death in 995 Common Era, leading
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There will always be people in our lives who do not understand our faith and our dedication
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Even our friends might choose to try and change our minds.
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When the people we have trusted to do this, we can sometimes find ourselves doubting our
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It isn't always going to be easy, but nothing that is worth anything ever is.
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We might not be able to make everyone understand our values and our beliefs, but for every
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person who turns away, there is a person somewhere whose mind can be opened by our words.
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is that person whose soul longs to come home. They just don't know it yet. Perhaps your
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words, your dedication, your belief will be the thing that helps someone else find their
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way. And what better reward could there be for standing strong? We must also take a moment
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to remember to curb our arrogance when we become too sure of ourselves and our ability to stand
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tall against everything that would fight us we can become blinded by the reality of the situation
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around us always remember to take time to take the measure of a situation take the time to know
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If it is a good time to talk, or to hold your tongue.
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Following April 9th, on April 10th, is the Day of Remembrance for John Yole Stubba.
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This is a new Day of Remembrance for the Austro-True Folk Assembly.
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We officially celebrated that last year for the first time.
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On April 10th, 2023, the AFA marked the first official celebration of Day of Remembrance for John Yole.
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known as Stubbe. He enjoyed a long life and did many great works in spreading our faith
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in the Isir. He led a full life, starting out by serving in an Irish division of the military
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and later the French Foreign Legion, earning distinction and being decorated by General
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Charles de Gaulle and served in World War II before returning to his home country of
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England. His life is somewhat shrouded in mystery, as he preferred, but he became aware of his
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cultural English heritage and came to know the Aesir in the 1950s when he met another
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of our heroes, John Gibbs Bailey, Hoskord. Together they would proceed to research and
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re-establish what they dubbed Odinism, and go on to found an organization dedicated to
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the worship of the Holy Iser as the Houdinic Rite. Gibbs Bailey, being at least a decade
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older than Jol, had been an Odinist since the 1930s, and by the time the two met, had
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been involved in a number of Proto-Odinist groups.
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Yol felt the call of the gods, and eventually felt that Asatru was the natural religion
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for those of Northern and Indo-European descent, and sought to reclaim the religion and birthright
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In 1973, believing they had codified a solid structural framework on which to build, they
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They went forward practicing and disseminating our native religion until 1980, at which time
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the name of the formal societal organization was cemented simply to the Odinic Rite.
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Together with Hoskod, Stubborn laid the foundation of the nine noble virtues courage, truth,
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honor fidelity discipline hospitality self-reliance industriousness and perseverance which we still
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use today with the addition of the tenth noble virtue victory they together establish connections
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with fellow devoted believers notably folk mother lc christensen another one of our heroes who they
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They corresponded via letters, newsletters, and publications such as the Odinist, steadfastly
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Our folk builders are continuing this tradition constantly, bringing more and more of our
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folk home every single day, just as Stubba, Hoskord, and the Folkmother did, every month
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contributing an article to our own newsletter, The Runestone. Stubba would eventually lead
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the Odinic Rite as the director of the court of Gothar, which is equivalent to being the
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John Yore lived a full and long life, and his dedication to the Æsir never wavered.
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He gained honor for his service in the war, and he exhibited fidelity in his devotion
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He exhibited discipline in living nobly, and embodied hospitality in caring for his folk.
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He was self-reliant, typing many newsletters to Boisley by hand on a typewriter, consistently
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being industrious, and he persevered until the end of his life.
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We hail these heroes for their foundational and right noble actions, in the reclamation
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of our birthright, an inheritance of the worship of the Æsir.
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It is important that we honor and remember not only the heroes of the distant past, but
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those in more recent days whose efforts have contributed to the renewal of our faith.
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This brings us to April 30th and our holiday, or should we say April 20th and its observation.
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When the ground was thawed and colder weather was beginning to give way,
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till it became necessary to move the cattle from the winter fields to the summer ones.
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Hexenacht traditionally was a festival celebrating this very thing
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The men would all gather and build the large needfire
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They would then walk the cattle through the smoke to bless them
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Often the men would call on Frey during Hexenacht
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the women gathered together for their own festivities.
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and it was during this time that the women often burned herbs
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After the separate celebrations, men and women would come together and continue the festivities.
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We in the AFA celebrate this day as Hexenocht, instead of the more common Valpurgisnocht.
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Valpurgisnocht is named such because it is the night before the Christian feast day honoring
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honoring St. Valperica, who is credited with healing and repelling witches.
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Men and women celebrating separately and then coming together
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are one of the main features of Hexenacht, as well as the bonfire.
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A good way to celebrate the holiday might include the men building the bonfire,
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When they are finished, the men and women can join together around the bonfire.
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The women can throw herbs into the fire, and, asking the blessings of Frey and Freya, the
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men, women, and children can each take turns walking through the smoke.
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Hail Thrae, Hail Thraea, Hail the Gods, Hail the Folk, and Hail the AFA.