Winter Nights

The Winter Nights (Old Norse: vetrnætr) are the days beginning the winter season in medieval Scandinavia and modern Heathenry. Before the Christianisation of Scandinavia, it was a festival period, likely lasting three days, marked with blót, drinking, feasting and games. The period sat at the boundary between the summer and winter halves of the year, and possibly also situated at the beginning of the year, leading to it being seen as a time of increased danger from supernatural beings who roamed the landscape. These include the dísir, female beings with close connection to fate, to whom sacrifices known as dísablót were held. It was also seen as a time in which female beings could reveal the future in dreams, often about the dreamer's death.

After Christianisation, ideas of wandering supernatural beings may have influenced traditions of the Wild Hunt and related winter masking traditions such as julebukking. Winter Nights also continued to mark the beginning of winter in Christian Icelandic calendars and early Swedish law codes, particularly those regulating permissible times for hunting. The period is now also celebrated by modern Heathens.