New Year's Superstition

[Drayton Calhoun]

If you shoot the Holy Black and don't clean yer pistol, you'll be smokin up the countryside all year...okay, so I made it up, but it sounds good, LOL!!!!

[Professor Marvel]

The concept of New Year's resolutions is said to have been started by the Norse followers of Odin, Thor, and Freyr.

The lads would rush out on New Years Eve Day and capture a Wild Boar, (this has oft been mistranslated/misprinted as "Bear" )

On the night of the New Years Feast those braggarts who wanted to boast of the Great Deeds they were *planning" to accomplish (much like my plans, of late) were essentially told to "put up or shut up" by going straight up to the Boar and Vowing to the Boar (the animal representative of Freyr) of what they were going to do in the coming year:

"Oaths and sacred promises were made in the Northern European tradition. The sonartoltr, an atonement boar, was sacrificed during Yule festivities.

On the night it was to be killed, it was considered so holy that vows were taken with hands laid over its bristles. Boasts were made upon the boar's head, and these boasts had to be truthful.

The god Freyr hated liars, and those who made false boast soon brought down his wrath. Remember this when you make your own New Year resolutions - the last thing you want is the wrath of Freyr on your head."

If the Boar did not care for what one had to say, one might just get a tusk through one's arm....

yhs
prof marvel

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Professor;  Where did you locate this gem?

I found this;   http://www.odinsvolk.ca/O.V.A.%20-%20SACRED%20CALENDER.htm

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Drayton said;  "okay, so I made it up, but it sounds good, LOL!!!!"

Just like the "tradition" of the Christmas pickle!

[Professor Marvel]

Professor;  Where did you locate this gem?

I found this;   http://www.odinsvolk.ca/O.V.A.%20-%20SACRED%20CALENDER.htm

Gott Dag Sir Charles

Your reference is fairly good, Decent sources can be difficult to locate, primarily (IMHO), because of the combination
of the impenetrable Nordic languages ( Ald Anglish Beowulf was bad enough, and I cannot read Norwegian let alone Runic)
and the desire to "clean things up" for the more modern readership.

Whilst technically, we are talking about "Yuletide" as opposed to "just" "New Years Day", I believe we can make a valid case
for two reasons:
1) Yuletide technically encompasses January 1st
2) Many ancients consider Yule the time of transition from one year to the next

:-)

Rather than pester you with the amalgamy of modern blithering and new ager's webpages, I would like to direct your attention
to some sources we might consider more "original".

http://northernway.org/school/onw/teutonic/1stDeg/practicesD.html
(really well done, with excellent sources)

"One tradition that was strongly connected with Freyr was the Oath-Boar. This was done on Yule-Eve (the last night Yule) and is very likely the origin of the modern practice of New Year's Eve Resolutions. In later times it would take on a Christian veneer and was called the Atonement-Boar, but it was originally used to make solemn oaths for the coming year at a feast dedicated to Freyr. On Yule-eve a boar consecrated to Freyr was led out or the cooked boar itself. The people present would lay hands on the boar and make solemn oaths for the coming years. (447) This oath was called the heitstrengingar (solemn oath). (448) In later times in Sweden, it was customary to bake cakes and the shape of a boar on Yule-eve. This tradition of baking in the shape of a boar was very wide spread even in lands outside of Sweden, where Freyr was most venerated. (449) This tradition is very likely to have been the source for folklore concerning this time of year. "

From The Skadi Forum
we find a less-sanitized version, with good sources, but not exactly online or in english...
(ie: "That vows were taken at the Yule-tide feasts is shown in more than one source, including, Helga Kvida Hjörvardssonar, c.14; Hörd's Saga, Hervarar Saga and Fornmanna Sögur")

http://forums.skadi.net/showthread.php?t=77442


Two examples of "cleaning up" come from "turn of the century Victorian" articles in
"The Academy and literature" (1894) and  "The Gentlemen's Magazine" (1877)
note how the aspect of "fertility" is somehow transmorgrified into "peace and virtue" as befits the Victorians...

"The Gentlemen's Magazine" Vol 260, published 1877

http://books.google.com/books?id=k6gFuH9orpUC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=boar+freyr+vow+yule&source=bl&ots=Vs5FWOKE-X&sig=mDVmBZxhp3Shb8z42sJiTfjF9eE&hl=en&ei=kT4hTf7QA5DUtQO2meySCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=boar%20freyr%20vow%20yule&f=false

particularly see see page 104 - 106, and esp the footnotes.

------------
and page 375 of "The Academy and literature, Volume 45" published July 14 1894:

http://books.google.com/books?id=pEZRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA375&lpg=PA375&dq=boar+freyr+vow+yule&source=bl&ots=HiBQsNj11G&sig=qIbsAN12FGHJPEY-e0lKKJjn2Go&hl=en&ei=kT4hTf7QA5DUtQO2meySCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q&f=false

there's more, but this here's plenty for now :-)

yhs
Prof Marvel

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Oh Professor!  it won't be that easy to wean me away from the Orthodox faith of my Varangian forebearers.

BTW;  My Saint's name is Sigurd.

[Professor Marvel]

Oh Professor!  it won't be that easy to wean me away from the Orthodox faith of my Varangian forebearers.

BTW;  My Saint's name is Sigurd.

Aha! My Dear Sir Charles -

So could you possibly  have ties to Prince Alexandre Nevksi?

Altho the revisionist Soviets attempted to hijack the prince as "Russian" he was actually Norse Varyag, sometimes called "The Rus' " .... I refer to the historical references to the Scandinavian traders( Varyag or  Varangian) and  Eastern Slavic Tribes who settled in and about Novgorod and who were later referred to as the Kievan Rus'
(source: Nestor's Primary Chronicle)

I am continually amused at modern attempts to soften ancient practices.... one silly website claimed that Freyr was "the god of truth and peace" .... Whilst Freyr punished those who broke their oaths to him with terrible fury, does that make him a "lover of truth"?   

I cannot imagine the stretch involved that makes him "a god of peace"  since there are numerous carvings from the original Norse longhouses depicting Freyr riding into battle on a giant wild boar wielding his oversized personal member as a weapon. Perhaps that inspired the "lover" part .

I shudder to reveal what turned up whilst researching the "wassail" carols  ... while I was amused at the inebriated carolers  shooting at and cludgeling  the innocent apple trees (beating them actually induces better fruiting) ,  my research then lead to morris dancers, sheffield sword dancers and beheadings .... such a lovely holiday!

yhs
and hopelessly politically incorrect
prof marvel