🌿 Várblót – The Spring Festival of Oaths and Renewal

Várblót ("Vár’s Sacrifice") is a spring festival marking renewal, new beginnings, and the swearing of oaths. It is held when the snow has melted, rivers run strong, and the land begins to bloom once more.

The festival honors:

• Vár, the goddess of oaths, agreements, and trust, ensuring that promises made are upheld.

• Freyr, god of fertility and prosperity, to bless new crops and livestock.

• The ancestors, who bore witness to the oaths and legacies of those still living.
  
  
  

🔥 Várblót Traditions & Rituals

1️⃣ Oath-Making Ceremony

• Warriors, leaders, lovers, and traders swear oaths before witnesses, calling upon Vár to bind them.

• Oaths could be marriages, alliances, blood-bonds, or even personal vows of vengeance or redemption.

• To break an oath sworn at Várblót was a grave dishonor, believed to bring divine punishment or ruin.
  
  

2️⃣ Sacrificial Offerings (Blót)

• The community sacrificed a white goat or boar, its blood sprinkled upon the ground to bless the coming year.

• The hlaut (sacrificial blood) was also marked on warriors’ foreheads, symbolizing the weight of their vows.
  
  

3️⃣ Feasting & Mead Rituals

• A communal feast of meats, honeyed bread, and fresh greens marked the season’s first harvest.

• Drinking horns were raised for toasts to Vár, Freyr, and the ancestors.
  
  

4️⃣ Runes & Divination

• Seiðr-witches or Völvas read runes in the fire or bones cast into the earth, seeking signs of fate and warning.

• Those who swore important oaths might seek a blessing—or a warning—from the gods.