Happy Oski’s Day!

For the better part of 25 years now, a growing number of Heathens have reclaimed and repurposed St. Nicholas Day for Odin. We honor it as Oski’s Day and look upon it as one of the steppingstones on the way to the intercalendary and holy time of Yule. We exchange small gifts, light candles (beeswax if we can get them – my Swiss mom taught me that certain scents and tastes were traditional for this time), bake certain sweets like lekerlee, spiced cookies, share nuts, clementines and of course we pour out offerings to Odin in His form of Oski, the wish-fulfiller, and gift giver. It’s a lovely, bright spot at a time when it’s full dark by 4:30pm, and it’s become an important part of our Yule celebrations. 

You can learn more about Oski’s Day here. (I stole the jpeg below from her too — thanks, Wyrd Dottir!).

Happy Oski’s Day

Today is Oski’s Day — the way we Heathens reclaim St. Nicholas Day ;). It is one of the small days of delight and gifting that precede the intensity and sacral power of Yule. It’s not a difficult day to keep: my family exchanges small gifts, pours out libations to Odin as Oski, and indulges in certain foods that are traditional at this time. I’ve written about that latter here and my friend Wyrd Dottir has written in much more detail about Oski’s Day and Krampusnacht here (I snagged this image below from her site too). It’s small days like this that help us rebuild and reclaim our traditions fully…through the medium of hearth cultus, household rites, and attention to the smaller aspects of devotion, the celebrations and practices that fell through the cracks or maybe even were worked into the fabric of the folk Christianity that followed conversion. My research on that latter continues but in the meantime, I wish you all a very happy Oski’s Day! If you too keep this little holy day, feel free to post what you do and how you do it in the comments.