Christmas Eve, Books and Iceland

The Yule Cat

The Yule Cat is a monster from Icelandic folklore, a gigantic cat said to prowl about the snowy countryside during the yule season eating people who have not received any new clothes to wear before the holiday. Sorry, but rules are rules.

Pagans Are The Largest Non-Christian Faith In Iceland

The Ásatrú Society (Ásatrúarfélagið) is still the largest non-Christian denomination in Iceland, and has also grown in numbers through December 2020 and July 2021. 

This was made public in a new data dump from the National Registry.

The Norse paganism flourished in Iceland until 1000 AD when it was overthrown and uprooted by the spread of Christianity. 

The last major temple dedicated to the Norse gods in Northern Europe was the Temple at Uppsala, in Sweden built by the Vikings in 1070 AD. 

It was also dedicated to the Gods Thor, Odin and Frigg. 

The Asatru temple in Iceland attains significance when it is understood from the perspective of wider Pagan revival movement in Europe.

The construction of the Pagan temple in Iceland marks an important step in the revival of European paganism that will help Europeans to reconnect with their ancestral culture and traditions as well as celebrate their beliefs and reclaim their heritage.

Iceland is building its first Nordic Pagan Temple in 1000 years

Nordic paganism is now Iceland’s fastest growing religion. From 570 members in 2002, the ‘association of the faith of the Æsir’ – Ásatrúarfélagið – now numbers 3900 Icelanders, making it the largest non-Christian religion in the country.

The pantheistic religion appeals to modern individualism while upholding traditional Icelandic values like honesty, tolerance and respect towards the environment.

WATCH HERE

The Icelandic Pagan Association receives hate-mail from Pagans

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, (photo below) who is the Pagan high priest of The Ásatrúarfélag in Iceland, says that they have received negative reaction to the tolerate beliefs and attitudes of Icelandic members of the religion.

Foreign pagans strongly disapprove of Icelandic liberal tolerance, and as a result, have received lots of hate-mail from overseas because of Icelandic religious respect for gay rights and for the struggle to allow same-sex couples to marry.

They've responded by saying, "I think we represent Icelandic society. And the nation has stood with us through thick and thin."

"Ásatrú has no room for conservative Christian morality."

Hilmar adds that he and other members of the religion are not interested in using the ancient religion of Ásatrú and it's machismo, or to inject the practice of Ásatrú with conservative Christian morality:

"We know these texts; we have lived with these texts for a thousand years. We are not coating them in some Viking or warrior romanticism. And we are not obsessing over some books on morality, dating back to the year 70AD, as many of these foreign practitioners of Ásatrú do, considering that book a source on how the ancient religion should be practiced."

The temple will be the first central pagan temple to be built in the Nordic countries in nearly a a thousand years.