Mothers' Night | Order of the Sacred Mannerbunde

Mothers' Night

Motherstide

Night of the Mothers

Threefold Mothers

Mothers' Night (also called the Night of the Mothers and Motherstide) is one of our most holy tides. Marking the start of the English New Year, we give worship to our mothers: alive, passed, deific and ancestral. By voice and prayer, it is a sacred time for us as Pagans as we celebrate the love and affection our mothers give us. Whether they be with us or in the other Worlds, the blessing granted to us by clan motherhood is vital as we pass into the New Year.

We observe Goddess and wight threefold in this rite - Frig, Nerthus and the Wyrd Sisters. Each are invoked for their powerful protection for the coming year: Frig for childbirth (beginning), Nerthus for growth (ongoing) and the Norns for fate (the movement of Wyrd towards ending). Mothers - foremothers, current and expectant, are to be present where applicable for Mothers' Night to receive these protection blessings, hails and gifts.

Due to the flexible dating given to us of this rite, our Order holds it as both a Blōt and Observance to solidify our tradition. The Night of the Mothers (Blōt) is held on the last Full Moon of the modern calendar year. This continues our following of the lunar cycle for Blōt. Meanwhile, we hold the Motherstide (Observance) for three nights - from midnight into the 20th of December to midnight into the 22nd of December. This reliably encompasses the Winter Solstice and the midpoint of winter - an auspicious and liminal observance. Each night shall mark a hailing of each of the invokd as follows: Frig, Nerthus, then Wyrd Sisters.

Art: The dísablót by August Malmström, 1829-1901; Swedish painter.

Month

December

Type(s)

Night of the Mothers (Blōt)

Motherstide (Observance)

Held (Blōt)

December Full Moon

Held (Observance)

20th December - 22nd December

Invoked

Frig, Nerthus, Wyrd Sisters

Historic Information

Mother’s Night (Old English Mōdraniht, Modranicht), also known as the Night of the Mothers, is the name of the Pagan English festival of the Mothers. The sole attestation, and information, of this night comes to us from the Venerable Bede in his work De temporum ratione. He quotes:

Original Latin

Incipiebant autem annum ab octavo Calendarum Januariarum die, ubi nunc natale Domini celebramus. Et ipsam noctem nunc nobis sacrosanctam, tunc gentili vocabulo Modranicht, id est, matrum noctem appellabant: ob causam et suspicamur ceremoniarum, quas in ea pervigiles agebant.

English translation

... began the year on the 8th calends of January [24/25 December], when we celebrate the birth of the Lord. That very night, which we hold so sacred, they used to call by the heathen word Modranecht, that is, "mother's night", because (we suspect) of the ceremonies they enacted all that night.

While there is contradictory evidence as to the exact date of Mother’s Night, Bede dated it to be December 24th (modern-day Christmas Eve) as the date it was historically practiced. This contradiction is compounded further in the proposal that this rite may have links to the Norse rite of Dísablót (English Sacrifice of the Dísir). Both are further likely to be part of the wider Germanic cults of the Matres and Matronae (English Mothers and Matrons, respectively).

Our Order's View

Multiple entities are worshiped within our Order during this time as below:

The Goddesses – Frige and Nerthus
As Mother of the Gods, Frige is primarily honoured in this celebration of maternal growth, being our Goddess of the Home and Childbirth. It is also a time of our Earth Mother Nerthus and the revering of the land, with Nerthus being a Goddess of Fertility and the Cycles.

The Wyrd Sisters - Weordende, Wyrd and Scyld
A trio of powerful feminine wights, the Sisters of Spinning Fate,are honoured for their dominion over the destinies of all – God and man alike.

Month

December

Gods Invoked

Frige, Nerthus

Texts

Bede's De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time)