Ancestor Worship and the Hearth Cults of Ancient Europe

(Why the hearth and the fire in it is critical to the N.E. concept of worshipping the ancestors.)

  The fire pit/fireplace was the first place of worship. People worked non-stop from sunup to sundown, early Spring to Mid Fall. But all Winter long everyone huddled around the fire to keep warm, cook food, talk, tell stories and even worship! This evolved into the fire being the center of most rituals, whether sitting around, standing around, or even jumping over.

Fire is such a strong part of Northern European tradition that it was believed that legal possession of land could only be taken over once a fire had been started by the person who moved there. Once people’s homes developed into long houses and what we would call a standard cabin the tradition of taking the fireplace with them when they moved became an important family tradition. Beside the land itself, the fireplace was seen as the connection to the ancestors, and it is what made a house a home. (This is still practiced in some areas of Pennsylvania by the Penn. Germans.)

Our ancestors are the number one reason that land was seen as belonging to a certain family. The ancestors were buried on the family land. The ancestor watched over every successive generation and even became a part of the very land. In the past the house where the family fire burned was not allowed to be sold to someone outside the family. The land and home belong to the ancestors and the descendants. The people living there at a given point in time are only caretakers. Therefore, it is not theirs to sell.

Germanic View of the Ancestors.

  Honoring the ancestors was and is one of the most important aspects Germanic paganism. The dead remained in the family and communities’ memories long after they were gone. This is why it is important to tell family members stories. So, people remember who their ancestors are, the things they accomplished, what their skills were, what their favorite was, etc.

The ancestors buried on the family land served as a reminder for everyone, they were still part of the family and were also seen as a place to connect with them. Ancestors could help bless the land and provide fertility to the family land. (Now, whether this was due to hamingja, family love or simply not having to bury loved ones in a concrete vault, I cannot say.)