Tulya’s E’en


Severn Days before the first day of Yule the Ancestral peoples of the Orkney Islands celebrated Tulya’s E’en, the return of the dead. On this night we head out into the woodland banging our drums and calling the dead, trolls, and hobgoblins to return to the land of the living. This day opens what the people of the Shetland Islands, whose culture was primarily Norse, called the ‘Merry Month.” Seven days before Yule, all the trolls are released from underground.

Tulya’s E’en is the unofficial start of Yule. On this night we light a bonfire and torches of pitch. We head off into the wood making noise of all sorts in costumes of horns, bells, and greenery calling upon the dead and spirits of the earth to come forth and join the Wild Hunt.  
 

 

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