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was celebrated in honour of Thor, or the sun, in order to obtain a propitious year, and fruitful seasons. Sacrifices, feasting, dances, nocturnal assemblies, and all the demonstrations of a most dissolute joy, were then authorized by the general usage: These answered to the Saturnalia of the Romans, and were in a great measure renewed afterwards among the people, on occasion of the feast of Christmas. The second festival was instituted in honour of the earth or of the goddess Goya or Frigga, to request of her pleasures, fruitfulness, and victory: And it was fixed at the first quarter of the second moon of the year. The third, which seems to have been the most considerable in ancient times, was instituted in honour of Odin; it was celebrated at the beginning of the spring, in order to welcome in that pleasant season, and especially to obtain of the god of battles happy success in their projected expeditions. There were also some feasts in honour of the other gods, and they were often multiplied on occasion of particular events.
In the earliest ages the offerings were simple, and such as shepherds and rustics could present. They loaded the altars of the gods with the first fruits of their crops, and the choicest products of the earth: Afterwards they sacrificed animals. They offered
