"They judge what they do not understand."
(Marcus Tullius Cicero)
According to Tacitus the Germans did not perform many rituals, they were very sober people who did not care much for the exaggerated pompous fuss the Romans often displayed.
They did have some rituals however, most of which were connected to their religion and were used throughout their daily life; the Germans were real party animals and almost every holiday, wedding, religious ritual, and even a funeral was concluded with a party; during a party much meat and beer was consumed and there were servants running around non-stop to provide the guests with beer.
Speaking of guests; the Germans were very hospitable and guests were often treated like they were the king himself, they got the best and biggest piece of meat, a seat near the fireplace, and they could sleep in the bed while the host slept on the floor, sometimes the host even offered his guest a night with his wife or daughter, something that was normal in those times.
Shaking hands is a custom we still use today when we meet another person, it was invented by the Germans who shook eachothers right hand as a sign of friendlyness; the right hand was used for holding a weapon so giving a person your empty right hand meant that you had no hostile intentions.
Another ritual was offering, which was called "bringing a blota" or "blotan", "blota" means both "blood" and "offer".
Offerings could be made to the gods, spirits, or to other supernatural beings, everything could be offered to them; gold, silver, food, milk, and of course beer (which was believed the gods liked the most), Landwights and Alfen on the other hand preferred dairy products, though it did not really matter what one sacrificed as long as it was of importance to him or her, offering a small invaluable gift was no problem as long as it had worth to the person offering it, for instance if a poor person offered only a small piece of bread the gift was believed to be just as valuable as a rich man offering a bag of gold.
The Germans did not believe that the gods really came down to earth to physically eat the food, it was more a spiritual thing; they probably believed that the energy of the food was taken by the god and that the food itself was left intact, though it was considered a good omen when birds or other animals ate the offering.
Sharing something was also considered an offering; Germanic farmers often left a part of the harvest on the land as an offering to the gods of fertility to show their appreciation of the rich harvest, in many rural areas in Germany the last sheaf of the harvest is still left on the land, they call this sheaf "Vergodedendêl", which is a corruption of "frau Godens antheil" (lady Goden's share), originally this was an offering to the earthgodess Holda (Frigg), who was also called "frau Goden".
In the Saxon areas of the Netherlands the farmers sometimes decorate the last sheaf of the harvest and carry it inside the village in a procession, they call this sheaf "'t Olde Wief" (the Old Woman), another thing our Germanic ancestors often did was leaving some of the food on the plate after eating and bringing it to a holy place to show their thanks for the food.
Offerings were sometimes burned because it was believed that the smoke would carry the offering to the gods above, for this reason the god of wildfire (Loki) was often seen as a messenger.
Human sacrifices were also made, though only by exception because a human life was considered to be a very valuable offering, most of the times the human who was to be sacrificed did this voluntarily, the only involuntarily human sacrifices were people who had insulted a god and were therefor sacrificed to that god as penance or enemy soldiers who were offered to a wargod.
In contradiction to popular belief criminals were not sacrificed to the gods, as I have said before the offering had to be valuable to the person(s) making it and since criminals were not valued in Germanic society it is unlikely that they were used as a gift to the gods.
Human sacrifices were sometimes killed by slitting their throat, though most of them were killed by hanging or strangulation, this was believed to be a fast way to reach Helheim (the afterlife) or even Walhalla, most of the bog bodies that have been found in northern Europe had cords tied around their necks and when the Vikings captured the city of Nantes in 843AD they hung its citizens in trees to sacrifice them directly to their wargods.
The Vikings also practiced an alternative (and very gory) way to sacrifice enemy warriors; the victim's back was cut open, the ribs were broken, the heart was ripped out of the chest, and the longs were blown up, sacrifices to Odin were pierced with spears and hung at a tree.
Offerings were left in water (river/lake/sea), forests, fields, near stones, trees, and even inside the house; there were many places to leave an offering, archeologists have found many deposits of objects in rivers and peat bogs, a custom that was also practiced by the Celts.
After a victorious battle the Germans often sacrificed some of the captured enemy weapons by dumping them into a river, sometimes enemy prisoners were also offered to a wargod to show some extra gratitude for the victory they had gained.
Drinking Minne is also an old Germanic custom that was performed throughout northern Europe and has even continued to this day, the words "Minne" (continental Germanic) and "Minni" (Old Norse) have been derived from Proto-Germanic "Munno", which means "to commemorate", the origins of the Minne can be found in the the heathen offering meal; during this meal a part of the sacrificed offering animal was given to a god and a collective drink of beer or mead was dedicated to him or her, especially Wodan, Thunar, Njord, Frey, and Freya often received a Minnedrink.
Every god had his or her own special cup that was only used for bringing the Minne to that particular god, this cup was hallowed with the symbol of that god; for instance the cup of Thunar was hallowed with a hammer.
After the Christianization the custom of drinking Minne was forbidden by the church but this met heavy resistance from the people who simply ignored this new rule and continued to drink Minne to their gods, eventually the church tried another tactic and they allowed the people to bring Minnedrinks, but only to Christian saints of course, and in the hallowing of the cup the symbols of the gods had to be replaced with a Christian cross.
There were also rituals that were meant to hallow offerings or other objects, blood was often dripped on the object that had to be hallowed because it was believed that blood carried the forces of life; the blood itself was considered an offering too, hallowing could also be done by a hammer; the hammer was the symbol of Thunar and was believed to posess powers that could destroy, grant life, and resurrect; if there was no hammer available a "hammer sign" was made, this was a symbol that could be made by stretching out the vingers and joining the thumb and ring vinger; this sign symbolized Thunar's hammer, while making this sign one moved his/her arm from top to bottom where he/she then moved it sideways in both directions; the shape of a hammer or the letter T turned upside down, this was an easy way to hallow objects without having to bring a hammer with you, there is some debate about whether or not the hammer sign was actually used but most people agree it was, which is also supported in the Heimskringla:
"Then said Kar of Gryting, "What does the king mean by doing so? Will he not sacrifice?" Earl Sigurd replies, "The king is doing what all of you do, who trust to your power and strength. He is blessing the full goblet in the name of Thor, by making the sign of his hammer over it before he drinks it."
There is also the "horn sign", which was made by stretching out the index finger and little finger, this is also thought to have been a heathen symbol though nowadays it represents Satan and everything that is evil.
Praying was probably done towards the east, this was a common Indo-European practice and can still be seen in the modern Hinduistic religion, the reason for this is that the sun comes up in the east, just like in most other Indo-European cultures the three major times of praying may have been dusk, highnoon, and dawn, another sign that ancient religions were orientated on the sun.
The praying posture people took in that time was different than the modern Christian one, the almost universal way of praying was kneeling down and raising the hands, the Germans have probably used this posture too.
Swearing an oath in was considered a very holy thing, especially when it was done in front of a god, breaking it was considered very dishonourful and could even be punished with death.
There were many different ways to swear oaths, the following were the most common ones:
1. Swearing an oath on a hallowed white stone; this was one of the oldest ways to swear an oath.
2. Swearing an oath by raising the hand; this is still done today and was probably used for "small" oaths of lesser importance.
3. Swearing an oath by laying your hand(s) between the hands of the oath-taker, some Dutch farmers still tap eachother on the hand when they bargain over the prize of a cow though I'm not sure whether it is derived from this ritual.
4. Swearing an oath on something important; by swearing an oath on something you hold dear you are accepting its loss as a punishment when you don't keep the oath, for instance if a person swore an oath on his house he allowed the oathtaker, the gods, or other supernatural powers to take, destroy, or burn his house when he was unfaithful to his oath, in the Netherlands the people still say things like "i swear this on the grave of my mother" or similar things, though they are now reduced to nothing more than sayings.
5. Swearing an oath on a weapon; weapons were often chosen for swearing oaths on because of their powerful symbolism, in the Netherlands a fake wooden sword has been found that was even solely used for this purpose, it also beared a runic inscription saying "Edæ boda" (Oath-bringer).
6. Swearing an oath by the Bragarfulli; the Scandinavians swore oaths by the "cup of Bragi" (the god of poetry), an oath sworn to a god was very holy and could not be broken without severe consequences (either in this world or in the afterlife).
The bloodbrotherhood was a bond between two people that was established for life, by mixing their blood they officially became eachothers relatives and accepted all the rights and obligations that came with it, like for instance bloodfeuds and inheritance.
To become bloodbrothers a certain ritual had to be performed, the people in Iceland for instance had 3 ceremonies for that; the two persons walked together under raised grass sods to the other side, mixed their blood in the earth under those sods, and both swore an oath while kneeling on the bloodsoaked soil; symbolically this represented the rebirth of the two persons from the same mother-earth that had been fertilized by the same blood.
The Tree of Life was a tree that was planted during a birth or a marriage, a Tree of Birth was believed to have a soul that was equal to that of the child it was planted for and the tree would show how the child would grow up, in Belgium the people sometimes plant nut-trees or apple-trees for a boy and a pear-tree for a girl, in the Dutch province of Limburg the people sometimes plant a marriage-tree (oak, beech, or a fruit bearing tree) in front of the house.
The book "Heidens Nederland" by J. Schuyf mentions that trees were also used for healing; in many Germanic countries there has long been the custom of driving three nails into a poplar (later other trees were also used for this) while speaking an unknown magical charm, this was believed to help against bone fractures, which would be healed when the tree had grown over the nails.
The book also mentions "lapjesbomen" (rag-trees); it was long believed that if you have a fever you can take a rag of fabric from a piece of clothing that you have worn during the night and hang it in an oak tree in the morning without speaking, doing this would cure the fever.
There are still some places with ragtrees and some of them are still in use, especially in the Catholic parts of the Netherlands this custom has survived in some places, often in a Christianized form.
Another way to get rid of fever was smearing your blood on a tree, which would then take over your fever and die.
Against a headache one could wrap a thread three times around the head and then make a noose of it that was hung in a tree, the first bird to fly over the tree would then remove the pain.
Another typically Germanic ritual was exchanging presents, this was a way of showing a person that he or she was important to you, just like offerings to the gods it mattered how important the gift was to you; the more important your gift was to you, the more important that same gift was to the other person who received it because something of value was only given to true friends who were really important to you.
Exchanging gifts was a social ritual that strengthened the bonds that existed between people, the custom of exchanging gifts has survived to this day in birthdays and holidays like Christmas.
Superstition:
In ancient times there were a lot of superstitions of which many have continued to this day, many of those are of heathen origin.
Some examples;
Spilling salt; during the Middle Ages salt was put on the table in a pot and spilling it on the table was considered to bring bad luck, especially when this happened on new-years eve because that meant bad luck for the entire year, if it happened during a wedding celebration it would bring bad luck for the newly weds.
Salt was considered to be holy and life-giving and it could protect people against ghosts, witches, and demons, because these could not enter a place that was encircled by salt, spilling salt meant breaking the protection.
Breaking a mirror; mirrors were believed to protect against evil magic and diseases so breaking one meant 7 years of bad luck, they were also believed to reflect the soul of a person and that is also the reason why the undead and other soulless beings like vampires were believed to have no mirror image.
Magic metal; metals like iron and bronze were believed to contain magical powers and pieces of iron were often worn as a protection against magic or other things that could be harmful.
The horseshoe is also made of iron, it was believed that hanging the horseshoe with the opening up would allow it to "catch" good luck in it, when that luck was needed the horseshoe was turned with the opening down so the luck could flow out.
For a long time gallows were even constructed with wooden pins because nails were made of iron and the people feared that the magical powers of that iron could be abused by the spirits of the criminals who were hung there.
Seeing a spider; if you saw a spider it could bring you bad luck, good luck, or love, this depended on the time you saw him, to remind this the Belgians invented a rime; " 's Morgens druk, 's middags geluk, 's avonds minne, zei de koppespinne.", the French have a similar rime;"Araignée du matin, apporte du chagrin, araignée du soir, apporte bon espoir."
Freely translated into English; "Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon, love in the evening, said the spider."
Hearing an owl screaming; the owl was called "deathbird" in some areas and it was believed that if one heard an owl screaming at night it signalled the death of a family member, this belief may originate from heathen roots since wolves, big black dogs, crows, and ravens were seen as messengers of the gods in ancient times.
Nightmares; if one went to sleep he had to put his shoes under the bed with the fronts to the outside, this was done to prevent nightmares.
A Belgian superstition says that forgetting this can cause someone to be "ridden by the Mare"; the Mare was some sort of evil spirit that caused nightmares, the belief in the Mare is of ancient Germanic origin and it also appears in old Scandinavian sagas in which people are attacked in their sleep by such a spirit (the Scandinavians called it "Mara"), sometimes it even killed humans, the modern word "Nightmare" also originates from it.
According to the legends people who were attacked by the Mare awoke in the middle of the night in cold sweat, had difficulties breathing, and had no control over their body because the spirit had taken posession of it, all of this happened while being awake and consciouss, at some point they started to sweat and scream and jumped out of their bed after which one regained control over his body.
The difference between a bad dream and being ridden by the Mare was that a person who was attacked by the Mare realized its reality and would run around in panic instead of staying in bed like after a normal bad dream, the Belgians believed that driving a knife in the door would prevent the Mare from getting into the house, the Scandinavians hung stalks of corn in the form of a cross on their door to get the same result, it was also believed to work against other evil spirits.
Dolls; dolls were originally used to represent a person, this was done to confuse evil spirits into harming the doll instead of the real person, dolls were also used as a children's toy but its original meaning may have purely been to ward off evil spirits, in many areas of northern Europe the people still place a doll on the mantelpiece or window-sill of their house though those are mostly there for decorative reasons, the original meaning is now unknown to most of them.
Omens:
Natural omens; many uncontrollable events of nature were considered to be omens, a comet for instance was seen as a messenger of disasters like war and famine, the same goes for solar eclipes, a very good example is the battle between the Romans and the tribe of the Cimbrians in what is now Austria; during the battle a tree was struck by lighting and the Cimbrians saw this as a sign of the gods to stop fighting, although they were very close to achieving a victory they decided to retreat.
Animal omens; the Germans are known to have used animals in order to seek omens, they watched the flight of birds and observed horses; this were special horses that were held for this purpose in holy woods and groves, they were all white and it was forbidden to use them for physical labour, if they were needed they were yoked to a holy chariot and a heathen priest and the king (or chieftain) walked besides the horse and observed its behaviour.
Human omens; to predict the outcome of a war the Germans captured an enemy soldier from the army they were going to fight and matched him against one of their own warriors, it was important that they both used the most common weapons that were used in their armies; if the Germanic army mainly used spears and round shields and for instance their Roman enemies mainly used short-swords and large rectangular shields the warriors had to use those weapons too, the outcome of the fight was believed to represent the outcome of the upcoming battle.
In Germanic culture everything was thought to be dependant upon the support of the gods, spirits, and other divine beings; many of the rituals had something to do with gaining that support like fertility rites for instance, and offering enemy warriors to show their gratitude for a victorious battle, and food to thank the gods for a good harvest.
Today we view this rituals as "supersticious", but if you think about it; don't you use any rituals yourself?
Many religious people still thank their god(s), be it Jahweh, Allah, Visjnu, Buddha, or any other god, for the food they eat and the prosperity they have in life, many sportsmen have lucky socks, a talisman, or a crucifix around their necks for good luck during a match and lots of people knock on wood, avoid black cats, and don't walk under ladders.
Rituals are very important to most humans and they will always be used by them for their efforts to control their destiny, overcome their fears, and to honour their gods.
According to Tacitus the Germans did not perform many rituals, they were very sober people who did not care much for the exaggerated pompous fuss the Romans often displayed.
