On the Orkney Islands at Yule Tide, old customs whose origins most people do not know or cannot remember, were celebrated. These celebrations were in closely tied with Scottish and Irish custom.

Worship of a Goddess or Mother Figure took many forms. The Norse "seer" or volva was involved with supernatural events and might have been viewed as possessing the spirit of the Goddess when she was in a trance. It was during the visitation of this lady that the people conducted a feast. Religion and feasts were closely linked. The pleasure of plenteous food for people who often did not have enough to eat created a bond with the religious observation.

Similar customs go back to Biblical times and originated in the land of the Babylonians.

Alexander Hislop wrote:

"To show the connection between country and country, and the inveterate endurance of old customs, it is worthy of remark, that Jerome, commenting on the very words of Isaiah already quoted, about spreading 'a table for Gad', and 'pouring out a drink-offering to Meni', observes that it 'was the custom so late as his time [in the fourth century], in all cities especially in Egypt and at Alexandria, to set tables, and furnish them with various luxurious articles of food, and with goblets containing a mixture of new wine, on the last day of the month and the year, and that the people drew omens from them in respect of the fruitfulness of the year.'"

The Norse tradition of "seeing” is featured in the 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman titled The Seventh Seal. The story line is something like this: A knight who has come back from the Crusades plays chess with Death, a figure in a hooded black robe. This is a time of Plague. An itinerant entertainer and his wife Mary are two of the survivors, although the knight and his companions are not.

At the conclusion of the film, the player looks into the distance and remarks on the specters he sees:

"I see them. Mary! over against the stormy sky. They are all there, the smith and Lisa, the knight, Raval, Jons, and Skat, and the strict Lord Death bids them dance. He wants them to hold hands and to tread the dance in a long line. At the head goes the strict Lord with scythe and hour glass, but the Fool brings up the rear with his lute. They move away from the dawn in a solemn dance. Away towards the dark lands, while the rain cleanses their cheeks from the salt of their bitter tears."

His wife, Mary, sees nothing and says to him: "You with your visions."

These words from the film show that the same feature found in Riders to The Sea, in which Maurya falls into a trance state and sees her dead sons is typified.

The old prayers and customs are still in the conscious memory of the Northern people even in this century.