I was doing some research the other day instead of doing my math homework and I realized that A. The dwarven calendar is a lunar calendar. and B. They began their year far earlier than everyone else as seen by Thorin’s conversation in Rivendell in Unexpected Journey-
While in Rivendell, Thorin declares: “The first day of the dwarves’ New Year is, as all should know, the first day of the last moon of Autumn on the threshold of Winter. We still call it Durin’s Day when the last moon of Autumn and the sun are in the sky together.”
And so while the concept of writing a yule/winter holiday fanfiction around this time of year is always popular, if you’re writing about Dwarves celebrating yule it would more culturally line up with Durin’s day.
But we don’t even know that they do celebrate what we or even in world peoples would recognize as yule. Hobbits are recorded as having a yuletide that lasts multiple days which was a new years celebration, as are men and elves both having new year days and celebrations in midwinter, lining up with our own expectations for winter holidays.
Obviously writer-tolkien brain would say, the dwarves are partially inspired by the norse and so they would celebrate yule same as everyone else, but especially because they are dwarves. It’s also well known that most cultures in our world have some sort of celebrations mid-winter because it’s just so depressing in the middle of dark cold winter months.
But think about the in world reasoning. Both having a lunar calendar and Durin’s Day as the new year opens up possibilities for many different types of celebrations. Perhaps they may still have a form of a Great Hunt occurring in the winter, as the need for furs and meat would likely eventually lead to a ceremonial holiday as well.
I think that they do celebrate a type of yule around Durin’s day, just calling it Durin’s day instead. I think also some of the traditions may be different as the season is still changing at this time, so maybe more fall type things where they celebrate saving enough crops for the winter and perhaps have something like a craft show but more hardcore.
Along with this, during the times when Erebor and Dale were occupied, I could definitely see the dwarves happily participating with the men in dale in any celebrations, even if their holiday had passed.
My own thoughts- I feel like every single culture celebrating yule is a bit of a stretch when it comes to cultural diversity. While I can see the elves and men and hobbits all having effect on each other in some places, the more separated groups of men and elves, along with the obvious separation of the dwarves, could lead to some different types of holidays that really give us the opportunity to be creative.
Most of all, with Dwarves being so secretive and the Durin’s Day new year, we have a lot of power to create what we want. For example, in a fic that I wrote recently, I created a festival of Mahal, which was essentially a fall harvest festival where there were lots of different types of competitions, between fighting and cooking and metalworking and of course, a night of drinking and eating in the great hall.
Also, this would be great fuel for a fic where Bilbo brings Thorin home for the holidays, and Bilbo gets to teach him about the hobbit’s traditions as Thorin mutters about the new year starting two months ago. A nice reversal of the typical Bilbo learning dwarven culture in erebor trope.
Anyway, I don’t have a main point I just thought this was all very interesting
