BRECKENRIDGE — The horns are everywhere.
For 60 years Summit County locals have gathered in Breckenridge to celebrate Ullr, the Norse god of snow. They parade and dance on Main Street, hoping for a snowy winter. Nearly everyone is wearing a Viking-esque helmet with horns.
Ullr Fest, formerly known as Ullr Dag, or ULLR Day in Norwegian, was started in 1963 by Trygve Berge and Sigurd Rockne. The pair also founded Breckenridge ski area.
The horns have been a part of Breckenridge’s Ullr Fest for 60 years.
But they don’t have much to do with Ullr. Or Vikings. Or Norway.
“Apparently, Vikings did not wear horned helmets. It’s not necessarily a Norwegian thing at all,” said Leigh Girvin with Breckenridge History, noting that historians have traced the horned Viking helmets back to the earliest productions of Wagner’s The Valkyrie operas in Germany in the late 1800s. “Not that anyone cares at Ullr Fest.”
The horned, caped, furred and festive celebrants at the 60th annual Ullr Fest on Thursday lined their chins and broke the record for world’s longest shot ski with 1,377 for the most people slamming a shot-ski at one time.
The parade, the participants and all their horns-first regalia “immediately creates a sense of place and time,” said Girvin, who is a former Ullr Fest queen.
“You know you are in Breckenridge in winter at Ullr Fest,” she said. “It defines Breckenridge. Loving snow — you have to if you live at 9,600 feet in the Colorado Rockies. Loving winter sports, especially gliding over snow. Ullr was the best skier in the Norse pantheon, a lover of winter. Ullr Fest shows that Breckenridge is creative, resourceful, whimsical, up for a good time. And fun. A lot of fun.”
