The Wheel of the Year

Wicca has it's festivities just like any other religion, with the only difference that in ours those festivals -called Sabbats- are closely related to what we call "The Wheel of the Year", a cosmological representation of our beliefs on the cicle of birth, life, dead and rebirth

These festivities are also intimately related to the cicle of the harvests. We should keep in mind the origins of this religions can be dated back to the times humanity was first establishing itself as agriculture communities. Thus, the important feasts are similar to those of planting and harvesting.

Along with those four most important festivals are the the solar ones, marked by astronomical events called solstices and equinoxes. The order of the eight festivals then is as follows: (please check this for the explanations on the change from one hemisphere to the other).

Wiccan Festivals according to the Hemisphere
Date	Northern Hemisphere	Southern Hemisphere
October 30th	Samhain	Beltane
December 21st	Yule (Winter's Solstice)	Midsummer (Summer's Solstice)
February 2nd	Imbolc or Brigantia	Lughnassadh or Lammas
March 21st	Ostara (Spring Equinox)	Mabon (Autumn Equinox)
May 1st	Beltane	Samhain
June 21st	Midsummer (Summer Solstice)	Yule (Winter Solstice)
August 2nd	Lughnassadh or Lammas	Imbolc or Brigantia
September 21st	Mabon (Autumn Equinox)	Ostara (Spring Equinox)

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