The Wheel of the Year:
The Wiccan Festivals for the Northern Hemisphere

Samhain: ( October 31th )
It's the Wiccan New Year. A time for meditation and remembering of those who have passed away, coinciding with the end of the harvest, and when they say the veil between this world and the other thins to it's most. In the anglosaxon countries it's celebration lived on with the Halloween feasting, taking some of it's symbols like Jack o'Lanterns. A sabbath traditionally considered as excellent for divination, and on which offerings are left at the doorsteps for the souls of the Dead which come to visit. At this Sabbath we celebrate de death of the God and the promise of his rebirth in Yule

Yule: ( December 21st )
The Winter Solstice Festival, when the sun, after it's withdrawal and the longest night of the Year, starts to come back closer to the Earth. This new closeness marks the rebirth of the God from his own seed planted on the Goddess, and was later taken by christianity as Christ's birth day . It's a solar festival, in which traditionally all lights and fires were put down, lighting a new one by midnight using rubbing methods. Then, from that first fire all the rest were lit. We find something similar in the England of the victorian period with the Yule Log, which was burnt slowly all along the year and was said to prevent the house from being struck by lighting.

Imbolc: ( February 2nd )
Fire festival, taken by the christians later to their Candlemass celebration. At this time we celebrate the first hints of spring after the long winter. It's the childhood of the God, and a celtic traditions honours on this day the Goddess, calling that feast Brigantia.

Ostara: ( March 21 st )
Spring Equinox. The God is young, and him and the Goddess fall in love, their love renowing Nature like the sun that gently caress the earth, also inspiring the animals to multiply. It's a feast of love and growth.

Beltane: ( April 31st )
Celebrated with famous fires, it's perhaps the most well known Sabbath after Samhain. It's THE fertility festival, where we celebrate the union of the Goddess and the God. It still survives in the May Poles in some places of the Northern Hemisphere. This celebration was condemned by the Church, saying it promoted indecent sexual behaviour.

Midsummer: ( June 21st )
Summer's Solstice, where the God reaches the peak of it's power before starting it's withdrawal again. The shortest night of the year, and traditionally good for magick and love rites.

Lammas ( August 2nd) or Lughnassadh ( August 7th )
The feast of the celtic god Lugh, identified with the Sun, and one of the names the God can take upon Himself. The power of the God is lesser, but even then he blesses the cattle in a traditional ceremony where they're driven over the ashes of the fires lit during the festival.

Mabon: ( September 21st )
The Autumn Equinox, when the Earth gets ready for the absence of the God and the days start to get sensibly shorter. It's a good time for meditation and introspection.

Index