year 2021-12-19 16:52:15 -1000

The Wheel of the Year

The Four Seasons are known as Solar Festivals, in that they mark a seasonal change caused by the Sun. The cross quarter days are marked by Fire Festivals and are usually celebrated as significant agricultural festivals. Together the Solar Festivals and the Fire Festivals make up the Wheel Of The Year. The Wheel Of The Year, is often broken into eight festivals, whether they are the eight Asatru Blots, Seasonal Festivals or Celtic Sabbats, and the observance of Solar energies at the solstices and equinoxes and the Fire energies on the cross quarter days, is a common theme throughout the world.

The Festivals of the Wheel Of The Year also represent the active and dormant states of nature, man and agriculture. Each of the festival days was ruled by a governing deity, whether a God or Goddess, with each region having its own associated deity. From planting to reaping to winter to summer... the seasons were of great importance to our ancestors, for their very existence depended upon good harvests, mild winters, enough rainfall.

The Four Solar Festivals

Winter Solstice - Yule - Dec 21st / 22nd
(Yule from the Anglo-Saxon 'Yula', meaning 'wheel' of the year.)

Ocurring around December 22 above the equator and around June 22 in the Southern Hemisphere, Yule marks the longest night of the year. A direct contrast to Litha, this is the Sabbat at which the days begin to grow longer again.

Spring Equinox - Ostara - Mar 21st / 22nd

Ostara: Ostara is the time of the vernal equinox, and falls around March 22 if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, (around Sept 22 for Southern Hemisphere readers), and it's a true marker that Spring has come. Ostara corresponds with the old Lady Day celebration found in the British Isles.

Summer Solstice - Litha - Midsummers Eve - June 21st / 22nd
(Midsummer, Gathering Day, Summer Solstice, Alban Heffyn, Feill-Sheathain)

Litha is the celebration of the midsummer solstice, and falls around June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, and December 21 below the Equator. It marks the longest day of the year, and the point at which the nights begin getting longer once more.

Autumn Equinox - Harvest - Mabon - Sept 21st / 22nd
Gwyl canol Hydref or Mabon: (pronounced Ma-bon).
(Also known as Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Fall Equinox, Autumn Equinox etc.)

This fall festival celebrates the autumn equinox, and takes place around September 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, and March 21 in the Southern Hemisphere. It is often marked as the second of the harvest celebrations, and corresponds to Michaelmas on the old English calendar.

The Four Festivals of Fire (Cross-Quarter Days)

These days marked the midpoint between a solstice and equinox. For the ancient Celts, these marked the beginning of each season, with the major two divisions being winter (Samhain), starting the dark half of the year, and summer (Beltane), starting the light half of the year.

February Eve or Brigid or Imbolc (Oimelc) - Feb 2nd Disablot / Candlemas / Imbolc.
This holiday is also known as Candlemas, or Brigid's Day. (pronounced BREED).

This celebration takes place around February 2 in the Northern Hemisphere (August 2 in the Southern Hemisphere), and corresponds with St. Brighid's Day or Candlemas. For many Pagans it's a celebration of candles and light and fire.

Originally, this day was called Imbolc (lambs' milk) because the lambing season began. It was also called Brigantia for the Celtic female deity of light, calling attention to the Suns' being halfway on its advance from the winter solstice to the spring equinox.

As the days' lengthening becomes perceptible, many candles are lit to hasten the warming of the earth and emphasize the reviving of life. "Imbolc" is from Old Irish, and may mean "in the belly", and Oimelc, "ewe's milk", as this is the lambing time. It is the holiday of the Celtic Fire Goddess Brigid, whose threefold nature rules smithcraft, poetry/inspiration, and healing. Brigid's fire is a symbolic transformation offering healing, visions, and tempering. Februum is a Latin word meaning purification -- naming the short month of cleansing. The thaw releases waters (Brigid is also a goddess of holy wells) -- all that was hindered is let flow at this season.

The Irish Goddess Brigit, Brigid or Bride (pronounced Breed), matron of artists, smiths and healers, is honoured in Druidry and WiseCraft. Her symbol is "Brigit's Cross", (shown on the right). Bride was the daughter of the Dagda (or Good God), the principal God of the Irish race known as the Tuatha de Dnaan, People of Dana, Dana being the Mother Goddess.

Brigit was often depicted as a Triple Goddess. Her chief shrine was in Kildare, where her vigil fire was tended by unmarried priestesses known as Inghean an Dagha, Daughters of Fire. With the Christianization of Ireland, Brigid became Saint Brigid and her shrine was taken over by nuns. Legend tells us that the nuns continued to tend her sacred flame until the thirteenth century, when the Bishop of Kildare decreed that the custom was Pagan and must cease. However, Brigid remained a very popular saint in Ireland and Scotland until recent times and her importance rivalled that of the Virgin Mary.

Much of this day is grounded in the seasons—estimating how soon spring-like weather will come and when to plant the crops.

It was not held as a good omen if the day itself was bright and sunny, for that betokened snow and frost to continue to the hiring of the laborers 6 weeks later on Lady Day. If it was cloudy and dark, warmth and rain would thaw out the fields and have them ready for planting.

Our Groundhog Day is a remote survivor of that belief. Though we recognize animal behavior isn't always the way to judge planting dates, the tradition continues, often with a wink and a smile.

Candlemas acquired its English name from the candles lit that day in churches to celebrate the presentation of the Christ Child in the temple of Jerusalem.

Beltane - May 1 April 30th / May 1st
(Beltane derived from the Irish Gaelic "Bealtaine" or the Scottish Gaelic "Bealtuinn", meaning "Bel-fire", the fire of the Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or Belinus).)
May Eve / Valpurgis / Cetsamhain / Roodmas / Shenn do Boaldyn / May Day

Beltane is a celebration of the greening of the earth, and is often celebrated with a big bonfire. It takes place on May Day - May 1 - if you live above the equator, and October 31 or November 1 if you live in the Southern Hemisphere.

May Day, or Beltane, was the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, and marked the beginning of summer for the ancient Celts. It was a day for dance and song to hail the sown fields starting to sprout. Beltane was a time for the pairing of young couples, though not yet their wedding, which would not come until the next Cross-Quarter Day, after three months of seeing how they suited each other.

Lughnasa - August 2, July 31st / Aug 1st Frey Fest / Lughnasa / Lugnasad / Lammas

Lughnasadh was the wedding of the Sun god Lugh to the Earth goddess, causing the ripening of crops. The first loaves baked from the new wheat were offered at the Loaf Mass, which became corrupted in pronunciation to Lammas.

Lammas is the first of the harvest festivals and celebrates the reaping of the grain. In some traditions, it is Lughnasadh, and honors the Celtic blacksmith god Lugh. It takes place around August 1 in the Northern Hemisphere, and February 1 below the equator.

Samhain - October 31
(*Note: Samhain is pronounced sowen, soween, saw-win, saw-vane or sahven, not sam-hayne)
Samhain / Winter Nights / Feile Moingfinne / Halloween

Samhain is known as the witches' new year, and is a time when the veil between this world and the next is thin. It's a good time to do some fire scrying! Celebrate Samhain on October 31 in the Northern Hemisphere, and May 1 in the Southern Hemisphere.

Samhain ("summer's end"), or Halloween, marked the beginning of winter for the ancient Celts, and many historians believe that it served as the start of the new year in the Celtic calendar. It was the day when the cattle were brought in from pasture; those needed for the winters' supply of meat would be slaughtered. Since Samhain was the death-night of the old year, it came to be associated with ghosts and graveyards. It has happier associations too, such as apple bobbing, which was a form of telling fortunes for the new year.

From:
http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/the_wheel_of_the_year/the_wheel_of_the_year.asp

Faery blessings -- celeste