Imbolc: February 1st

Imbolc is on February 1st. Imbolc means "Milk" and is a day set aside to honor the Goddess who is slowly turning the Wheel of the Year back to spring. Winter was a tough season for many Pagans, and this was a time to hurry along the sun and bring about the warmth of spring. Imbolc is known in some customs as Candlemas. Candlemas is the name given to ritually lighting fires to lure back the slowly waning sun. It was customary to have a young lady enter the circle with a ring of lit candles that represented the Wheel of the Year being warmed and lit by the returning sun.

This day is also known as St. Bridget's Day , which is the Churches version of our Goddess; camouflaged.

Beltane: May 1st

This Sabbat falls opposite Samhain on the Wheel of the Year. These two Sabbats are the two most important of the year. They mark the beginning and the end of the two recognized seasons. Beltaine derives its name from a word meaning, "bale-fire." It is tradition to light bale-fires in the eve of Beltaine and let them burn throughout the night.

This is a fertility Sabbat in which the God performs the Great Rite with the Goddess. This holiday marks the final phase of planting. Ashes from the Beltaine fire were scattered over the fields to bless and protect them. You can also ritually purify anything through the smoke of the Beltaine fire.

This is also a time to use the maypole. To do this, you will need a center object to be the pole. The pole needs to be at least ten feet tall. You will need sixteen-foot lengths of ribbon (red and white). You may also want bells for your heels. Finally, you will need to choose some Celtic folk music to play while you dance. When the dance begins, the women take the white ribbons and the men take the red. (Ribbons are alternated red-white). When the music begins, the women stand with their right side to the pole and the men with their left. Begin weaving in and out until all the ribbons are tight to the pole.

Lammas: August 1st

Also known as Lughnasadh , it is the first of the three harvest Sabbats. This festival honors the Celtic Sun God Lugh. Lugh, meaning "the shinning one," was a god of many skills. He was the God of the Harvests, Fire, Light, and Metallurgy, and he was the protector and defender of the weak and ill. He was the king of the Tuatha De Dananna. We celebrate the first fruits of the harvest within our circle. Our circle is an expression of the gratitude we have for the bounty of the earth, and we ask that all living creatures may share in this with us. We also honor the Goddesses Ceres and Demeter, for they are goddesses of the harvest too.

Roosters are often present at Lughnasadh festivities because they were held sacred to the Sun Gods of Europe. The roosters have made their ways into many children's stories.

Samhain: October 31st

Samhain (pronounced sow-in where the ow is pronounced like the ow in cow) is the Witches New Year . It is the old Celtic feast of the dead. Some may call it the final festival while others call it the first. I use Samhain as my first ritual of the year.

Samhain marks the end of the third and final harvest and is also a day to commune and remember the dead, and it is a celebration of the eternal cycle of reincarnation. Samhain is named after either Samana, the Aryan God of Death or from the Irish Gaelic word samhraidhreadh, which literally means the summer's end. Not only does Samhain mark the end of summer, but it also marks the beginning of winter and the official New Year.

On the night of Samhain, the old God dies and the Crone Goddess mourns him deeply for the remaining six weeks of his death. A good thing to note here is that Samhain is not associated with evil or negativity, nor was it ever. It was always a day to remember those who have passed. On this night Witches still leave soul cakes at crossroads for dead ancestors, and is a custom which has evolved into two things: giving food to the homeless and giving candy to trick or treaters.

In ancient times it was believed that if the right offerings and sacrifices were not made, the spirits of the dead would take advantage of the opening in the seam between the worlds of the living and the dead, to come and do harm and mischief to the living {hence the trick or treat tradition}.

The night still retains it's threatening air, but not of unhappy ancestors, but of hunger, cold, winter storms. Samhain is the true beginning of the wheel of the year, the season of death.

To celebrate this magickal time, fires are lit on sidh {faerie mounds} in which the spirits are said to live prior to crossing over. Samhain was both a night of death and rebirth. Celtic tradition says that all who die each year must wait until Samhain to cross over into the Summerland {spirit world} where they will begin their new lives. At this moment of crossing the little people {faeries} appear. Some are there to help show the way to the Summerland, still others to play and make mischief. This is why fires are lit on sidh.

The Lesser Sabbats:
Ostara, Litha and Mabon

Ostara: March 22

Ostara is the virgin Goddess of spring. This holiday concerns the deity's trip to the underworld, and their struggle to return from the Land of the Dead to Earth. When they accomplish this return, they have a life renewed.

The Church, trying to keep their holidays close to the Pagan holidays, assigned Easter to this time of the year. Like Easter, Ostara is a time to wear your new clothes. It was considered bad luck to wear anything new before Ostara, so the people would work through the winter in secret to make elegant clothes for the Sabbat celebration. The entire community would gather for games, feasting, and religious rituals while showing off their clothing.

The lamb was another symbol of Ostara, and was sacred to the Virgin Goddess of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. This symbol was so ingrained in the mindset of the people that it carried over to Passover and Easter.

The modern belief that eggs are delivered by a rabbit known as the Easter Bunny comes from the legend of the Goddess Eostre. So much did a lowly rabbit want to please the Goddess that he laid the sacred eggs in her honor, gaily decorated them, and humbly presented them to her. So pleased was she that she wished all humankind to share in her joy. In honor of her wishes, the rabbit went through the entire world and distributed these little decorated gifts of life. To make these eggs, boil a large handful of an herb or flower until the water is well colored. Place the water into a heat-resistant cup or bowl. Stir in a teaspoon of vinegar and a pinch of salt and allow soaking

MidSummer: the Summer Solstice

This holiday is also known as Litha or Gathering Day . Litha marks the time of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, and the height of the Sun Gods power.

These rituals focused on fertility rites. The Goddess is heavy with pregnancy, just like the crops. Now we must focus on nurturing new life both in the ground and in the human and animal wombs.

The sun is a symbol of protection, and many Pagans choose to make protection amulets in the week before the Sabbat. This is also the festival in which fire is most prominent. This is a time to perform fire magick.

Mabon: 22 September

Mabon is the Sabbat held on the Autumnal equinox. At this Sabbat we celebrate the coming of the fall, and look to the time the Horned god will die, but we do not feel sad, for we know that six weeks after Samhain he shall rise again as a young god. We celebrate the harvests and show this in our ritual. We honor the Goddess and god, and thank them for their bounty, and look forward to their rise and the new harvest of the next year.

Yule: December 22

The God is reborn of the virgin Goddess. The God is represented by the sun which "returns" after the darkest night of the year. The God returns to bring back warmth and fertility. A pagan used to light candles and fires in an attempt to lure the sun back to the land. This was a form of sympathetic magick that many (unknowingly) use today around Christmas by putting lights on their trees and homes!

The word "virgin" here does not mean "without sex" but without husband. A virgin in the early days was a woman who had not yet married and was free to be with any man she wished.

The virgin Goddess gives birth to her son which will be her lover at the spring Sabbat and the father of his next Yule incarnation.

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