Pagan Wheel Of The Year

PaganWheeloftheYearSticker evolvefish com, originally uploaded by jazzway.

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The Pagan Wheel of the Year. A marvelous image. One that shows the major holidays, or Sabbats. These Sabbats are:

Samhain - Last Harvest/Feast of the Dead (Oct. 31/Nov.1)

Yule - Midwinter Feast (Winter Solstice Dec. 19 - 23)

Imbolc - Brigid's Day/Candlemas (Feb. 1-2)

Ostara - Festival of the Trees/Lady Day (Spring equinox March 20 - 23)

Beltane - May Day/Beltane ( May 1)

Midsummer Feast - Mother Night (Summer solstice (June 19 - 23)

Lughnasadh - Lammas/First Harvest (Aug. 1-2)

Mabon - Fruit Harvest/Second Harvest (Autumn equinox Sept. 19 - 23)

The word "sabbat" itself derives from the same roots as Sabbath (Christian) and Sabbath (witchcraft), namely Old English sabat, Old French sabbat, Latin sabbatum, Greek sabbaton (or sa'baton), and Hebrew shabbat, which means "to cease or rest".

Most of the holidays of the Wheel of the Year are named after Pre-Christian Celtic and Pre-Christian Germanic religious festivals. However, a great deal of liberty has usually been taken with the forms and meanings of these festivals, due to the influence of turn of the century romanticism as well as the eclectic elements introduced by Wicca. The similarities between these holidays generally end at the shared names, as Wicca makes no effort to reconstruct these ancient practices. Wiccans observe the festivals of the Wheel of the Year together in a form of universalism not corroborated by any historical continuity.

There is no place in Europe where all eight festivals have been observed as a set, and the complete eightfold Wheel of the Year was unknown prior to modern Wicca. In early forms of Wicca only the cross-quarter days were observed.

Among Wiccans, the most common Wheel of the Year narrative is that of the God/Goddess duality. In this cycle, the God is born from the Goddess at Yule, grows in power at Vernal Equinox (along with the Goddess who has now returned to her maiden aspect), courts and impregnates the Goddess at Beltane, wanes in power at Lammas, passes into the underworld at Samhain, then is once again born from Her mother/crone aspect at Yule. The Goddess, in turn, ages and rejuvenates endlessly with the seasons, being courted by and giving birth to the Horned God. Versions of this myth vary from coven to coven, shifting the birth, conception, or death of the God to different sabbats.

Another, more solar, narrative is of the Holly King and the Oak King, with one ruling the winter, the other the summer. These two figures battle with each other endlessly as the seasons turn. At Midsummer the Oak King is at the height of his strength, while the Holly King is at his weakest. The Holly King begins to regain his power, and at the Autumn Equinox, the tables finally turn in the Holly King's favor; he vanquishes the Oak King at Yule. Then over the next months, as the sun waxes in power, the Oak King slowly regains his strength; at the Spring Equinox he begins to triumph until he once again defeats the Holly King at Midsummer.

Information taken from Wikipedia entry on: Wheel of the Year