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The Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of the Year is a Wiccan and Neo-Pagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to by Wiccans as sabbats. Four of these sabbats fall on solstices and equinoxes and are known as "quarter days" or "Lesser Sabbats." The other four fall on the midway between these and are commonly known as "cross-quarter days," "fire festivals," or "Greater Sabbats." These eight major festivals or sabbats are distinct from Wiccan "esbats," which are additional meetings, usually smaller celebrations or coven meetings, held on full or new moons.

Samhain

Samhain is the most important of the Greater Sabbats. Generally observed on October 31 in the northern hemisphere. It is a time to celebrate the lives of ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets, and loved ones who have passed away. The opposite of Beltane, the festival of light and fertility, as a festivity of darkness. In the Wheel of the Year, this is the beginning of the New Year (similiar in the fashion of the Chinese calender, in which New Year's occurs at the beginning of spring).

Yule

Yule is a celebration of rebirth of the Great God, viewed as the newborn solstice sun. Some celebrate at home or in coven celebrations.

Imbolc

Imbolc is one of the four fire festivals, sometimes a time of initiations. Also a time for rededication and pledges for the coming year.

Ostara

Ostara, from the Old High German for "Easter," is also connected to Eostre. Characterized by the rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort son, who spent the winter months in death. Variations include the young God regaining strength in his youth being born at Yule, the Goddess returning to her Maiden aspect.

Beltane

Beltane is a fire festival and Greater Sabbat. Gaelic tradition of a bonfire is common; Beltane bears more relation to Germanic May Day, both in focus on fertility and rituals such as maypole dancing. Sometimes Wiccans enact a ritual union of the May Lord and Lady for "High Beltaine."

Litha

Litha is Norse/Anglo-Saxon for "longest day," one of four solar holidays.

Lammas

Lammas is the first of three fall harvest festivals, the others being Mabon and Samhain. It is a time for celebrating grain and bread, which symbolize the fruits of the first harvest.

Mabon

Mabon is a ritual thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months.

In the southern hemisphere, these festivals are commonly shifted by six months to coincide with the local seasons. These festivals are based on local perspective and are meant to put the individual in harmony with the Earth. It would not make much sense for the Southern Hemisphere to celebrate Litha, the summer solstice in June, which is the middle of winter by local perspective. The summer season in this hemisphere occurs in December.