Eight Sabbats - The Wheel of the Year
As Taken from Mind, Body and Spirit

In Celtic tradition, particular times of the year are celebrated to acknowledge certain natural energies.

Our Pagan ancestors worked within a Wheel of the Year that reflected the cyclical nature of the seasons. This wheel had eight spokes, four of which marked annual events connected to the movement of the Earth and Sun: the two solstices (the longest and shortest days) and the two equinoxes (when day and night are of equal length.) The others marked times of agricultural or environmental significance. In Celtic tradition, these eight festivals celebrate the wheel's turning and are known as the Sabbats.

Click on dates below to read more.

The Celtic New Year is marked at

Samhain (31st October). Halloween

As the wheel turns it moves through

Winter Solstice (21st-22nd December). Yuletide

Imbolic (2nd February). Candlemas

Spring Equinox (20th-21st March) Easter

Beltane (1st May). May Day

Summer Solstice (21st June). Litha

Lammas (4th August). Harvest Festival

Autumn Equinox (20th-21st September) Mabon

and round to Samhain again.

"Wheel of the Year"
By Mickie Mueller

The wheel of the year is a concept of continuation and the cycles that the seasons of life run within. The Sabbat celebrations of nature spirituality paths are celebrated on the soltices, equinoxes, and cross quarters (the middle dates between solstices and equinoxes.) Each of these celebrations has special energies and correspondences, each one relating to another, and continuing on in a never ending pattern. The wheel teaches us that cycles of growth, harvest, rest, and renewal are important and can't exist without each other. We must learn to work within these cycles of life in order to better develop understanding and to prosper. By celebrating the cycles of the seasons and really experiencing them, one can discover many mysteries of life, the earth and magick.

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