Pagan Festivals and Sabbats


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the eight-spoked wheel

For followers of nature-based spiritual paths, such as Druidry or Wicca, the dynamics of the changing seasons and the interplay between darkness and light are fundamental. This enduring cycle is an expression of deeper truths, and by making a conscious choice to be active participants in the natural ebb and flow of the year, pagans can find harmony with things on all levels, from the natural to the personal to the divine.

From antiquity, people have celebrated the ever-turning wheel of the year in eight festivals that mark important points in the cycle: the two solstices and the two equinoxes, and four cross-quarter days dividing the time between them. These festivals are common across many pagan traditions, including the Druidic, Wiccan, Celtic and Norse (Asatru) paths.

The Solar Festivals
The four festivals comprised by the solstices and equinoxes are defined by the apparent motion of the sun, and are therefore solar in nature. The solstice festivals celebrate the longest and shortest days of the year, and the equinoxes the two days when day and night are of equal length. As pivotal points of change, these four days are the most important in the cycle of light and dark during the year, and in dividing the year into quarters, they are sometimes referred to as quarter days. These festivals are tied to natural events, and so they do not fall on exactly the same day every year, and their solar nature means that they are considered the more masculine of the festivals.

The Fire Festivals
The cross-quarter festivals are sometimes referred to as 'fire festivals', and are celebrated on four days placed approximately mid-way between each successive pair of solar festivals. They are more in step with the changing of the seasons and the cycle of plant growth, and are considered more feminine and lunar in nature than the others. As they are not tied specifically to observable events, these festivals fall on the same days each year.

With the festivals celebrating the natural rather than the constructed, it is no surprise that each festival is usually considered as starting at sunset on the previous day and ending at sunset on the day in question, rather than our more modern midnight to midnight. In particular, much of the celebration of Samhain does occur at the most appropriate time - Hallowe'en.

Wheel of the Year 1 2 3 4