#in the night of April 30th people go out and put birches next to their loveydovey's home

[zwiebelii]

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[nonegenderleftpain]

Wheel of the Year Research Notes

No evidence of an ancient Wheel of the Year in the form we use it today, but the festivals were celebrated, though likely by other names

• First suggested in 1835, and formalized in the 1960s

Imbolc

• February 1-2nd

• The beginning of spring - Feile Bride, Brigid's Feast

• Imbolc literally means "in the belly"

• Fire festival

• A time for welcoming the return of light and enjoying rebirth, and a time to clear space for new beginnings

• Traditionally honors Brigid, the goddess of healing and hearth, poetry and smithing, fertility

○ Brigid is the Triple Goddess of Celtic faith

○ People sometimes make Brigid crosses from reeds

• Time to plant seeds and light candles, as Brigid is a goddess of fire

• Colors: white, silver and green

• Symbols include snowdrops, swans, fire, sheep, and serpents (creativity and inspiration, paths of energy stirred from slumber at Imbolc)

• Trees: rowan, willow

Ostara

• March 21st, Spring Equinox

• A time for hopes and promises of Imbolc to become action

• The growth of the Sun

• Named after the Germanic goddess Eostre/Ostara

○ Easter comes from her

• Symbols include the hare, the totem of the lunar goddesses and a symbol of fertility and immortality, and the egg, the symbol of fertility, the universe, and rebirth

○ Also hot cross buns, serpents, labyrinths and flowers

• Colors: green, yellow and purple

• Trees: birch, ash, and alder

Beltane

• April 30th

• The peak of spring and beginning of summer

• Fire festival

• Abundant fertility on all levels, the potential of life becoming conception, sexuality and passion

• Flora and the Green Man consummate their marriage

• Name originates from the Celtic god Bel, the bright one, and teine, meaning fire

○ Bonfires are lit to honor the Sun

§ All fires were put out in the community and a large fire was lit to honor Bel, called the need-fire.  People jump the fire to cleanse and protect.

• A time for Handfasting - a year-and-a-day betrothal to determine whether or not to marry

○ Today the length is determined by the couple

○ Exchanging of tokens, and the tying of the hands with a red ribbon or cord in a figure eight

○ Some jump a broomstick, if they cannot afford or do not want a wedding

• The Maypole represents the God and Goddess - a pole with a ring of flowers at the top

• Going A-Maying - spending the night in the woods or fields and making love, then bringing back hawthorn and may

• Putting a rowan branch along the ceiling will help protect against fey tricks as they wake for the summer

• Colors: green, red, white/silver

• Trees: hawthorn, birch, rowan

Litha

• June 21st, Midsummer/Summer Solstice

• A time of joy and celebration of the peak of the Solar year, and the time when the Sun begins to wane

• The Holly King claims his throne

• Beings that woke at Beltane are at their strongest

○ Sun wheels are woven to protect against these creatures

• Symbols include the bonfire, oak, mistletoe, flowers, herbs and honey

○ People stay up through the night to watch the sunrise, dancing around a bonfire

○ Drinking honey mead, the divine solar drink

• Colors: all of them!

• Trees: oak

Lughnasadh/Lammas

• August 1st

• The first harvest, the grain harvest

• Lammas means "loaf mass," as the first grain and loaf of the harvest is honored

• The festival of Lugh, the Celtic Sun King, associated with truth and order

○ Handfastings and weddings were common

○ Lugh set up all of the traditions to honor his mother, Tailtiu, who died preparing the land for ploughing, so the competitions and games common during Lammas are called the Tailteann Games

○ Circle dancing to mimic the Sun

○ The energy of the Sun is waning

○ Lugh is the living spirit of the corn and grain.  He surrenders himself for the life of others

• The Goddess is now the Harvest Queen and Grain Mother

○ The seeds that fall from the grain will birth the next cycle of rebirth

○ The final sheath of grain was made into a grain mother to be kept in the house, or out in the fields, and later returned to the earth

• Symbols include meadowsweet, mint, sunflower and calendula

• Colors: green, gold, yellow and orange

Mabon

• September 21st, Autumn Equinox

• Named after the god of Welsh myth, son of the Earth Goddess, Modron

• Little evidence this festival has historical ties earlier than the 1970s

• The second harvest, the fruit harvest, enjoying the abundance

• A good time to thank the Sun for his gifts

• The Goddess goes to the underworld

• A time of celebration but also rest - reaping what you've sown during the year and clear out unwanted things to prepare for winter

• The apple is the symbol of the fruit harvest

○ Contains a pentagram, and is associated with vitality, health, restored youth and long life

○ Circle around the pentagram is the circle of life

○ Sometimes worn as an amulet or used to guard doorways

• Colors: the colors of harvest, from green to brown

• Good time to plant bulbs that sprout in the spring

Samhain

• October 31st

• Feast of the Dead, Feast of Apples

• Literally means "summer's end"

• Considered the most important sabbat by many

• The final harvest, the harvest of nuts and berries

• Fire festival

• The Goddess, the Crone, mourns her husband's death

• The thinnest separation between worlds, and a time to honor the ancestors and welcome the return of the dark and the beginning of the new year

○ The day begins at night, not at dawn

○ Welcoming the ancestors and leaving a place for them at the table is important

○ A candle ceremony can be wonderful for remembering, as can a seed scattering

• Disguises and costumes are meant to prevent other beings from the spirit world from abducting or seducing us, and pranks symbolize the chaos in which the world began

• Symbols include pumpkins (modern tradition, have nothing to do with Samhain, but can be seen as acceptable symbolism as the Celts saw the head as the seat of the soul), cauldrons (the container for all of life), the broom (sweeping away the last of autumn leaves), and acorns (and other indigenous nuts)

• Colors: black, orange, purple

Yule

• December 21st, Winter Solstice

• A time to remember that the light always returns. The darkest night ends and the dark begins to retreat

• The festival of rebirth

• Symbols include mistletoe, holly, the evergreen, ivy, yew and pine

○ Evergreens are chosen as a symbol of the power to survive even the harshest seasons

• Wreaths are a symbol of the wheel of life

• Saturnalia was introduced in Victorian times - bringing in a live tree so the wood spirits have somewhere to keep warm, and hanging food for them in the branches

○ Trees are also decorated outside, accompanied by a bonfire made in part by the Yule Log, a piece of which is saved to begin the next year's fire

• The Holly King gives up his throne to the Oak King for half the year