The Eight Sabbats of the Wiccan Year

The Wheel of the Year is the annual cycle of eight festivals observed by most Wiccans and many other neopagans. The Wheel joins the four solar holidays — Yule, Ostara, Litha, and Mabon — to the four Gaelic seasonal festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh, and gives the Wiccan year its rhythm.

The first thing to say, and it cannot be said too often, is that the eight-sabbat calendar is not ancient. The four Gaelic festivals are documented in medieval Irish literature, but the calendar that joins them into a single wheel is a Wiccan and Druid innovation of the early and mid-twentieth century. The reconstruction is the work of Gerald Gardner, of Ross Nichols (the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids), and of Aidan A. Kelly, who in the early 1970s proposed the name “Mabon” for the autumn equinox sabbat. The historian Ronald Hutton, in The Triumph of the Moon (1999), has documented the synthesis in detail.

Yule — the winter solstice

Date: around 21 December, the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere.

Meaning: the sun’s lowest point, the longest night, the turning back toward the light. The “divine child” of the Wiccan Yule is a recognisable cousin of the Christian Christ child; the relationship is more complicated than the Wiccan literature sometimes admits.

Symbolism: the rebirth of the sun, the Goddess in her maternal aspect, the Horned God as the divine child of promise. The familiar customs of the Christmas season — the evergreen tree, the Yule log, the holly and the ivy, the exchange of gifts — are survivals of older European winter customs.

Observances: a vigil through the longest night, the lighting of candles, the burning of the Yule log, a feast, and a “rekindling of the light” rite in which a single candle is lit at midnight.

Imbolc — the first cross-quarter

Date: 1 or 2 February.

Meaning: the first stirring of spring, the lactation of the ewes, the lengthening of the days. The Old Irish Imbolg is mentioned in early Irish literature as one of the seasonal festivals on which the tribal assembly was held.

Symbolism: the Goddess in her maiden aspect, the return of light, the goddess Brigid (in older anglicisation Brighid, in modern Irish Bríd), associated with healing, poetry, and the forge. The Brigid’s cross, woven from rushes, is a traditional Imbolc craft.

Observances: the lighting of candles, the making of Brigid’s crosses, the making of a Brigid’s bed, and a ritual in which a figure of Brigid is processed through the house.

Ostara — the spring equinox

Date: around 21 March.

Meaning: the balance of light and dark, the turn toward spring, the awakening of the earth. The spring equinox is named in the Wiccan calendar “Ostara” after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre, mentioned in a single passage by Bede in De Temporum Ratione (725 CE). The historical Eostre is otherwise poorly attested, and Bruce Lincoln, in Emerging from the Churchyard (2013), has argued that Bede’s account may be a learned etymology of the Easter name rather than a description of an established cult. The Christian Easter takes its name from the same root.

Symbolism: the Goddess in her maiden aspect, the fertility of the soil. The hare and the egg are traditional symbols.

Observances: the colouring and blessing of eggs, the planting of seeds, the decoration of the house with spring flowers, and a rite that honours the balance of light and dark.

Beltane — the second cross-quarter

Date: 1 May, or the night of 30 April to 1 May.

Meaning: the full bloom of spring, the union of the Goddess and the Horned God, the lighting of the Beltane fires. Beltane (modern Irish Bealtaine) is one of the two great fire festivals of the Gaelic year, attested in early Irish literature and associated with the driving of cattle between two fires for purification. The 19th-century folklorist idea of “Celtic fire festivals” is somewhat oversold; the four Gaelic seasonal festivals do not form a uniform category in the early sources.

Symbolism: the Goddess in her mature aspect, the divine marriage, the fertility of the world. Maypole dancing and the gathering of flowers are traditional Beltane customs.

Observances: the lighting of bonfires, the Maypole dance, the “jumping the balefire” for purification and luck, and the Great Rite. Beltane is, along with Samhain, one of the most publicly celebrated of the Wiccan sabbats.

Litha — the summer solstice

Date: around 21 June, the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere.

Meaning: the sun’s highest point, the triumph of light, the turn toward the waning half of the year. The name “Litha” is a 20th-century coinage, probably from the Old English word for “gentle” or “navigable”.

Symbolism: the Horned God at the height of his power, the Goddess in her mother aspect, the sun. Midsummer, with its bonfires, greenwood gatherings, and feasting, has been a major festival across Europe since at least the medieval period.

Observances: a vigil through the shortest night, the lighting of bonfires, the gathering of herbs at dawn, and a feast.

Lughnasadh — the third cross-quarter

Date: 1 August or thereabouts.

Meaning: the first harvest, the ripening of the grain. Lughnasadh (modern Irish Lúnasa) is named for the Irish god Lugh, and the festival in Ireland was traditionally associated with funeral games and the gathering of the harvest. The most famous assembly was the Óenach Tailtenn, the Tailtiu Games, held at Telltown in honour of Lugh’s foster-mother Tailtiu.

Symbolism: the sun king beginning to weaken, the grain mother giving herself to the harvest. Loaves of bread, sheaves of wheat, and the first fruits of the garden are common symbols. The festival is also called Lammas, from the Old English “loaf-mass”.

Observances: the baking of bread from the new grain, the offering of first fruits, and a feast.

Mabon — the autumn equinox

Date: around 21 September.

Meaning: the second harvest, the balance of light and dark, the descent toward winter. The name “Mabon” is a 20th-century coinage by Aidan A. Kelly, drawing on the Welsh mythological figure of Mabon ap Modron, mentioned in the medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen in the Mabinogi. The Welsh Mabon is a real figure in the older literature, but the use of his name for a sabbat is Kelly’s.

Symbolism: the Goddess in her crone aspect, the Horned God descending toward the underworld, the dying sun. Apples, grapes, and late fruits are typical.

Observances: the gathering of late fruits, the making of cider, and a rite that honours the balance of light and dark.

Samhain — the fourth cross-quarter

Date: 31 October, or the night of 31 October to 1 November.

Meaning: the third harvest, the opening of the veil between the worlds. Samhain (modern Irish Samhain) is the most important of the Gaelic seasonal festivals, attested in early Irish sources as a time when the otherworld was closer to the world of the living and when offerings were made to the dead. The festival is the origin of the modern secular holiday of Halloween; the Christian All Saints’ Day (1 November) was set in the early Middle Ages to supersede the older festival.

Symbolism: the Crone Goddess, the Horned God as the lord of the dead, the thinning of the veil. Apples, pumpkins, late leaves, and the colours of autumn are common.

Observances: a dumb supper in honour of the dead, the setting of a place at the table for absent friends, and a vigil through the night. Samhain is the central festival of the Wiccan year. For a related treatment, see spirit communication and mediumship.