The four Celtic festivals were known to the Gaels as Beltane (1 May), Lughnasadh (1 August), Samhain (1 November), and Imbolc (1 February). Influential works such as The Golden Bough (1890) by James George Frazer explored various European seasonal festivals and …

Mar 19, 2023 · The four cross-quarter festivals are Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Samhain, celebrated on 31 October, is the pagan New Year and the time when the veil between the worlds is thinnest. Imbolc, celebrated on 2 February, …

Dec 22, 2023 · The Wheel of the Year is a symbol represents the 8 festivals important to many pagans, Wiccans, and witches. These holidays — knows as Sabbats — follow a nature-based calendar and include four solar festivals and four seasonal festivals set in between them.

It is one of the four cross-quarter days (or ‘fire festivals’), and one of the wheel’s four ‘greater sabbats’. The other cross-quarter days are Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain.

Nov 15, 2024 · Represents: sun, earth, four elements, four seasons. Used in rituals for: transformation, endings, beginnings, solstice. The sun wheel is another form of a sun cross as it is also a circle bisected by four lines.

May 9, 2019 · Paganism ties this cycle to the season’s annual progression as well as the waxing and waning strength of the Sun. Pagan holidays are aligned with days that mark key points in the annual cycle, notably the beginning and peak of the four seasons.

The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern Pagans. It consists of either four or eight festivals: either the solstices and equinoxes, known as the “quarter days”, or the four midpoints between, known as the “cross quarter days”; some traditions like Wicca often celebrate all eight festivals.

For Wiccans and NeoPagans, the enclosed cross in a circle connects the Sun with the Divine. The cross marks the four seasons too. The Wheel signifies the Sun, seasons, and festivals. Each division marking another turn of the wheel. When the circle has four equal divisions, each spoke marks one of four major Sabbats.

While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, syncretic treatments often refer to the four solar events as "quarter days", with the four midpoint events as "cross-quarter days".

Jan 17, 2024 · The Sabbats include four solar events—the two solstices, Yule and Litha, and the two equinoxes, Ostara and Mabon—and four seasonal festivals that occur roughly halfway …