Sabbats and the Wheel of the Year? - Overview

Merry Meet!

This week I really wanted to write an in depth entry all about the Wheel of the Year and the Sabbats but I just haven't been able to schedule time into my week to actually flesh out a lovely large article. Instead I thought I'd take this small opportunity to introduce the concept of Sabbats.

What is a Sabbat?
The Pagan calendar is split up into eight seasonal festivals throughout the year. These are times of ritual celebration and coincide with the yearly equinoxes and solstices (quarter days), and the four cross quarter days.

The story of birth, life, death and rebirth is played out across the year and through the seasons, so each Sabbat reflects part of this process. The seasonal cycle is imagined to follow the relationship between the Horned God and the Goddess. The Horned God is born in winter, impregnates the Goddess and then dies during the autumn and winter months and is then reborn by the Goddess at Yule. The relationships between the Goddess and the Horned God are mirrored by Wiccans in seasonal rituals. 

Some good reads that explore this in more depth include:

• Introduction To Pagan Studies - Barb Davy
• The Witches Bible : The Complete Handbook - Stewart and Janet Farrar

So now we understand that there are these eight celebrations through the year that are based on the cycle of the seasons. Let's list these Sabbats then, shall we? 
NB: Depending on whether you reside in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere will impact the date each of the Sabbats falls upon because the seasonal cycles are opposite in each.

• Yule
• Imbolc
• Ostara
• Beltane
• Litha
• Lammas
• Mabon
• Samhain

Fun fact ;) Some of these names might indeed look familiar and that is due to a lot of these holidays being appropriated as Christian holidays when the early church was converting Pagans to the their faith. The above Wheel of the Year is a display of the Northern Hemisphere dates. Below is an image with the Southern Hemisphere corresponding dates.

Next time I will go into detail about the different festivals and then perhaps split each one into an intensive blog on each? We shall see how we go. I am hoping to have a little bit of time next week for writing.

Until then, Blessed Be <3
Vivienne