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The Wheel of the Year
The modern Pagan calendar of eight sabbats, from Samhain to Mabon, assembled in the mid twentieth century from older festivals.
About The Wheel of the Year
The Wheel of the Year is the cycle of eight seasonal festivals in Wicca and many other modern Pagan paths. Four are solar, the solstices and equinoxes, and four are the Gaelic fire festivals, Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. The scheme was put together in the 1950s and 1960s, notably by Gerald Gardner and Ross Nichols, combining Irish and Germanic names with the astronomical dates. Followers hold that it follows the changes of the land and the life of a god and goddess. In the southern hemisphere the dates are reversed, so Samhain is celebrated around 30 April. Historians point out that the eightfold calendar is modern, even as the individual festivals have older roots.
Also part of it, and being written: Wheel of the Year (The calendar.), Wicca (The religion that popularised it.), Modern paganism (The broader movement.), Sabbat (The term for each festival.).
Written by the EveryJaadu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Wheel of the Year" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family, and are described as belief and practice. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.