Samhain; Sunset, October 31 to sunrise, November 1 Other names: Calan Gaeaf, Halloween, All Hallows Eve Life events celebrated: Death to Impregnation Other information: Feast of the Dead and New Year's celebration
Yule; Sunset, longest night to following sunset Other names: An Fheill-Shlinnein, Alban Arthan, Giula or Geola Life events celebrated: Birth Other information: Rebirth of the sun
Imbolc; Sunset, February 1 to sunset, February 2 Other names: Candlemas, Oimelc, Brigid, Lupercalia Life events celebrated: Childhood Other information: Mid-winter festival
Eostre; Sunset of vernal equinox to the following sunset Other names: Lady Day, Co-Thad-Thrath, Alban Eilir, Ostara Life events celebrated: Puberty Other information: First fertility festival for Spring planting.
Bealtaine, April 30 to Sunset, May 1 Other names: Bel-tuinn, Walpurgisnacht, May Eve, Cyntefyn, Roodmass, Cetshamain Life events celebrated: First sexual union Other information: Major fertility and purification festival Leitha; Sunset, shortest night to following day sunset Other names: Grian-Stad, Alban Hefin, Midsummer Life events celebrated: Maturity and strength Other information: Celebration of strength, agility, etc.,
Lammas; Sunset, July 31 to Sunset, August 1 Other names: Lughnasadh, August Eve Life events celebrated: Middle age Other information: Major fire festival.
Mabon; Sunset, autumn equinox to following sunset Other names: Harvestide, Alban Elfed, Harvest Home Life events celebrated: Old Age Other information: First harvest festival
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May all your up's and down's be under the sheets!
Religion is for those who are afraid of going to Hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there. - Anonymous
(ever read Goethe's Faust? He describes the Walpurgisnacht wonderfully! (mind, he was brought up a sceptic, but he has an excellent style, and Faust is his best works of all))
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Moderator: The Playground (RPG)
Carpe Jugulum Carved with a twisted smile An epitaph for sorrow Sethian - Epitaph
It's force-fed to every german pupil Goethe is the arch-enemy of every german school-goer... I got behind the magic of that book later, when I read it for the second time (actually for the first time, I only tagged along in school, trying to keep my eyes open). If you are interested in that sort of thing (it's a play) you might like it. Maybe you can find a translated version somewhere...
Thanks for sharing all those Sabbats dates. I knew Samhain and Bealtaine from a few readings but it is great to know them all. Those celebrations are definitely closer to the many cycles of life than the usual (and saddly, commercial) holidays...
(ouch! Sorry if my sentences are crappy. My brain is switch off this morning)
Realm: Éire (okay fine, it's really PA, USA but that's just boring.)
why didn't you include mid-summer?
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If we could just stand here, without the words, would that be enough? ..Look at the sky now. What color is it? Or the way a hawk flies. Or you wake up and your ribs are bruised thinking so hard on somebody. What do you call that?
"Don't cross the street if you can't get out of the kitchen"
"I'm just wondering... you said, Imbolc was on February 1st (and so on) why is that? Is there any special reason for that?"
Sabbats fall on the quarter and cross-quarter days; summer and winter solstices, spring and autumnal equinoxes, and in between the solstices and equinoxes, dividing the year into quarters, then eighths. They're often depicted as spokes on a wheel; the Wheel of the Year.
I was told that the dates of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lammas are connected to the stars. That for example Litha is the sabbat of the summer solistice and Lammas follows as soon as the stars are in the right position, which means in this case 15° of lion. But this kind of view implies that the date of the four sabbats not directly belonging to the solar events chance the actual date. That would make the dates of those four something around 6th of february, may, august and november.
This was why I asked, I was just wondering if you'd say I was told wrong.
And I'd just add a sorry for if my English's not good. I'm German and it's late. *g*
according to some of my reading, the dates that aren't solstice or equinox related were often set by planting or harvest times, so depending on where you were geographically you could be celebrating them anywhere from a week to two weeks apart. Since we're really not (in many cases, anyway) an agrarian society, the dates have been fixed.
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Just a wee deoch an dorris "Not all who wander are lost"
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Also you must remeber that the old calendars were lunar based, 28 day cycles, and would not correspond to our modern calendar dates.
So our Feb 1st is not the same day that the old ones celebrated on.
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