(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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| Celtic Radio Community > The Grove > The Sabbats |
| Posted by: RavenWing 10-Jul-2003, 02:46 PM |
| The Sabbats 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 |
| Posted by: Aon_Daonna 11-Jul-2003, 02:05 PM |
| delete my post! (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)) |
| Posted by: RavenWing 11-Jul-2003, 02:19 PM |
No I haven't. I am not as well read I want to be.  |
| Posted by: Aon_Daonna 11-Jul-2003, 02:35 PM |
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... |
| Posted by: RavenWing 11-Jul-2003, 02:41 PM |
| I am positive there are many translations available. |
| Posted by: slamedbear 04-Aug-2003, 12:48 AM |
thankyou for that interesting bit of info the both of you  |
| Posted by: emerald footprints 18-Aug-2003, 09:02 AM |
| 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) |
| Posted by: Lyra Luminara 15-Jun-2004, 09:45 PM |
| why didn't you include mid-summer? |
| Posted by: Balachasen 01-Oct-2004, 02:05 AM |
| Hallo 'S toil leam gach sabbat ceilteach gun bha sibh a' scriobh - Lughnasad??? Aren't they wonderful all the celtic sabbats, and how lucky we are to have them to enjoy...... Moran Taing, Balachasen Raff Dellavaris |
| Posted by: dragonboy3611 06-Nov-2004, 04:10 PM |
| Thanks for the info on the Sabbats! |
| Posted by: Nightchild 05-Jul-2005, 02:17 PM |
That's a nice little summary of the sabbats  I'm just wondering... you said, Imbolc was on February 1st (and so on) why is that? Is there any special reason for that? |
| Posted by: Emmet 05-Jul-2005, 02:42 PM |
| " why didn't you include mid-summer?" She did; Litha. "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. |
| Posted by: Nightchild 05-Jul-2005, 03:03 PM |
| 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* |
| Posted by: gallesjrrt 30-Jan-2006, 11:05 AM |
| 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. |
| Posted by: Shadows 30-Jan-2006, 04:54 PM |
| 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. |
| Posted by: Nightchild 03-Feb-2006, 05:07 PM | ||||
That might be, yet I never read or heard about it...
Wasn't that about what I said...? Having the time of the sabbats determined by a constellation of stars is about the most precise thing I can think of. It doesn't matter what kind of calender we use. This is why I was wondering about the fixed dates that were provided here. Meaning: it doesn't matter whether we call it day number x of Rowan or day y of February or maybe day z of the second moon of the year. That's all just names. The important thing is that the acording zodiac shows 15°. And that event should be around February 6th at the moment. Not because it is February 6th, but because the stars tell that it's the right time. (And I definitely have the feeling that today is the first day you really can feel Imbolc out there... But maybe you may feel that different... I don't know...) Anyway, I thought I wouldn't comment again on that subject for I don't want to make anyone believe me, who wants to may just do so. Yet I somehow felt that the words I chose earlier didn't make my thinking clear and I wanted to try to make you understand my thinking. Hopefully I succeeded... |
| Posted by: Shadows 03-Feb-2006, 05:21 PM |
| Your words were clear, I was just supporting your argument with another way of saying it. The "fixed dates" provided here came from many sources and most of the posts already existed before I became the moderator for this forum. |
| Posted by: Nightchild 06-Feb-2006, 06:02 AM |
Oh okay, sorry. I was just confused...  |
| Posted by: gallesjrrt 07-Feb-2006, 11:18 AM |
| It's easy to get confused on this. Think about how it is for people living in the Southern Hemisphere. Imagine celebrating Yule in 90 degree weather! And then you add in those of us who can't always do group rituals on the DAY but have to do them on the Sunday before because that's the only time we can get together. I WISH we could do Ritual on the correct day; it would be so much more meaningful! |
| Posted by: Nightchild 07-Feb-2006, 12:34 PM |
Well, it probably would be strange to do so. But since I'm from Germany and we mesure in Celsius I have some problems imagening what 90°F are like.  Anyway, I friend of mine who visited New Zealand somewhen around Samhain told me they celebrate the sabbats according to their own seasons, meaning when she was there around Samhain they had Beltane. What made her having three times Beltane in a row without having Samhain somewhere in between. I'd hate that, I like Samhain much more than Beltane, although that's nice as well... As for the date... We usually celebrate the Saturday before or after the actual date. Yet since it's all a matter of energy building up and having the zenith at the date of the sabbat it's no problem to celebrate somewhen before or after. It's not as if all the energy was gone at 6am the following morning or something like that. It is cool to celebrate on the real day. But when I feel like doing so, I take a few minutes and do something myself, just a very little thing, so that there's still the actual celebration with the rest of the group... |
| Posted by: Shadows 15-Apr-2006, 07:51 AM |
| A site with more info on the Sabbats: http://www.wicca.com/celtic/akasha/holindex.htm |
| Posted by: givo 03-Jun-2006, 07:24 PM |
| Celtic saboths are great but if you want to go further than just celebrating the holidays you can perform ceramonies to the celtic gods. This may sound weird but when your around nature it is peaceful and relaxing. If you want som info go to www.paganspath.com slainte givo |
| Posted by: ShadowDarkFyre 05-Jun-2006, 12:05 PM |
| I keep to about four or more main sabbaths, myself: the solstices and equinoxes, Imbolc, and Samhain. Those are about the only ones that call to me. |
| Posted by: Eiric 16-Oct-2006, 02:02 AM |
| I celebrate all festvals, but as I'm in Sweden and brought up in a family where the Old Ways were very much alive, it wasn't until recently that I started to call some of them the more usual names. Here's my list with the names of the Sabbats: De Äldstes Natt, (Night of the Ancient Ones) An t-Samhain = Samhain Jul = Yule, midwinter solstice Imbolc Freya, or Eostra = Ostara Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis's Eve), Den Stora Elden (The Great Fire), Bealteine = Beltaine Dièsnatten, Midsommar = Midsummer solstice, Litha ( Night of the Faeries) Den Första Skörden, (The First Harvest) An Lugh, Lughnasadh =Lughnasadh Äppelfesten (Apple Feast) Mabon = Modron, Mabon By the way, on Mabon I always decorate my apartment with leaves from the Horse Chestnut, as well as the horse chestnuts, as this tree is holy to me ( for excample a horse chestnut was planted when I was born near my grandparents place, and there goes no year that there aren't at least one leaf and a chestnut in my apartment... |
| Posted by: Amergin 19-Jul-2008, 07:29 PM |
I'm curious, can someone tell my the origin of the word Sabbat in this context? The reason I wonder is that it's a Hebrew word for a holy day, and it seems an odd coincidence that a Celtic word would have much the same meaning. |
| Posted by: Camac 19-Jul-2008, 08:11 PM | ||
Amergin; Sabbat becomes Sabbath in Latin and was more than likely introduced to the Celts through the early Christian missionaries. Christianity in Ireland became Catholicism which became Celtic Catholicism as opposed to Roman Catholicism. Eventually the Roman Church won out. Camac. |
| Posted by: Shadows 20-Jul-2008, 05:06 AM |
| Take a look at these links for a discussion on your question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year |