Wheel of the Year
Wheel of the Year
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Yule (Winter Solstice)
It’s the holiday season, which is the time of year that we celebrate many Wizard and Witch favorite day. Put the Yule log on the fire, set the feast, and hang the mistletoe. Around December 21st, we gear up to celebrate Yule, also known as the Winter Solstice or Midwinter.
Throughout centuries and across cultures, we have gathered together in the darkest part of the season to hold festivals for light’s return. We’ll explore what Yule celebrates, and how to bring Winter Solstice blessings with magical, practical Yule traditions and ritual ideas.
Yule marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. This is when the sun begins, once again, to rise in the horizon, promising the start of a new seedtime; encouraging us to move forward and trust that spring will come. Yule is a way to celebrate rebirth.
Yule has been linked to the Old Norse word “Jól”. The word may have originally meant “Magic” or “Feast Of Entreaty”. It’s also perhaps the root of the English word “Jolly”.
In our heads we know the light will return. But in the darkness of Winter, can we be sure? Do our hearts believe what our heads tell us? Will the light keep its promises? We all have moments of darkness, when we don’t know how much deeper we will go before the light starts to return. The world has moments too, it understands us, and lives as we do.
Yule Traditions and Customs:
- Bonfires to light up the night.
- Crops and trees were cider poured on and around plants.
- Evergreen boughs, holly, and ivy decorated the home representing life, holly by the door invited good fortune into the home.
- Hanging mistletoe, considered a sacred and mystical plant by the Druids.
- The Yule log was burned through the night.
Symbols of Yule
- Herbs and Flowers: Bayberry, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, sage, evergreen, ivy, holly, laurel, mistletoe, oak, pine, yellow cedar, pine cones, frankincense, myrrh, wintergreen, apple leaf, and dried apple.
- Incense: Bayberry, pine, spruce, cedar, and cinnamon.
- Colors: Red, green, white, gold, and silver.
- Decorations: Holly, mistletoe, ivy, pine, pine cones, Yule Log, evergreen wreaths, and evergreen garlands.
- Foods: Pork, poultry, apples, cookies, cakes, nuts, wine, cider, and mulled cider.
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Samhain
Samhain is a Witchcraft religious festival originating from an ancient Celtic spiritual tradition. In modern times, Samhain is usually celebrated from October 31 to November 1 to welcome in the harvest and usher in “The Dark Half Of The Year”. Celebrants believe that the barriers between the physical world and the spirit world break down during Samhain, allowing more interaction between humans and denizens of the Otherworld.
Samhain is one of the major festivals of the Wheel of the Year, for many Witchcraft the most important festival of all. It is the third and final harvest festival of nuts and berries and a fire festival. All the harvest is in, all is complete, it is the end of the cycle of birth and growth, it is the point of death. The seeds of the harvest have fallen deep into the dark earth, they are unseen, dormant, and thus apparently lifeless.
Ancient Celts marked Samhain as the most significant of the four quarterly fire festivals, taking place at the midpoint between the Mabon and the Yule. During this time of year, hearth fires in family homes were left to burn out while the harvest was gathered. After the harvest work was complete, celebrants joined with High Priest to light a community fire using a wheel that would cause friction and spark flames. The wheel was considered a representation of the sun and used along with prayers. Cattle were sacrificed, and participants took a flame from the communal bonfire back to their home to relight the hearth.
The God, as Sun King is sacrificed back to the land with the seed until the Yule, and the Goddess, now as Crone, mourns Him until His rebirth at Yule. He travels the Underworld learning its wisdom. This is the time of the descent into darkness, of pre-conception, out of which new life, new ideas, will eventually emerge. Traditionally the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest now. Boundaries dissolve and all is laid bare. It is time to honour and offer hospitality to, our ancestors.
At Samhain the dark half of the year commences. It is a truly magical time. Death is always followed by rebirth and while this is the end of the old year, it is the beginning of the new year. For the Celts the day did not begin at dawn, it began at sunset, it began with darkness. Light is always born out of darkness, they are inseparable, interdependent, and necessary. Darkness is fertile with “All Potential”. With the beginning of this dark phase comes the opportunity to rest and reflect on the past and to dream of new beginnings. The seed now hidden in the earth will germinate in its season. Look for the seeds in yourself.
Honouring The Ancestors
Honouring your ancestors is a very special thing to do at this time and can be done in many simple ways. Think about all those departed souls from your life, both family and friends, children may wish to remember pets even, place photographs of them on your altar. Offer them your hospitality, welcome their presence into your home. At your Samhain festival, consider laying an extra place for them to join you at the table, cook and eat their favourite dishes, talk about them, remember them, bring them closer. You and your children can make an offering for departed pets by leaving some dog food outside on Halloween night, many night creatures appreciate this offering. Be careful what you put outside, we used to put out bread and milk.
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Mabon – Autumn Equinox
This festival is now named after the the God of Welsh mythology, Mabon. He is the Child of Light and the son of the Earth Mother Goddess, Modron. Autumn Equinox, around September 21, is the time of the descent of the Goddess into the Underworld. With her departure, we see the decline of nature and the coming of winter.
Here is another point of perfect balance on the journey through the Wheel of the Year, its counterpart being Ostara or the Spring Equinox. Night and day are again of equal length and in perfect equilibrium, dark and light, masculine and feminine, inner and outer, in balance. But we are again on the cusp of transition and from now the year now begins to wane and from this moment darkness begins to defeat the light. The cycle of the natural world is moving towards completion, the Sun’s power is waning and from now on the nights grow longer and the days are are shorter and cooler. The sap of trees returns back to their roots deep in the earth, changing the green of summer to the fire of autumn, to the flaming reds, oranges and golds. We are returning to the dark from whence we came.
Mabon, “Great Son”, is a Welsh god. He was a great hunter with a swift horse and a wonderful hound. He may have been a mythologized actual leader. He was stolen from his mother, Modron, “Great Mother”, when he was three nights old.
All along, however, Mabon has been dwelling, a happy captive, in Modron’s magical Underworld, Madron’s womb. Only in this way can he be reborn. Mabon’s light has been drawn into the Earth, gathering strength and wisdom enough to become a new seed. In this sense, Mabon is the masculine the male fertilizing principle seasonally withdrawn.
Celebrate Mabon, but typically the focus is on either the second harvest aspect, the balance between light and dark. This, after all, is the time when there is an equal amount of day and night. While we celebrate the gifts of the earth, we also accept that the soil is dying. We have food to eat, but the crops are brown and going dormant. Warmth is behind us, cold lies ahead. Here are a few rituals you may want to think about trying.
- Setting Up Your Mabon Altar: Celebrate the Mabon Sabbat by decorating your altar with the colors and symbols of the late harvest season.
- Create a Mabon Food Altar: Mabon is a celebration of the second harvest season. It’s a time when we’re gathering the bounty of the fields, the orchards, and the gardens, and bringing it in for storage.
- Ten Ways to Celebrate the Autumn Equinox: This is a time of balance and reflection, following the theme of equal hours light and dark. Here are some ways you and your family can celebrate this day of bounty and abundance.
- Honor the Dark Mother at Mabon: This ritual welcomes the archetype of the Dark Mother and celebrates that aspect of the Goddess which we may not always find comforting or appealing, but which we must always be willing to acknowledge.
- Mabon Apple Harvest Rite: This apple ritual will allow you time to thank the gods for their bounty and blessings, and to enjoy the magic of the earth before the winds of winter blow through.
- Hearth And Home Protection Ritual: This ritual is a simple one designed to place a barrier of harmony and security around your property.
- Hold a Gratitude Ritual: You might want to consider doing a short gratitude ritual as a way of expressing thankfulness at Mabon.
- Mabon Balance Meditation: If you’re feeling a bit spiritually lopsided, with this simple meditation you can restore a little balance into your life.
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Lughnasadh
Lughnasadh, is a pagan holiday and one of the eight Witchcraft sabbats during the year. Each sabbat marks a seasonal turning point. The sabbat occurs on August 1, which is about halfway between the summer solstice (Litha) and the fall equinox (Mabon). This holiday celebrates the grain harvest. Grain is a very important crop for most civilizations. If the grain was left in the fields for too long, or if the bread made from the grain was not baked in time, families might starve.
It is now high summer and the union of Sun and Earth, of God and Goddess, has produced the First Harvest. Lughnasadh is the celebration of this first, Grain Harvest, a time for gathering in and giving thanks for abundance. We work with the cycle that Mabon or the Autumn Equinox is the Second Harvest of Fruit, and Samhain is the third and Final Harvest of Nuts and Berries.
The word “Lughnasadh” is derived from “Loaf Mass” and is indicative of how central and honoured is the first grain and the first loaf of the harvesting cycle.
In early Ireland, it was not good to harvest grain before Lughnasadh. If you did harvest before then, that meant that that the harvest from the previous year ran out before the next harvest was ready. This meant that the farmers would have failed in providing for their community. On Lughnasadh, the first sheaves of grain were cut, and by that night, the first loaves of bread for the season would have been baked.
In some traditions, this day honors the Celtic god, Lugh. This celebration of the god, Lugh is referred to as Lughnasad. Lugh is the god of craftsmanship, including blacksmithing, wheel making, and fighting. It is because he held a harvest fair in honor of his foster mother, Tailtiu, on this date.
Modern day bake breads and cakes to celebrate the historical grain harvest. Some observers celebrate with a harvest ritual. This ritual typically involves decorating an altar with symbols of the season. Some of these symbols include scythes, corn, grapes, apples, and any other crops that might be harvested at this time. Some of these rituals involve casting a circle, and saying some words that symbolize their thanks to the earth for the harvest. After the ritual, everyone there eats some bread together, and may also drink wine to wash it down. To honor Lugh, people make crafts and decorations for their house, to represent his skills in those areas. And as with most sabbats, there is feasting. This feast usually is prepared with one’s harvested crops at this time.
The Lughnasadh festival is said to have begun by the god Lugh as a funeral feast and athletic competition in commemoration of his mother or foster-mother Tailtiu. She was said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture. Tailtiu may have been an earth goddess who represented the dying vegetation that fed mankind. The funeral games in her honour were called the Óenach Tailten and were held each Lughnasadh at Tailtin in what is now County Meath. According to medieval writings, kings attended this óenach and a truce was declared for its duration. It was similar to the Ancient Olympic Games and included ritual athletic and sporting contests, horse racing, music and storytelling, trading, proclaiming laws and settling legal disputes, drawing-up contracts, and matchmaking. At Tailtin, trial marriages were conducted, whereby young couples joined hands through a hole in a wooden door. The trial marriage lasted a year and a day, at which time the marriage could be made permanent or broken without.
A harvest prayer, a token of love, a tradesman’s badge. The ancient art of braiding a “Corn Dolly” is almost as old as wheat itself. Corn dollies were created all over Europe to celebrate the scything of the last sheaf. According to legend, it was belived that the spirit of the corn, a fertility sprit made homeless by the harvest, must be accomodated if a good crop was to be forthcoming the following year, stalks from the last sheaf would be woven together into a shape or figure, in which the spirit would overwinter and emerge, restored, in the spring.
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Magic Tools
Witchcraft Wood Box
Box help keep your Witchcraft stuff organized and tucked away from prying eyes. Our use them to hold altar cloth, athame, wand, chalices, candles, bell, bowl, mortar and pestle, incense burners, incense, book of shadows, crystals, herbs, etc…
Altar Table
Create a beautiful focal point for your Witchcraft with our altar table. Altar table are an excellent resource for helping people focus. You can place objects on them that help with your Witchcraft practice. Perfect for small homes on the go, this beautiful altar table can turn almost any space into your sacred space.
Altar Cloth
An altar cloth helps transform ordinary space into sacred space.
Athame
Essential tools of the Witchcraft’s altar. We have ritual knives fitting style.
Wand
A primal symbol of the Wizard or Witch will, wand are used to direct energy and cast boundaries. Unique and handmade Witchcraft wand.
Chalices
A chalice is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In Witchcraft practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony.
Candles
Candles, candle holders, and accessories. Find the tools for your candle Witchcraft.
Bell
Wizard or Witch can’t resist the merry sound of bells and chimes.
Witchcraft Hanheld Mirror
These Witchcraft handheld mirrors are a must have.
Small Wood Or Ceramic Bowl
A small bowl that’s perfect for rings, offerings, or small quantities of herbs and salts.
Sea Salt
A versatile ingredient for cleansing and spellwork, salt belongs on every Witchcraft altar and herb cabinet. These natural air-dried salt crystals have grain that’s easy to use for your Witchcraft work.
Mortar And Pestle
The mortar and pestle is both a powerful Witchcraft symbol and a practical item for grinding herbs and incenses. It is one of the essential tools of the Wizard or Witch altar.
Incense Burners
An essential accessory for using incense and resin safely, without fear of ash dropping in unwanted places, is an incense holder or burner.
Charcoal Tablets
These charcoal tablets. The coating sparks across the charcoal surface and then should be left for a few minutes until it has started to heat through. These tablets are fast lighting, smoke-free, odorless, tasteless and long burning and means they shouldn’t interfere with the scent of the incense.
Incense
Incense is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma.
Herb And Herb Oil
Herb and herb oils are a time-honored ingredient in Witchcraft practice. Here you’ll find anointing oils to empower your spellwork or sweeten your environment.
Essential Oils
When only the purest will do. Essential oils are a way to add highly concentrated plant essences to your homemade formulas.
Crystals, Gemstones, Pendulum, Book of Shadows, Etc…
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Witchcraft Solitary Practitioner
Many contemporary Witchcraft find that rather than joining a group, they prefer practicing as a solitary. The reasons for this as are as varied as those who walk the path, some may find that they work better by themselves. A solitary witch is one who chooses to practice their spiritual faith in the privacy of their home or other designated space.
For some people, it’s hard to make the decision to practice as a solitary. Some of the advantages of practicing as a solitary Witchcraft include setting your own schedule, working at your own pace, and not having to deal with the dynamics of coven relationships.
Regardless, there are a number of things to keep in mind if you’re considering, or have already found your way to, a path as a solitary Witchcraft. Here are five practical tips to help you on your way to successful solitary practice.
Try to establish a daily routine. It’s easy to let your studies go by the wayside if you’re all by yourself, so establishing a daily routine will help you keep on task. Whether your routine includes meditation, reading, ritual work, or whatever, try to do something each day that helps you work towards achieving your spiritual studies.
Write things down. Choose to keep a Book of Shadows to chronicle their magical studies. This is important for a variety of reasons. First, it allows you to document what you’ve tried and done, as well as what works and doesn’t work for you. Secondly, by writing down your rituals, prayers, or spellwork, you’re laying the foundation for your tradition. You can go back and repeat things that you find to be useful later one. Finally, it’s important to keep track of what you do magically and spiritually because as people, we evolve. The person you are now is not the same person you were ten years ago, and it’s healthy for us to be able to look back and see where we were, and how far we’ve come.
Many solitaries find instead that a self-dedication ritual fills that need perfectly, it’s a way of making a commitment to one’s spiritual growth, to the deities we honor, and to learning and finding our way. If you’re practicing as a solitary Witchcraft. Don’t ever stop learning, once you’ve read all your books, go find some new ones. Borrow them from the books, or check them out online from reputable sources. If there’s a particular subject you’re interested in, read about it. Keep expanding your knowledge base, and you’ll be able to continue and grow spiritually.
When it comes to celebrating rituals, the ceremonies on this site are typically designed so that they can be adapted either for a group celebration or a solitary ritual. Browse the listings for the various Sabbat rituals, find the rite you want to perform, and tweak it to meet your needs. Once you feel comfortable with ritual practice, try writing your own.
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Litha – Midsummer – Summer Solstice
The gardens are blooming, and summer is in full swing. Fire up the barbeque, turn on the sprinkler, and enjoy the celebrations of Midsummer. Also called Litha, this summer solstice Sabbat honors the longest day of the year. Take advantage of the extra hours of daylight and spend as much time as you can outdoors.
The Goddess is now full and pregnant with Child, and the Sun God is at the height of His virility. This is the peak of the Solar year and the Sun is at the height of its life-giving power. The Earth is awash with fertility and fulfillment and this is a time of joy and celebration, of expansiveness and the celebration of achievements.
Yet within this climax is the whisper and promise of a return to the Dark. As the Light reaches its peak so this is also the moment when the power of the Sun begins to wane. From now on the days grow shorter and the nights grow longer and we are drawn back into the Dark to complete the Wheel of the Year.
The Bonfire
Traditionally people stayed up all night on Midsummer’s Eve to welcome and watch the sunrise. Bonfires were lit on tops of hills, by holy wells, at places held sacred, to honour the fullness of the Sun. At Litha the bonfire really represents a reflection of the Sun at the peak of its strength. The chosen wood would often be Oak and aromatic herbs were scattered into the fire. People danced around the fires and leap through them. Blazing herbs from the sacred bonfire were used to bless the animals. Blazing torches were carried sunwise around homes and fields. Coals from the Midsummer fire were scattered on fields to ensure a good harvest.
All of the flower kingdom is reaching its peak, wide open, full of colour, surrendering their perfume. Our lovely bees are now making honey. Midsummer full moon is known as the ‘Honey Moon’ for the mead made from honey now available. This is often part of handfastings performed at the Summer Solstice. Mead is regarded as the divine solar drink, with magical and life-restoring properties. Drink to celebrate and toast the life-giving abundance of the Sun.
As Litha approaches, you can decorate your home with a number of easy craft projects. Celebrate the sun’s energy with an elemental garden, a fiery incense blend, and a magic staff to use in ritual.
Feasting and Food
No Pagan celebration is complete without a meal to go along with it. For Litha, celebrate with foods that honor the fire and energy of the sun. For a Litha feast, we’ll obviously want to work in as many fresh herbs as possible. Remember that each one has its own individual magical properties, so call on those as needed. I’ve also called in some sun colors with red and orange foods. Cinnamon is ruled by the sun, so it’s definitely invited to the party. And this is the perfect time to cook with fire. Fresh vegetables of all kinds and fresh fruits such as lemons and oranges, summer squash and any yellow or orange colored foods. Flaming foods are also appropriate but especially chicken or pork. Traditional drinks are ale, mead, and fresh fruit juice of any kind and herb teas. Pumpernickel bread is also appropriate. Finally, we’ll bring in some honey to celebrate all the flowers in bloom at this time of year. Let the feast begin.
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Wheel Of The Year
The Wheel of the Year is a symbol represents the 8 festivals important to many Wizards 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. Which includes four solar festivals:
- Winter Solstice
- Spring Equinox
- Summer Solstice
- Fall Equinox
- Four seasonal festivals, celebrating or marking a significant seasonal change.
Because solstices and equinoxes are tied to exact astronomical moments, the holidays shift slightly from year-to-year. In the ancient Celtic culture, as in many of the past, time was seen as cyclical. The seasons changed, people died, but nothing was ever finally lost because everything returned again, in one way or another, in a repeating natural cycle. Although time in the modern world is usually regarded as linear, the cyclical nature of life continues to be recognized.
The wheel includes the following holy days:
- Yule – Winter Solstice (20-25 December)
- Imbolc – Candlemas (1-2 February)
- Ostara – Spring Equinox (20-23 March)
- Beltane – May Eve (30 April-1 May)
- Litha – Summer Solstice (20-22 June)
- Lughnasadh – Lammas (1 August)
- Mabon – Autumn Equinox (20-23 September)
- Samhain – Halloween – Day Of The Dead (31 October)
These eight festivals are designed to draw one’s attention to what one has gained and lost in the cyclical turn of the year. As in the ancient Egyptian civilization and others, the Celts believed that ingratitude was a “gateway sin” which then led a person into the darkness of bitterness, pride, resentment, and self-pity. By pausing to reflect upon gratitude for what one had been given in a year, as well as what one had lost but still cherished in memory, one maintained balance.
Offerings
Offerings of food, drink, various objects, etc. have been central in ritual propitiation and veneration for millennia. Practice of grains, herbs, milk, wines, incense, baked goods, minerals, etc. The exception being with ritual feasts including meat, where the inedible parts of the animal are often burned as offerings while the community eats the rest. The purpose of offering is to benefit the venerated, show gratitude, and give something back, strengthening the bonds between humans and divine and between members of a community.
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The Lost Bearded White Brother
Samhain is considered by Wiccans to be one of the four Greater Sabbats. Samhain is considered by some as a time to celebrate the lives of those who have passed on, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets, and other loved ones who have died. In some rituals the spirits of the departed are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the wheel by the festival of Beltane, which is celebrated as a festival of light and fertility.
Many Pagans believe that at Samhain the veil between this world and the afterlife is at its thinnest point of the whole year, making it easier to communicate with those who have left this world.
Wheel of the Year
Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year. Traditionally, Samhain is celebrated from sunset on 31 October to sunset on 1 November, which is about halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. Similar festivals are held at the same time of year in other Celtic lands; for example the Brythonic Calan Gaeaf (in Wales), Kalan Gwav (in Cornwall), and Kalan Goañv (in Brittany).
Samhain is believed to have pagan origins and there is evidence it has been an important date since ancient times. The Mound of the Hostages, a Neolithic passage tomb at the Hill of Tara, is aligned with the Samhain sunrise. It is mentioned in some of the earliest Irish literature and many important events in Irish mythology happen or begin on Samhain. It was the time when cattle were brought back down from the summer pastures and when livestock were slaughtered for the winter. As at Beltane, special bonfires were lit. These were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and there were rituals involving them. Like Beltane, Samhain was seen as a liminal time, when the boundary between this world and the Otherworld could more easily be crossed. This meant the Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies’, could more easily come into our world. Most scholars see the Aos Sí as remnants of the pagan gods and nature spirits. At Samhain, it was believed that the Aos Sí needed to be propitiated to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter. Offerings of food and drink were left outside for them. The souls of the dead were also thought to revisit their homes seeking hospitality. Feasts were had, at which the souls of dead kin were beckoned to attend and a place set at the table for them. Mumming and guising were part of the festival, and involved people going door-to-door in costume (or in disguise), often reciting verses in exchange for food. The costumes may have been a way of imitating, and disguising oneself from, the Aos Sí. Divination rituals and games were also a big part of the festival and often involved nuts and apples. In the late 19th century, Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer suggested that it was the “Celtic New Year”, and this view has been repeated by some other scholars.
In the 9th century AD, Western Christianity shifted the date of All Saints’ Day to 1 November, while 2 November later became All Souls’ Day. Over time, Samhain and All Saints’/All Souls’ merged to create the modern Halloween. Historians have used the name ‘Samhain’ to refer to Gaelic ‘Halloween’ customs up until the 19th century.
Etymology
In Modern Irish the name is Samhain, in Scottish Gaelic Samhainn/Samhuinn, and in Manx Gaelic Sauin. These are also the names of November in each language, shortened from Mí na Samhna (Irish), Mì na Samhna (Scottish Gaelic) and Mee Houney (Manx). The night of 31 October (Halloween) is Oíche Shamhna (Irish), Oidhche Shamhna (Scottish Gaelic) and Oie Houney (Manx), all meaning “Samhain night”. 1 November, or the whole festival, may be called Lá Samhna (Irish), Là Samhna (Scottish Gaelic) and Laa Houney (Manx), all meaning “Samhain day”.
These names all come from the Old Irish samain, samuin or samfuin all referring to 1 November (latha na samna: ‘samhain day’), and the festival and royal assembly held on that date in medieval Ireland (oenaig na samna: ‘samhain assembly’). Its meaning is glossed as ‘summer’s end’, and the frequent spelling with f suggests analysis by popular etymology as sam (‘summer’) and fuin (‘end’). The Old Irish sam is from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *semo-; cognates include Welsh haf, Breton hañv, English summer and Old Norse sumar, all meaning ‘summer’, and the Sanskrit sáma (‘season’).
In 1907, Whitley Stokes suggested an etymology from Proto-Celtic *samani (‘assembly’), cognate to Sanskrit sámana, and Gothic samana. J. Vendryes concludes that samain is unrelated to *semo- (‘summer’), remarking that the Celtic ‘end of summer’ was in July, not November, as evidenced by Welsh gorffennaf (‘July’). We would therefore be dealing with an Insular Celtic word for ‘assembly’, *samani or *samoni, and a word for ‘summer’, saminos (from *samo-: ‘summer’) alongside samrad, *samo-roto-.
Neopaganism
Samhain and Samhain-based festivals are held by some Neopagans. As there are many kinds of Neopaganism, their Samhain celebrations can be very different despite the shared name. Some try to emulate the historic festival as much as possible. Other Neopagans base their celebrations on sundry unrelated sources, Gaelic culture being only one of the sources. Folklorist Jenny Butler describes how Irish pagans pick some elements of historic Samhain celebrations and meld them with references to the Celtic past, making a new festival of Samhain that is inimitably part of neo-pagan culture.
Wicca
Wiccans celebrate a variation of Samhain as one of the yearly Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. It is deemed by most Wiccans to be the most important of the four “greater Sabbats”. Samhain is seen by some Wiccans as a time to celebrate the lives of those who have died, and it often involves paying respect to ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets and other loved ones who have died. In some rituals the spirits of the dead are invited to attend the festivities. It is seen as a festival of darkness, which is balanced at the opposite point of the wheel by the spring festival of Beltane, which Wiccans celebrate as a festival of light and fertility.
Wiccans believe that at Samhain the veil between this world and the afterlife is at its thinnest point of the whole year, making it easier to communicate with those who have left this world.
The Lost Bearded White Brother
For 2015 the September 23 equinox is at 08:20:34 UTC.
The holiday of the autumnal equinox, Harvest Home, Mabon, the Feast of the Ingathering, Meán Fómhair or Alban Elfed (in Neo-Druid traditions), is a Pagan ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the God during the coming winter months. The name Mabon was coined by Aidan Kelly around 1970 as a reference to Mabon ap Modron, a character from Welsh mythology. Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three Pagan harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas / Lughnasadh and followed by Samhain.
September Equinox
The September equinox is the moment when the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward. Due to differences between the calendar year and the tropical year, the September equinox can occur at any time from the 21st to the 24th day of September.
At the equinox, the Sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. Before the Southward equinox, the Sun rises and sets more and more to the north, and afterwards, it rises and sets more and more to the south. In the Northern Hemisphere the September equinox is known as the autumnal equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere it is known as the vernal or spring equinox.
Europe
The Roman celebration of the Fall Equinox was dedicated to Pomona, goddess of fruits and growing things.
The traditional harvest festival in the United Kingdom was celebrated on the Sunday of the full moon closest to the September equinox.
Neopaganism
Neopagans observe the September equinox as a cardinal point on the Wheel of the Year. In the Northern Hemisphere some varieties of paganism adapt Mabon traditions. In the Southern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox corresponds with Ostara.
The Lost Bearded White Brother