by Lin Barrett

Created on: June 20, 2009   Last Updated: June 22, 2009

Pagans generally celebrate eight holidays a year, four at the beginning of each season (these are solstices and equinoxes, or quarter days) and another four about midway between them (the cross-quarter days).

The meanings of these fire festivals, as they are called, derive from the weather, and the agricultural tasks it imposes

The pagan year begins at Samhein, pronounced "Sow-when," Halloween to other people. This is one of the cross-quarter days, neither a solstice nor an equinox. Most will celebrate it on the 31st of October. Pagans who date their holidays astrologically celebrate around the 8th of November, when the sun crosses the fifteenth degree of Scorpio. Samhein was a time when the farmers had almost finished their harvest, and culled their flocks. The latter led to the holiday's association with death. It's thought that the veil between the worlds of the living and dead is thinnest on this holiday, and thus divination is a natural activity for Samhein. The usual ritual is a Feast of the Dead. Celebrants bring photographs of the loved ones they have lost during the year, or those for whom they still feel deep sorrow. When the ritual meal is readied, a plate and a cup are prepared for the ancestors, and the food is left on the altar along with the photographs. When the ritual is concluded, the food is left for animals to enjoy, as the ancestors have had their fill. Similarly, the wine, juice, or mead is poured out.

Yule is the name given to the holiday which happens at winter solstice, between the twentieth and twenty-fourth of December in most years. When Yule is celebrated, the sun has retreated as far as he is going to: he is at his southernmost extreme in the northern hemisphere. For our ancestors, this was a time of deep unease. Would the sun come back? Would the world remain in winter forever? Close watch was kept, and three days after the solstice, when the sun was seen to be gaining strength once more, there must have been a huge celebration. On the day of the solstice, fires were often lit to encourage or warm the sun. Today's pagans will make that the heart of the festival: a Yule log (often a portion of the year's May-pole) is decorated, a fire is carefully laid around the remains of last year's Yule log, the decorated Yule log placed on top of it, and the fire lit. When the fire catches, the ritual is complete. Before this year's log is consumed, it is removed from the flames, and preserved for the next year. In some traditions, celebrants

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