by Mouse

Created on: September 07, 2010   Last Updated: December 30, 2010

Many of the spiritual paths that come under the "Pagan" umberella follow the Celtic Calendar, known as the Wheel of the Year.

The Wheel of the year has 21 festivals in it and the festivals are split into two parts: the Minor Festivals,  or "Esbats" and the Major festivals, or "Sabbats", which you will typically see depicted in drawings of the Wheel of the Year that you might have come across.

The Esbats coincide with the full moon and there are 13 of them. Typically they are not depicted on the wheel due to their falling constantly on different dates. (For example, the festival of Mabon falls on a full moon or Esbat this year (2010). It will be the first time this has happened since 1991 and will not happen again until 2029.)

The Sabbats are the eight remaining festivals. Four of them are known as the "Major Sabbats" and they coincide with the Equinoxes, the Vernal Equinox and the Autumn Equinox. The dates of the equinoxes are fixed and the dates of the Vernal Equinox and the Autumn Equinox vary within about a five day span (More on this later). The four "Minor Sabbats" fall on or close to the cross quarter days. Depending on the tradition, or indeed, in some cases the group that are celebrating, they may be celebrated on the agreed dates, or the Solar cross-quarter day, or some combination.

The Wheel of the Year begins at Samhain, which is counted as New Year (though it is worth noting that while this is New Year for most, certain paths have different New Year dates - for example: The Northland Tradition celebrate 11 days later on their feast of Einheirar and certain Druidic Traditions keep New Year on 1st April).

It is also important to note that dates can appear to vary by tradition. While some traditions will celebrate for a full five days, a good rule of thumb is that generally, a festival runs from Sundown of the evening before to Sunrise the day after.

The festivals comprising the Wheel of the Year are as follows:

SAMHAIN (pronounced: "Sow-ain" 'sow' like in pig and rhymes with 'how' and 'ain' as in 'rain and rhyming with 'train')

Samhain is a fixed festival and falls on the sunset of 31st October. It is the festival that celebrates the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It is a time for reflecting and for looking forward and setting goals. For many people, it is also a time to honour "The Ancestors" (those who have progressed to "The Land of Apples"/"The Other Side"/"The Higher Plain"/"The Next Circle") to thank them for watching

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