HOLIDAYS

This is a basic listing of the Pagan holidays I celebrate every year. It isn't a complete one but they are ones that are most important to me. If anybody else celebrates a holiday I haven't listed but is a favorite then by all means let me know and I'll add it to the list.

LAMMAS AUGUST 1ST: Also known as Lughnasaad is named for the celtic sun God Lugh. It is not only a celebration of his triumph over enemies and a time to honor him, but a thanksgiving for the first harvest of the year. The ancient Druids lit sacred yellow candles to honor the death and rebirth of the God during this time.
MABON/AUTUMNAL EQUINOX SEPTEMBER 20TH-23RD: The time of year when day and night are of equal length. After the Equinox the days begin to grow shorter as we head into the season ruled by the Horned One. Also the second harvest of the year and a celebration to welcome the coming of fall.
SAMHAIN OCTOBER 31ST-NOVEMBER 1ST: The third and final harvest of the year, Samhain is the night when the veil between the world of the living and the dead grows thin. The living honor their ancestors and departed family by opening their homes to the spirits and paying homage at their burial spots. It is a celebration of the neverending cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
YULE/WINTER SOLSTICE DECEMBER 20TH-23RD: The darkest night of the year Yule is a celebration of the Tree of resurrection and rebirth. Lighting the Yule log helps the Lord of Light return so that the Goddess can bring light to the world again and celebrate the birth of a new year. The tree itself was a representation of birth and was decorated with the symbols of life to encourage the return of spring and fertility.
IMBOLC/CANDLEMAS FEBRUARY 2ND: A celebration of the first stirrings of life for the new year. Imbolc is a welcoming of spring and the beginning of the first plantings of the year. It was also the time of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, the renewed source of the divine energy and representative of the Goddess.
OSTARA/SPRING EQUINOX MARCH 20TH-23RD: The time of year when day and night are of equal length. After the spring Equinox the nights begin to grow shorter as we head into the season ruled by the Goddess. People continue planting their crops and welcome the coming of spring.
BELTANE MAY 1ST: This celebration, also called May Day is the celebration of fertility and the peak of spring. It was a time when celebrants went into the freshly plowed fields along with the King and Queen of May, who were representations of the Goddess and her consort the Horned One and imbued the soil with their fertility blessings and welcomed summer.i
LITHAS/SUMMER SOLSTICE JUNE 20TH-23RD: During the solstice the Goddess and her consort unite, their energies merging. It is a celebration of this union between male and female and the coming Divine child that is born from that union. In the planting of the crops and their harvest during the fall we see the union of the God and Goddess and the child concieved.