The pagan calendar explained
The pagan calender predates the calender used by the geenral public by thousands of years. Though it has changed somewhat over the past few centuries most of it remains firmly intact. To understand the pagan calender we need to first understand the pagan belief system. Their main philosophy involves the ceaseless cycle of death and new life; they see life as a giant uninterrupted circle. This is reflected perfectly in their calender.
The pagan calender represents the following metaphysical cycle: The Goddess, ruler of our universe gives birth to a God. The God grows in power as the two realize their love. He impregnates her by joining with her as one. Then she gives birth to the new God and the cycle begins again.
Pagans worship and celebrate these events by lunar cycles and changing seasons. Many refer to their calender as “Wheel of the Year”, further acknowledging their philosophy toward existence in general.
There are twelve or thirteen (depending on the year) lunar holidays that are practiced on the full and new moons. But the cornerstones of the pagan calender are eight holidays known as sabbats. All eight sabbats are agrarian, IE involving the land and its ownership, cultivation of crops, and tenure.
Four of them relate more to planting, harvest and the like. The other four relate more to cycles of fertility.
The four fertility sabbats are: Yule, Ostara, Beltane and Litha. These sabbats are often accompanied by wild parties and in some sects even orgies.
The four plant sabbats are: Imbolc, Lughnasadh, Mabon and Samhain.These sabbats are most often accompanied by large feasts and the planting or harvesting of crops.
Their calender starts with the sabbat known as Yule. This is when the Goddess gives birth. It is practiced on winter solstice. It ends with Samhain, which is on Halloween. There is a two-to-three month period at the end of their calender when there are no major holidays. During this time period the focus shifts to lunar rituals based around the full and new moon.
Please note that this is the generally accepted pagan calender but because of the fact that Paganism itself encompasses so many religions and belief systems over the span of thousands of years that there are endless variations in terms of individual beliefs and describing all of them would be quite impossible. The holidays listed above, however, should give you a very good idea as to the emphasis and overall philosophy of the generally accepted pagan calender.
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