Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by a range of modern pagans, marking the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them. British neopagans crafted the Wheel of the Year in the mid-20th century, combining the four solar events ("quarter days") marked by many European peoples, with the four seasonal festivals ("cross-quarter days") celebrated by Insular Celtic peoples. Different paths of modern paganism may vary regarding the precise timing of each celebration, based on such distinctions as the lunar phase and geographic hemisphere. Observing the cycle of the seasons has been important to many people, both ancient and modern. Modern pagan festivals that rely on the Wheel are based to varying degrees on folk traditions, regardless of actual historical pagan practices. Some Wiccans use the term sabbat (ˈsæbət) to refer to each festival. The ancient pagan peoples of Europe differed in the festivals they celebrated. In the British Isles, the Anglo-Saxons primarily celebrated the four solstices and equinoxes, while Insular Celtic peoples primarily celebrated the four midpoints between these. The four Celtic festivals were known to the Gaels as Beltane (1 May), Lughnasadh (1 August), Samhain (1 November) and Imbolc (1 February). The festival cycle known as the 'Wheel of the Year' was influenced by works such as The Golden Bough by James George Frazer (1890), which explored various European seasonal festivals and their possible pagan roots. Another influence was The Witch-Cult in Western Europe (1921) by Margaret Murray. Murray promoted the witch-cult hypothesis; a now-rejected theory that European witch trials were an attempt to suppress a pagan religion that had survived into the early modern era. She attempted to identify the festivals celebrated by this supposed 'witches cult'. Murray reports a 1661 trial record from Forfar, Scotland, where the accused witch (Issobell Smyth) is alleged to attend witches meetings "every quarter" at Candlemas (2 February), Roodmas (3 May), Lammas (1 August), and Hallowmas (1 November).

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Related concepts (20)

Heathenry (new religious movement)

Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the early 20th century, its practitioners model it on the pre-Christian religions adhered to by the Germanic peoples of the Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. In an attempt to reconstruct these past belief systems, Heathenry uses surviving historical, archaeological, and folkloric evidence as a basis, although approaches to this material vary considerably.

Witch trials in the early modern period

In the early modern period, witch trials were seen between 1400 and 1782, where around 40,000 to 60,000 were killed due to suspicion that they were practicing witchcraft. These trials occurred primarily in Europe, and were particularly severe in some parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Some witch-hunts would last for years, and some sources estimate 100,000 trials occurred. Groundwork on the concept of witchcraft (a person's collaboration with the devil through the use of magic) was developed by Christian theologians as early as the 13th century.

March equinox

The March equinox or northward equinox is the equinox on the Earth when the subsolar point appears to leave the Southern Hemisphere and cross the celestial equator, heading northward as seen from Earth. The March equinox is known as the vernal equinox (spring equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere and as the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. On the Gregorian calendar, the northward equinox can occur as early as 19 March or as late as 21 March at 0° longitude.