Pagan holidays are called sabbats. These are the eight major holidays celebrated by practitioners of modern Pagan and Wiccan traditions. Each sabbat is based on a specific point in the solar year, such as a solstice or equinox, and represents a different aspect of nature and the changing seasons. The sabbats include Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas, and Mabon. Each sabbat has its own unique rituals and traditions associated with it, but they all revolve around honoring and celebrating the cycles of nature. These holidays are seen as sacred times for spiritual reflection, connection with the divine, and community gathering.

Pagan Holidays and Sabbats

The eight Wiccan and Pagan holidays, known as Sabbats, are celebrated around the world. Based on earth's rotations and seasonal markers, the Sabbats include Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas or Lughnasadh, and Mabon.

• Basics
• Rituals and Ceremonies
• Sabbats and Holidays
• Wicca Gods
• Herbalism
• Wicca Traditions
• Wicca Resources for Parents

Samhain Cooking and Recipes

Projects to Celebrate Samhain, the Witches' New Year

Mabon Cooking & Recipes

A Collection of Prayers for Imbolc

12 Pagan Prayers for Yule

Great Ways to Celebrate Yule With Kids

Lammas History: Welcoming the Harvest

5 Easy Yule Decorations

Mabon Craft Projects

Recipes for the Lammas Sabbat

Lammas Craft Projects

Host a Winter Solstice Party

Celebrating Litha, the Summer Solstice

Sacred Plants of the Winter Solstice

2020 Pagan and Wiccan Calendar

Yule Craft Projects for the Winter Solstice

Litha Prayers

Make Your Own Yule Ornaments

Deities of the Winter Solstice

9 Christmas Traditions With Pagan Roots

The 8 Pagan Sabbats

Ten Magical Gifts to Share for Yule

History of Yule

The Myth of the Krampus: Santa's Scary Bavarian Counterpart

Lammas Prayers

The Legend of the Holly King and the Oak King

Blessing Your Yule Tree

Celebrating Saturnalia

Ten Great Ways to Celebrate Litha

All About Lammas (Lughnasadh)

Yule Wassail Recipe and History

All About Samhain

Yule Rituals

Sacred Plants of the Beltane Sabbat

Ten Great Gift Ideas for Pagans

Celebrating Beltane With Kids

Make a Yule Log

All About Yule

Faerie Lore: The Fae at Beltane

A Feast With the Dead: How to Hold a Pagan Dumb Supper for Samhain

History of Imbolc

Beltane Magic

How To Hold a Family Yule Log Ceremony

10 Deities of Litha: Summer Solstice Gods and Goddesses

Magical Yule Gifts to Make

All About Imbolc

The Origins of Santa Claus

Setting Up Your Imbolc Altar

What Songs Should I Sing at Yule?

Magical Colors of the Yule Season

Quarter Days and Cross Quarter Days

Cinnamon Stick Yule Candleholder

Setting Up Your Beltane Altar

Pagans and Christmas Trees

Create an Elemental Garden for Litha

Beltane History - Celebrating May Day

Pagans and Thanksgiving

Litha Legends and Lore

Winter Customs Around the World

Februalia: A Time of Purification

5 Easy Decorating Ideas for Beltane

Snow Magic

Celebrating the Sabbats Seasonally

Yule Ritual to Welcome Back the Sun

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How To Never Miss A Pagan Holiday Again

Keeping track of the eight main sabbats, or holidays, within Paganism is surprisingly difficult. Sure, most mainstream calendars come marked with the days of the solstices and equinoxes, but it's rare to pick up a planner that gives you a heads up about Lughnasadh. This is, in part, due to how Paganism and other nature-based faiths divide up the year.

Instead of 12 months, the Pagan calendar, which is more commonly referred to as the Wheel of the Year, is split up by quarter and cross-quarter days. The former group consists of the solstices and equinoxes (which mark the start of the four seasons), while the latter is made up of the days that mark the midpoint between each season.

That may sound like you have to adopt a whole new vocabulary to follow the Pagan year, but, once you see the Wheel for yourself, the pattern becomes much clearer. Below, get to know the Wheel of the Year, learn more about each of the Pagan sabbats, and make sure you finally write Lughnasadh into your planner.

Yule
This holiday occurs around the 21st or 22nd of December and celebrates both the winter solstice and the end of the year. You can observe it for yourself by lighting candles, planning a dinner party with friends, and planning ahead for the months and new year to come. And yes, for those who celebrate Christmas, you have Yule to thank for the tradition of bringing evergreen boughs (and whole trees) into your home at this time of year.

Imbolc
Imbloc falls around Groundhog Day, which was originally called Candlemas. Regardless of what you observe (or what you call it), these early-February holidays actually celebrate the same seasonal shift that Punxsutawney Phil is believed to predict: the quickening of the year. By February 1 or 2, everyone starts anticipating spring's arrival — and, in some parts of the world, there may already be signs of the changing seasons. Imbolc is your chance to get excited for the warmer months and even pull your lighter jackets out of storage.

Ostara
The spring equinox, as this sabbat is also known, signals the start of spring (on or around March 21) and the rebirth within nature that accompanies the season. This is a perfect time of year to start thinking about changes you can make in your personal life, whether you're vying for a promotion or hope to move homes soon. Around Ostara, "new" is synonymous with "good."

Beltane
You may know this sabbat by its more secular name, May Day, or by its traditions of lighting bonfires and performing maypole dances — but, at its heart, Beltane celebrates the divine feminine. May 1 marks the midpoint between Ostara and Litha, and from now until the summer solstice, the weather (and people's thoughts) will only continue to heat up. Embrace this holiday's sensual energy by flaunting your flirtatious side, or simply sit back and enjoy the warmth and bounty of nature.

Litha
By June 21, summer has a officially started — and Litha observations more than do justice to this balmy season. In honor of the longest day of the year, catch as many rays as you can and spend the day outside. Whether you're meditating and journaling in the park or chilling on a rooftop bar, simply taking advantage of this day's extra sunlight is a form celebration.

Lammas
Lammas, also referred to as Lughnasadh, is your latest reminder that a change is always on the horizon — in this case, that change is the fast-approaching fall equinox. Some may dread this sabbat, which falls on August 1, since it alludes to the end of summer, too. But, when viewed as a chance for a final summertime hurrah, Lammas is far from gloomy. Plus, it's the heads up we all need to start planning for the fall and winter now.

Mabon
September 21 kicks off autumn and nature's symbolic "winding down." As the leaves begin to fall, consider what's come to an end in your own life. The fall equinox is your opportunity to check in with yourself, see how far you've come since last autumn, and pay tribute to that progress.

Samhain
Sometimes called "Pagan Halloween," Samahain is actually Halloween's much older, more mature sibling, which happens to fall on October 31, too. The veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead is believed to be at its thinnest on this day, so it's perfectly understandable if you find yourself in a darker mood than usual. Lean into those vibes and spend Samhain reflecting on deceased loved ones and considering the role that death plays in your life (keeping in mind that death doesn't have to be all that spooky).

What Are the Pagan Holidays?

Because “Paganism” is an umbrella term for a wide variety of new religious movements, it is difficult to describe holidays or festivals that each share. Some may build on ancient religious traditions in contemporary ways, and these may use celebrations described in earlier cultures—Celtic, Norse, Greek, or German, among others. Others may identify as Wiccan, recreating a culture of witchcraft based on lore from diverse historical backgrounds. Still, others may fashion their own religious beliefs and expressions based on their personal understanding of the supernatural. Paganism has no uniform doctrine, creeds, dogmas, rituals, or practices. Personal freedom is an imperative of every Pagan expression. Despite the diversity, most Pagans today recognize some form of what is called the “Wheel of the Year,” which is the cycle of holidays that move through the solar and seasonal changes of the earth. For them, each year’s circuit retells the sacred narrative around the divine, in whatever way that is recognized. The waxing and waning of the Sun’s course through the year—and the subsequent light, growth, life, and warmth that come and go—provide the scaffolding for the festivals which make up the Wheel of the Year. The “Wheel” includes the eight major festivals observed by most Pagans. Wiccans call these festivals “Sabbats.” The eight festivals include four that are derived from ancient Celtic or western European traditions and four from transitional times in the seasons of the year. The four seasonal festivals include the two equinoxes (Spring and Fall) and two solstices (Summer and Winter). Among other things, these holidays recognize the shift in time and light and, thus, are considered solar-based holidays. The two equinoxes are points of stability, of equality between darkness and light; the two solstices are times of transition, of shifts from light to growing darkness or darkness to growing light.

The cycle of holidays alternates between one festival dedicated to solar-based events or seasonal holidays, and one festival dedicated to earth-centered events, represented by those festivals that draw on ancient traditions. Each of these is an opportunity to worship gods and goddesses, welcome the changes of nature, draw on spiritual powers, and practice healing magic. Many Pagans gather during these times of the year to practice these rituals communally. These major festivals are opportunities for Pagans to recognize the essential unity between the spiritual and the physical, between the earth with its seasonal transitions and the supernatural. Many Pagans measure the festivals from sunset to sunset, and most of the rituals and their associated magic (or magick) are conducted at night. The Wheel of the Year begins on 1 November, so the first festival of the year is the Winter Solstice, or Yule (on or around December 21st). In Wiccan circles, the other festivals in calendrical order include Imbolc (early February), Ostara (the Spring Equinox), Beltane (early May), Midsummer (the Summer Solstice), Lammas (early August), Mabon (the Fall Equinox), and Samhain (Halloween). Old Norse paganism, or Ásatrú, is sometimes called “heathenism,” and has its own calendar with eight major holidays. Though its calendar overlaps with the Wiccan festivals in places, Heathens may have some different names for their festivals and traditions of celebration.. Read more about Pagan’s diverse beliefs here. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com

Kathleen Mulhern is a writer, editor, historian, speaker, and professor. She teaches courses in world history, European history, and history of Christianity. She has taught at Colorado School of Mines and Regis University, and is currently an adjunct professor at Denver Seminary in the areas of Church History and Spiritual Formation. Kathleen graduated with a B.A. from Wheaton College, earned an M.A. in French Literature from the University of Denver, an M.A. degree in Church History from Denver Seminary, and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Colorado.

What Is Samhain? What to Know About the Ancient Pagan Festival That Came Before Halloween

D ressing up in costumes and trick-or-treating are popular Halloween activities, but few probably associate these lighthearted fall traditions with their origins in Samhain, a three-day ancient Celtic pagan festival.

For the Celts, who lived during the Iron Age in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the U.K. and other parts of Northern Europe, Samhain (meaning literally, in modern Irish, “summer’s end”) marked the end of summer and kicked off the Celtic new year. Ushering in a new year signaled a time of both death and rebirth, something that was doubly symbolic because it coincided with the end of a bountiful harvest season and the beginning of a cold and dark winter season that would present plenty of challenges.

According to historian Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, Samhain was a “time of stock-taking and perhaps sacrifice” — including probably animal sacrifice — during which “pastoral communities [prepared] to survive the winter.”

Rogers also notes that little is firmly known about the particulars of the holiday, since the limited sources available are either folkloric literature like the Celtic sagas and Roman authors who would have likely “trashed” the traditions of a culture with which they were often in conflict.

To understand what we do know about Samhain, it’s important to recognize how the structure of the year’s calendar affected the Celts’ religious practices. According to The Guardian, much of modern pagan practice is based on the wheel of the year, a major determining factor in Celtic worship. The Celtic year was divided into two halves — light and dark, which were delineated by two of their four annual fire festivals. In between, rituals or ceremonies were celebrated marking solstices (when night is either the shortest or longest) or equinoxes (when day and night are equal). Samhain, the fire festival that marked the beginning of the dark half of the year, is situated between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

Encyclopedia Britannica notes that, during this festival, the world of the gods “was believed to be made visible to humankind,” leading to supernatural tricks and trouble; ghosts of the dead and spirits from the Otherworld were also thought to return to the earth during Samhain. To appease deities during this time, sacrifices (generally of crops and animals) were burned in bonfires as a protective measure from from evil otherworldly beings and offerings were left out for other visiting mischievous spirits. Tricks and pranks were often played, but blamed on fairies and spirits during the three-day period when the line between the two worlds blurred.

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These holidays are seen as sacred times for spiritual reflection, connection with the divine, and community gathering. The sabbats are part of the Wheel of the Year and provide a way for Pagans to reconnect with the natural world and the sacred rhythms of life. **Sabbats are the pagan holidays celebrated by modern Pagan and Wiccan traditions, representing different points in the solar year and honoring the cycles of nature.

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The spiritual undertones of the Samhain festival also lent themselves to looking to the future, an activity quite apropos to the start of the Celtic new year; History.com notes that Druids, or Celtic priests, thought that “the presence of otherworldly spirits made it easier…to make predictions about the future.” At the bonfires of the festival, fortune-telling was done alongside sacrifices, and many participants also donned costumes, often masquerading as animals or beasts, in hopes of fooling spirits who might want to harm them.

The practices of this fire festival evolved over time — most notably with the spread of Christianity and the Catholic church, by 43 A.D., following Rome conquering most of the Celtic lands. In Jack Santino’s Halloween in America: Contemporary Customs and Performances, he explains how, during this time, many of Celtic traditions were reframed with a Christian narrative in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the pagan practices while spreading the new religion. That reframing created many of the Halloween traditions that people still participate in today.

It was May 13 in the year 609 that Pope Boniface IV declared a celebration called All Saints’ Day, also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas in Middle English; the day before it was thus known as All-hallows’ Eve, as History.com explains. The festival was a day to honor Christian martyrs and saints. Later, in the mid-eighth century, Pope Gregory III strategically moved the celebration to November 1, coinciding with the time Samhain would have typically been held. The homage paid to martyrs and saints who passed closely paralleled the appeasement of ghosts of the dead during Samhain. The church’s capitalization on Samhain traditions didn’t end there, however; participants in the new version of the holiday celebrated in much the same manner as their Celtic forebears had — with bonfires and costumes that reflected the spiritual and otherworldly. The offerings of food and goods to protect themselves from spirits and ancestral ghosts became offerings of food and drink to the poor, displays of generosity and goodwill. And the tricks and pranks attributed to otherworldly and evil spirits manifested themselves in the spirit of the saints.

Eventually, All-hallows’ Eve evolved into Halloween, becoming more popular in secular culture than All Saints’ Day. The pagan-turned-Christian practices of dressing up in costume, playing pranks and handing out offerings have evolved into popular traditions even for those who may not believe in otherworldly spirits or saints. However, whether Halloween celebrants know it or not, they’re following the legacy of the ancient Celts who, with the festival of Samhain, celebrated the inevitability of death and rebirth.

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Write to Cady Lang at [email protected].

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Reviews for "The Language of Pagan Celebrations: Learning the Names"

1. Mary - 1/5 stars - "I found 'What are pagan holidays called' to be extremely uninformative. The content was vague and lacked any substantial details about pagan holidays. It felt like a general overview rather than a comprehensive guide. I would not recommend this book to anyone looking to learn about paganism or its holidays."

2. John - 2/5 stars - "As someone with a genuine interest in pagan holidays, I was very disappointed with this book. The information provided was very basic and could easily be found through a simple internet search. The author did not dive deep into the history or significance of these holidays, which left me wanting more. I was also hoping for some personal insights or experiences, but none were offered. Overall, it was a lackluster read."

3. Emily - 1/5 stars - "I was hoping to gain a better understanding of pagan holidays by reading 'What are pagan holidays called,' but unfortunately, this book fell short. The writing was dry and uninspiring, making it a struggle to stay engaged. I found the information to be repetitive and lacking in depth. It felt like a rushed compilation of basic facts, rather than a well-researched and thought-provoking exploration of pagan holidays."

4. David - 2/5 stars - "While 'What are pagan holidays called' does provide a brief introduction to pagan holidays, it failed to meet my expectations. The content felt shallow and did not delve into the different traditions and celebrations associated with these holidays. I was hoping for a more immersive and insightful exploration, but instead, I was left wanting more. I would suggest seeking out other resources for a more comprehensive understanding of pagan holidays."

Discovering the Many Names of Pagan Holidays