Public Rituals The Cycle of Seasons Tejas Web holds free public rituals for each of the 8 neopagan Feasts of the "Wheel of the Year". They are (with some alternate names): Samhain - Feast of the Dead... Winter Solstice (Yule) - Cold! Brighid (Imbolc) - Lady's Bedstraw appearing, Loquats setting fruit. Spring Equinox (Kore) - Bluebonnets! Poppies! Bealtaine - Sunflowers! Summer Solstice (Midsummer) - Hot! Dead Grass, Fires. Lughnasa (Lammas) - Hotter! School soon... Autumn Equinox (Persephone) - Cooling off The approximate dates these are celebrated are: November 1 December 21 February 1 March 21 May 1 June 21 August 1 September 21 Here below is some idea of themes we have used in Tejas Web at each of the Feasts in the past, as well as a few things off the top of my head, though if you ask different members of the community you are liable to get as many answers as people, and ideas may change over time to reflect our current needs for healing, renewal, celebration, or transformation. Samhain This is the neopagan New Year, modelled after Irish custom in this respect. It is also the feast of the dead and the ancestors. After the invocations, we take a journey to the Underworld to meet with our beloved dead. The names of those who died in the past year are called out, and then we dance a Spiral Dance of renewal and rebirth. Then the names of those born in the past year are called out. Winter Solstice - Yule This feast at the Winter Solstice celebrates the birth of the Sun Child, and the renewal of the solar disk as it reaches its lowest point in the sky during the shortest day of the year. This festival has focused in the past on children and the hope of renewal in the community. Brighid - Imbolc - Candlemas Often pronounced like 'breed' in Gaelic, but with many other pronunciations as well, this is named after the Irish triple goddess of poetry, healing, and smithing at the forge, who is also manifest today as a Catholic saint. Her icons are the holy well and the sacred flame. This feast has lots of white candles, and we often make pledges of some kind in order to carry her flame out into the world. This feast, like Lughnasa, has a more activist focus for us than other feasts. As Saint Brighid, she not only is involved with healing, but with abundance especially of milk and butter, cattle, fire, clairvoyance, and time travel. This feast is also called "Imbolc" or "Oimelc" which mean "in the belly" and "Ewe's Milk", since this is when the lambing happened in Ireland. It is the time of year pregnant with possibilities for the future harvest to come. Spring Equinox - Kore - Eostra The Spring Equinox celebrates the balance of light and dark that favors the abundance of spring. The Flower Maiden, or the God of Love (Oengus in the Irish tradition, or the Blue God of Feri) returns from the Underworld to spread a blanket of beauty across the world. Here in Austin it is about the time that the bluebonnets, poppies, and Indian paintbrush are coming into flower. Bealtaine - May Day This is the feast opposite the wheel of Samhain, called the other "hinge of the year". Samhain celebrates the mystery of Death; Bealtaine celebrates the mystery of Sex and the importance of pleasure in our lives. It is sex that renews the living world so that it can continue and the wheel can keep turning. In Samhain the gate to the ancestral world opens; at Bealtaine the gate to Faery swings ajar, and the Trooping Folk are nearer to our world. Midsummer The sun is at the height of its journey. In Irish tradition this was the time of year when Lugh battled his grandfather Balor, and wounds him so that he begins to decline and weaken. But he isnt defeated completely yet, his baleful Eye still beats down on our heads as we on Earth retreat to Barton Springs, Deep Eddy, and other swimming holes. As celebrated in Shakespeare, the mischievous pixies are about at night, drinking their elderberry wine. We might use the juice in circle instead. If there is no burn ban, we might make a Wicker Man and burn it in a bonfire. Lughnasa - Lammas This feast celebrates the first grain harvest. It also celebrated the death of Lugh's foster mother Taillte. As Lugh is the patron of all skills and learning, it was the time of Craft Fairs. Also students will be returning to school in just a few weeks. It is a good time for gathering into the storehouse, whether a storehouse of barley or corn, or a storehouse of knowledge. It is a good time for honoring the elders of the community, who embody our most valuable storehouse of experience. We also may acknowledge all those who have acted as a teacher to us in the past year, drawing from their own storehouse to share the gifts nature and experience have bestowed, so that all may have plenty. Lughnasa is opposite of Brighid on the wheel: while Brighid forges the tools, Lugh helps us learn how to use them effectively. She is the Passion of water and fire that knit and strengthen us within; He is the precise point of a golden spear that penetrates all obstacles and lack of understanding, enabling us to effectively assist others. Autumn Equinox - Harvest Home - Persephone At the Autumn Equinox, the growth of summer is coming to full fruition. The Earth Mother is sharing abundantly of all her gifts. But it is time for her daughter to leave her side, in search of adventure in the Underworld, the place of the Unknown - and her mother is sad. The God of Love has retreated beneath the earth and become the God of Wealth. He gives his seed to the soil so it may be fertile again. The seed must die and be buried to be reborn. A wicker man might be made, or a flower garland woven, with our prayers woven into it. As it is burned the fire carries them along to the Underworld with the Maiden - future Queen - or the God. We express our gratitude to the Earth for her abundant harvests, which contain a promise of future harvests to come. And so the Wheel turns back to the Beginning.... Other Perspectives Here are a few sites each with their own take on the neopagan holidays mentioned above. Of course, the significance of these dates will vary from place to place depending on the local weather, geography, and agricultural seasons, and culture. Witches Voice: Excellent basics. Mike Nichols: More interesting traditional lore. Astronomical data from the US Naval Observatory may be found here.... In private and coven practice, many Witches also celebrate Lunar rituals, sometimes called "esbats". See the book The Spiral Dance for a discussion on Lunar feasts.