The Wheel of the Year

Samhain

Oíche Shamhna · Calan Gaeaf · Sauin

• Ancestors
• The thin veil
• Endings
• Divination
• The dark half

The greatest of the four fires. The cattle came down from the summer pastures, the last of the harvest was in, and whatever was still in the fields after this night belonged to the púca. The year ended and began; the doors of the mounds stood open; the dead came home to warm themselves. In the tales, nearly everything strange happens at Samhain: Nera leaves Cruachan and returns a year later, the Dagda and the Morrígan meet astride the river Unius, and the fairy host rides out.

Tradition places the great Samhain fire at Tlachtga, the Hill of Ward in Meath, from which every hearth in Ireland was rekindled. The customs that became Halloween are nearly all Samhain customs: the turnip lantern, the disguising, the games of divination with apples and nuts, the food left out for the returning dead.

In ceremony: the dumb supper with a place set for the dead; the speaking of the names of those gone this year; a journey to Tech Duinn or to the mound of the ancestors; the extinguishing and relighting of the hearth. Read Samhain and the Thinning of the Veil.

Winter Solstice

Grianstad an Gheimhridh · Alban Arthan (modern Druid)

• Darkness and light
• Rebirth
• Newgrange
• Stillness
• The cauldron

Not a Celtic festival by name, but the oldest marked moment in the Irish landscape. Five thousand years ago the builders of Newgrange cut a roof-box above the entrance so that, for a few mornings around the solstice, the rising sun would travel sixty feet down the passage and light the triple spiral in the inner chamber. Maeshowe in Orkney and Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey are aligned to the same turning.

The Celts inherited these monuments and their Otherworld reputation; Newgrange became the house of the Dagda and of Aengus Óg. In the folk calendar the midwinter season was Christmas and the twelve days, with the hunting of the wren on St Stephen’s Day and the mummers at the door.

In ceremony: a vigil through the longest night; the extinguishing of all lights and the kindling of one at dawn; a journey into the mound to the cauldron of renewal; the making of a resolution for the returning light.

Imbolc

Lá Fhéile Bríde · Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau · Laa’l Breeshey

• Brigid
• Returning light
• Lambing
• Hearth and well
• Poetry and healing

The quiet fire. Imbolc, “in the belly,” marks the first stirring of spring: the ewes come into milk, the snowdrops push through, the days are visibly longer. It is above all the feast of Brigid, goddess of poetry, smithcraft and healing, who passed almost seamlessly into St Brigid of Kildare and whose cult never lapsed.

On the eve, a rush cross is woven and hung over the door; a strip of cloth, the brat Bríde, is left on the windowsill for the saint to bless as she passes and kept for healing through the year; a bed is made for her by the hearth. In Scotland the Cailleach is said to gather her firewood on this day: if the weather is fine she has gathered plenty and winter will be long.

In ceremony: the weaving of the cross; the blessing of the well and the hearth; a journey to Brigid’s forge or her well to ask for the fire in the head; the first planting of a seed indoors.

Spring Equinox

Cónocht an Earraigh · Alban Eilir (modern Druid)

• Balance
• Seeds
• Loughcrew
• The Cailleach’s chair
• Intention

Day and night stand equal. The Neolithic cairn T on Sliabh na Caillí at Loughcrew is aligned so that the equinox sunrise travels its passage and lights a backstone carved with suns and flowers. The Cailleach’s chair, a great kerbstone, sits outside; make a wish in it and she may hear.

The Celtic calendar does not name this day, and the folk year marked the season by St Patrick’s Day and the sowing. Modern practice keeps it as a day of balance and beginning.

In ceremony: the blessing and planting of seeds with intentions spoken over them; a Middle World journey to meet the spirits of your local land as they wake; a weighing of what is in balance in your life and what is not.

Beltane

Bealtaine · Calan Mai · Boaldyn

• Fire
• Fertility
• Hawthorn
• Uisneach
• Protection

The second great fire and the mirror of Samhain, the other night when the mounds stand open. The cattle were driven to the summer pastures between two bonfires for protection; the hearth fire was quenched and rekindled from the communal blaze. Tradition says the first Beltane fire was lit at Uisneach by the druid Mide, and that from its hill the fires of every province could be seen.

The hawthorn, the fairy tree, comes into bloom and its branches were brought to the door, though never into the house. The May bush was decorated, the dew of May morning gathered for beauty, and the first water drawn from the well before dawn was lucky. It was also a dangerous night: butter and milk could be stolen by charms, and the sí were abroad.

In ceremony: the passing between two fires, or over one candle flame, with what you wish protected; the dressing of a hawthorn with natural ribbons; a journey to the summer Otherworld to renew your vows to the land.

Summer Solstice

Grianstad an tSamhraidh · Alban Hefin (modern Druid)

• The sun
• Praise
• St John’s Eve fires
• Fullness
• The Upper World

The longest day. In the Irish folk calendar the midsummer fire belonged to St John’s Eve, 23 June, when bonfires were lit on every hill and the cattle driven round them, a custom still kept in parts of the west. The herbs gathered on this night, especially St John’s wort, were the strongest of the year.

In ceremony: a sunwise circle at dawn, or a vigil to watch the sun set and rise at the two ends of the shortest night; songs of praise for the land in its fullness; a journey to the Upper World to meet the bright ones.

Lughnasadh

Lúnasa · Calan Awst · Gŵyl Awst · Laa Luanys

• Harvest
• Lugh and Tailtiu
• Games and gatherings
• Hill climbing
• Bilberries

The festival of first fruits, founded, the tales say, by Lugh in mourning for his foster-mother Tailtiu, who died clearing the plains of Ireland for farming. The great assembly at Tailtin held games, horse races, law-giving and trial marriages lasting a year and a day. The first sheaf was cut and the first bread baked from it.

Lughnasadh survived most vigorously as a day of hill climbing and berry gathering: Reek Sunday on Croagh Patrick, Bilberry Sunday across the country, Garland Sunday with its flowers. The Puck Fair at Killorglin, with its crowned goat, is a Lughnasadh fair.

In ceremony: the sharing of new bread and berries; a thanksgiving to the land for what it has given; games and contests; a hill walked in the body or in spirit; a memorial to those whose work fed us.

Autumn Equinox

Cónocht an Fhómhair · Alban Elfed (modern Druid)

• Second harvest
• Gratitude
• Loughcrew
• Reckoning
• Preparing for the dark

The sun crosses the line again and the cairn at Loughcrew lights for the second time in the year. The grain is in; the apples and nuts are gathering; the geese are coming. Michaelmas on 29 September, with its goose and its carrots and its St Michael’s bannock in the Hebrides, was the folk year’s version of this season.

In ceremony: a thanksgiving for the second harvest; a journey to ask what must be stored and what must be let go before the dark half; a weighing of the year since Imbolc’s intentions were set.