The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals in contemporary Paganism. It consists primarily of eight festivals based around the solstices and equinoxes, known as the quarter days, and the midpoints between, known as the cross quarter days.
Within Paganism, many festivals are celebrated. They can vary considerably in name and date amongst specific traditions, however the eight festivals of the Wheel comprise the most adhered and important annual celebrations. They are a unifying feature of modern Paganism. The Wheel has been important to many people, both ancient and modern, and its festivals are based to varying degrees on folk tradition.
In the context of Witchcraft, the festivals have also commonly been referred to as sabbats /ˈsæbət/ since the Middle Ages, when the terminology for Jewish Shabbats was commingled with that of other heretical celebrations. See Witches' Sabbath.
Read more about Wheel Of The Year: The Festivals, Dates of Celebration, Origins
Famous quotes containing the words wheel of, wheel and/or year:
“Everything goes, everything comes back; eternally rolls the wheel of being. Everything dies, everything blossoms again; eternally runs the year of being. Everything breaks, everything is joined anew; eternally the same house of being is built. Everything parts, everything greets every other thing again; eternally the ring of being remains faithful to itself. In every Now, being begins; round every Here rolls the sphere There. The center is everywhere. Bent is the path of eternity.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Having a wheel and four legs of its own
Has never availed the cumbersome grindstone
To get it anywhere that I can see.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)