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Seasons - the Wheel of the Year

There are Eight Spokes on the Wheel of the Year.
4 quarterly events are Solar (marked by the Earth's relationship to the sun). 4 quarterly events were celebrated on the full or new moon falling roughly half way between the two solar events. There are 13 moons calculated in the traditional calendar so the "Intercalary Moon" was celebrated seperately.
Click for exact dates to 2012!

1. Solar Point - Winter Solstice - December 20-21, longest night, shortest day - the middle of winter on the old calendar (not the first day as in modern times). Holidays include Jul/Yule, Hanukkah, Diwali, Christmas and many other "festivals of light."

2. Lunar Midpoint - February - Called Imbolc after the Ewe's Milk lets down. Groundhog's day, The Purification of Mary, Mother Night, Norns Night, Valentines/Lupercalia and the traditional first day of spring.

3. Solar Vernal Equinox - March 20-22, Mid-Spring when day and night are equal. Called Eostre, Oestra, sometimes Easter. Time for Spring cleaning, clearing, and cleansing.

4. Lunar Midpoint - end of April/May - the last day of spring and the first day of summer. Beltane, workers holiday, assumption of Mary, enlightenment of Buddha and the beginning of Summer.

5. Solar Point - Summer Solstice - June 20 - 22, The hight of Summer (not the beginging of it), Midsommersdag, Litha, Thing-tide.

6. Lunar Midpoint - Around August 2, the end of Summer and the begining of Autumn. Harvest Season, Grain Harvest, John Barleycorn's Day, Lughnasaad.

7. Solar Autumnal Equinox - the height of Autumn harvest, Lammas, the fruit harvest, Baccus' Festival.

8. Lunar Midpoint - End of October/November, the last day of Autumn and the begining of Winter. The Meat Harvest. The Wild Hunt. Halloween (a hallowed evening), Dia de los Muertos, All Saint's Eve or Ancestor Passing. Winter begins again!

The 8 spokes of seasonal change were observed in hunting/gathering, nomadic herding, and agrarian societies from our earliest memories. Artistic and spiritual information abounds from Neolithic cave paintings to the Old Farmers Almanac. Astronomical calculations were part of everyone's architecture from the Aztec to the Egyptians to the Druids. During these Industrial and now commercial economies, these seasonal transitional rituals are more often being marked by corporate inspired traditions centered around shopping.

Re-engaging the community in deep ritual observance of the Seasonal Changes has been the mission of the Discovering Origins/Building Traditions Project.