Wicca

===Wheel of the Year===
[[File:Wheel of the Year.JPG|upright|thumb|right|Painted Wheel of the Year at the [[Museum of Witchcraft]], [[Boscastle]], [[Cornwall]], displaying all eight of the Sabbats]]

{{Main|Wheel of the Year}}

Wiccans celebrate several seasonal festivals of the year, commonly known as [[Sabbats]]. Collectively, these occasions are termed the Wheel of the Year.{{sfn|Farrar|Farrar|1992}} Most Wiccans celebrate a set of eight of these Sabbats; however, other groups such as those associated with the [[Clan of Tubal Cain]] only follow four. In the rare case of the Ros an Bucca group from [[Cornwall]], only six are adhered to.<ref>{{cite book |title=Traditional Witchcraft: A Cornish Book of Ways |publisher=Troy Books |first=Gemma |last=Gary |page=147 |year=2008 |oclc=935742668}}</ref> The four Sabbats that are common to all British derived groups are the [[cross-quarter day]]s, sometimes referred to as ''Greater Sabbats''. The names of these festivals are in some cases taken from the Old [[Ireland|Irish]] fire festivals and the Welsh God Mabon,<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The Celts |title=Mythology |publisher=Little Brown & Company |location=New York |first=Emrys |last=Evans |editor1-first=Richard |editor1-last=Cavendish |editor2-first=Trevor O. |editor2-last=Ling |page=170 |year=1992 |isbn=0-316-84763-1}}</ref> though in most traditional Wiccan covens the only commonality with the [[Celts|Celtic]] festival is the name. Gardner himself made use of the English names of these holidays, stating that "the four great Sabbats are [[Candlemas]] {{sic}}, [[May Eve]], [[Lammas]], and [[Halloween]]; the equinoxes and solstices are celebrated also".{{sfn|Gardner|2004|p=10}} In the Egyptologist [[Margaret Murray]]'s ''The Witch-Cult in Western Europe'' (1921) and ''The God of the Witches'' (1933), in which she dealt with what she believed had been a historical [[Witch-cult hypothesis|Witch-Cult]], she stated that the four main festivals had survived Christianisation and had been celebrated in the Pagan Witchcraft religion. Subsequently, when Wicca was first developing in the 1930s through to the 1960s, many of the early groups, such as [[Robert Cochrane (witch)|Robert Cochrane]]'s Clan of Tubal Cain and [[Gerald Gardner]]'s [[Bricket Wood coven]] adopted the commemoration of these four Sabbats as described by Murray.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}

The other four festivals commemorated by many Wiccans are known as ''Lesser Sabbats''. They are the [[solstice]]s and the [[equinox]]es, and they were only adopted in 1958 by members of the Bricket Wood coven,{{sfn|Lamond|2004|pp=16-17}} before they were subsequently adopted by other followers of the Gardnerian tradition. They were eventually adopted by followers of other traditions like [[Alexandrian Wicca]] and the [[Dianic Wicca|Dianic]] tradition. The names of these holidays that are commonly used today are often taken from [[Germanic paganism|Germanic pagan]] holidays. However, the festivals are not reconstructive in nature nor do they often resemble their historical counterparts, instead, they exhibit a form of [[universalism]]. The rituals that are observed may display cultural influences from the holidays from which they take their names as well as influences from other unrelated cultures.{{sfn|Crowley|1989|p=23}}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 90%; width: 100%"
|-
!Sabbat
!Northern Hemisphere
!Southern Hemisphere
!Origin of Name
!Associations
|-
|[[Samhain]]
|31 October to 1 November
|30 April to 1 May
|[[Celtic polytheism]]
|Death and the ancestors
|-
|[[Yule]]tide
|21 or 22 December
|21 June
|[[Germanic paganism]]
|[[Winter solstice]] and the rebirth of the [[Sun]]
|-
|[[Imbolc]], a.k.a. [[Presentation of Jesus at the Temple|Candlemas]]
|1 or 2 February
|1 August
|[[Celtic polytheism]]
|First signs of [[spring (season)|spring]]
|-
|[[Ēostre|Ostara]]
|21 or 22 March
|21 or 22 September
|[[Germanic paganism]]
|[[March equinox|Vernal equinox]] and the beginning of [[spring (season)|spring]]
|-
|[[Beltane]], a.k.a. [[May Eve]] or [[May Day]]
|30 April to 1 May
|31 October to 1 November
|[[Celtic polytheism]]
|The full flowering of [[spring (season)|spring]]; [[fairy|fairy folk]]{{sfn|Gallagher|2005|p=67}}
|-
|[[Midsummer|Litha]]
|21 or 22 June
|21 December
|[[Early Germanic calendar]]
|[[Summer solstice]]
|-
|[[Lughnasadh]], a.k.a. [[Lammas]]
|31 July or 1 August
|1 February
|[[Celtic polytheism]]
|First fruits
|-
|[[Mabon ap Modron|Mabon]], a.k.a. [[Modron]]{{sfn|Gallagher|2005|p=72}}
|21 or 22 September
|21 March
|No historical pagan equivalent.
|[[September equinox|Autumnal equinox]]; the harvest of grain
|}