First Off, These Are Oddly Portrayed Through Time As: Devil Worshiping Ceremonies, Sacrificial, Demonistic, And They Are NO Such Thing. Any true Wiccan Will Tell You That They Are The 8 Celebrations On The Changing Of The Earth, Seasons, Solstices, Equinoxes And Such. No Chicken/People Sacrifices Are EVER Done. The 8 Sabbats Are As Follows:
Ostara- Ostara Is The Time Of The Spring Equinox, The Date Varies Each Year But It Always Falls Around March 20-22 In The Northern Hemisphere. In The Southern Hemisphere Ostara Falls On September 23. Ostara Is Named After A German Goddess Called Eostre, A Fertility Goddess Associated With New Life.Celebrations Include: Blessing And Starting Seeds, Painting And Burying Eggs For Fertilizer And Many Other Ways Including Making Meals, Special Drinks, And Burning Celebratory Incense And Candles And Such. Many Families Also Do Things In Unique Ways Especially If They Have Children, As With The Other Sabbats Too For A Better Understanding By The Children Of Young Ages. Ostara Is Also Known By Other Names Such As: The Rites Of Spring, Lady’s Day, Alban Eilir, Festival Of The Trees, And Eostre’s Day
Beltane- Beltane Is The Beginning Of Summer. Beltane Also Marks The Midpoint Of The Sun’s Progress Between The Vernal Equinox And The Summer Solstice. Beltane is also known as “Roodmas” or “Walpurgis Night”, It Is One Of the Four Fire Festivals Along With: Samhain, Imbolc And Lammas. Dancing, Feasting, Adorning Houses And Costumes With Seasonal Flowers, Building A Big Fire With Woods From Sacred Trees And Many Other Things Are Done To Celebrate Beltane. During Beltane Alot Of Livestock Give Birth Around The Point In the Year And Crops Are Just Beginning To Flourish. It Is Celebrated On May Eve Or April 30th.
Litha- Litha Is The Summer Solstice, Is Celebrated On June 21st, Litha Is Also Known As: Alban Hefin, Alben Heruin, All-couples Day, Feill-Sheathain, Feast of Epona, Gathering Day, Johannistag, St. John’s Day, Sonnwend, Thing-Tide, Vestalia, Whitsuntide or Whit Sunday. Litha celebrates the peak of the suns annual rise at the Summer Solstice, the first of two annual solstices dividing the year (the second being the Winter Solstice at Yule in December). The word “Solstice” is derived from two Latin words: “sol” which means “sun”, and “sistere” meaning “to stand still”. As the summer solstice approaches, each day the sun rises noticeably higher in the sky, but by the day of the solstice itself, its rise becomes almost imperceptible compared to the day before it. In this sense and for the period of midsummer, the sun seems “to stands still” having reached its peak. Traditionally It Is A time For handfastings, weddings, and such. People believed that the Litha fires possessed great power, and by jumping through the fire it would bring prosperity and protection for the coming year. The charred remains of the fire would later be used to create charms against injury, bad luck and bad weather. Ashes from the fire would be mixed with seeds not yet planted, and spread around fields and orchards to protect their crops. After the embers had cooled farmers would then drive their cattle through the ashes to purge them of disease and illness.
Lammas- Also Known As: Lughnasadh, August Eve, Feast of Bread and Harvest Home. It Is Celebrated On August First. Lammas is the first of three autumnal festivals each year, the others being Mabon (21st Sept) and Samhain (31st Oct). Some Crops Are Harvested During This Holiday. Fruits, Breads And Berries And Such Were Gathered To be Part Of The Feast And Celebration That Is Lammas. It Is The Holiday Of Harvest For All Who Grow Their Own Crops usually give to the needy or donate food to charities.
Mabon- Is On September 21st, It Is The Autumn Equinox, At Lammas (1st August), we celebrated the first of three autumnal harvests, and now as days and nights become equal and darkness overtakes light, we celebrate the conclusion of the second harvest. Mabon can be pronounced in various ways: May-bun, May-bone, Mah-boon or Mah-bawn), and is commonly known by a variety of names: The Second Harvest, Harvest of First Fruits, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon, Festival of Dionysus, Michaelmas, Harvest Home and Cornucopia.While the waning sun still hovers in the sky and crops continuing to be gathered, it’s a rush against time to reap in the crops before the cold winter winds overtakes us. After completing the corn harvest started at Lammas; the farmer turns his attention to grapes from vines, apples from orchards, nuts, berries and other essential fruits and vegetables. As the days become shorter his efforts to complete the harvest are aided by the light of the full moon. For this reason the full moon closest to Mabon is known as the “Harvest Moon”.
Samhain- It Is Celebrated On October 31st. Is one of the greater Sabbats of the Witches’ calendar and in the Northern Hemisphere is celebrated on the night of 31st October (in the Southern Hemisphere the equivalent Sabbat is Beltane 30th April). Samhain is the third and last of three autumnal harvests, the first was at Lammas (1st August), when in tribute to the waning Sun, the “Corn King” was sacrificed and his spirit returned to the ground for its period of rest. The second harvest was at Mabon (22nd September), Samhain marks the change from summer into winter. Samhain is one of the most popular and wide spread pagan festivals in the Celtic calendar and is traditionally regarded as the “Celtic New Year”. In modern times it is a night of fun and celebration, of glowing Jack O’Lanterns, trick or treating and dressing up in costumes as Wicked Witches. It is also a night for divination, for attending séances, tarot card readings and scrying with mirrors. For the occult minded, it is a night of power, when the veil between the unseen world and ours is at its thinnest, a night when the spirits of the departed are free to roam. Candles also play an important part in Samhain celebrations, and are often used to decorate the home creating the right mood for the occasion with their hypnotic glow. Ever since fire was discovered, the naked flame has been regarded as sacred, and in ancient times lighted touches were used to invoke the Goddess and Gods. Similarly today the naked flame of lighted candles are used to aid divination, to commune with deities and more particularly at this time, to connect with ancestors and other departed souls. Bonfires play a large part in the festival of Samhain. On the night of Samhain each household would extinguish their hearth-fires and then wait for the druids to light the village bonfire, symbolising a new light for the New Year. Most often two fires would be lit side by side, and during the evening’s celebrations, villagers would light torches from the common flame and re-light their own hearth fires. Later, they would parade and dance around the village and lead their animals between the fires in a ritual act of purification. Down through the ages Samhain has always been considered an auspicious time for divination, for contacting ancestors and other departed souls. It was customary therefore to place lights along roadways to help guide spirits out for the dark, and to leave open a door or window with a candle or other light burning to lead them back from whence they had left. This was the beginning of the ever popular Jack O’Lantern custom of today, in which lights or candles are placed in pumpkins so the wind will not extinguished them. These are now used to decorate homes and to frighten off mischievous souls who may have lost their way.
Imbolc- Is Celebrated on february 2nd, Imbolc is one of the four Greater Sabbats of the witch’s calendar. A cross-quarter fire festival, Imbolc falls between “Yule” - the Winter Solstice, and “Ostara” - the Spring Equinox. Celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere on the 2nd February, in the Southern Hemisphere the equivalent Sabbat is Lammas. The main purpose of Imbolc is a celebration of the returning Sun, which daily grows stronger lengthening the days and reducing the night. As such, the main feature of this festival is the lighting of fires and candles in sympathetic imitation of the Sun’s growing light. The name Imbolc is derived from the Gaelic word “Oimelc” (which means “ewes milk”). In Western Europe, Imbolc was time to start preparing the fields for the first planting, and to bless the crop seeds saved and stored from the last harvest. It was also a time to consecrate and bless all their agricultural tools ready for the planting season. Of old, the success of the new farming season was of greatest importance, and as the winter stores of food were beginning to run out, rituals were performed at Imbolc to ensure a steady supply of food until the first harvest was brought in later at Lammas (August 1st). One old tradition was to drag a decorated plough around the fields followed by the villagers dropping pieces of cheese and bread into the newly turned furrows as offerings to the nature spirits. As well as the seeds, Corn dollies saved from the last harvest would also be planted in the fields in a fertility rite to encourage new growth. Imbolc is all about new beginnings. On the eve of Imbolc all the home fires would have been put out, cleaned out, and re-lit symbolic of the returning light of the Sun, and in keeping with this symbolism, a broom made from three sacred woods, the handle from Ash, the brush from Birch twigs and the binding cord from Willow, symbolic of the three-fold aspects of the Goddess, was placed by the front door to symbolize sweeping out the old and welcoming in the new. During the evening, an especially large candle would have been lit and the family gathered around it for a feast, during which plans and promises to be kept through the new season would be discussed and debated until it burned out. It was also customary at Sunset to ritually light a candle in each room of the home in honour of the Sun’s return.
Yule- Is The Winter Solstice, Yule is a celebration marking the death and rebirth of the Sun in Midwinter, and is the second of two annual solstices dividing the year (the first being Litha, which celebrates the Sun at its peak in Midsummer). The word “solstice” is derived from two Latin words: “sol” (the sun) and “sistere” (to stand still), the Winter Solstice therefore means, “Sun stands still inWinter”. Yule marks the longest night and shortest day of the year, when the Sun ceases its decline in the sky, and for three days thereafter seems to stand still and lie dormant on the horizon, after this it once again begins its ascent into the northern skys and the days grow longer. Yule or the Winter Solstice is known by various other names, including: Alban Arthan (Caledonii or Druid), Jul (Norse), Yuletide (Teutonic), Feill Fionnain (Pecti-Wita), Gwyl Canol Gaeof (Welsh), the Longest Night, Midwinter and of course Christmas from Christianity. The Yule celebration was particularly important to our ancestors, occuring at a time when many (the poor, the old, the feeble) were not expected to live throughout the winter. It was a time when their very survival depended on preparations they had made during the previous nine months. Another tradition of old was the lighting of a Yule Log, which was done with great ceremony and as a highlight of the family celebrations. It was believed that fire symbolized the return of the Sun after the Winter Solstice. Traditionally the log used would have been of sacred Oak or Ash, from a tree felled on the householder’s land, or given as a gift by their landlord. Placed in the hearth it would have been decorated with seasonal greenery, doused with cider or ale and dusted with white flour for added snow effect. Offerings of corn or breadcrumbs would be scattered over it, and coins to aid future prosperity placed upon it. Later the charred coins would be given away as lucky charms. On the eve of the Solstice the log would be lit and set ablaze using a piece saved from the previous years Yule log. The log would be allowed to burn throughout the night and then left to smoulder for the next 12 days, before being put out. A piece would then be saved and kept to light the following years log.
And There Is A Quick Overview On What The Sabbats Are About, Any Additional Information Can Come If Questions Are Asked And It Is Not Mandatory To Celebrate In The Ways We've Listed But Those Are The Traditional Ways That We Know Of Ourselves, If You Do Something Different We Would Love To Hear About Your Experiences, Questions And Comments. But As We've Previously Stated, This Is Just An Overview, Not All Information On The Sabbats Is Included But A Good Chunk Is.
