The eight sabbats are the holidays of Wicca. We meet, work and do business at our esbats, but sabbats are usually reserved for celebration only. Before I begin talking about sabbats, I must point out a couple of things. First of all, this is based on our practice and should not be considered as dogma. Some covens and solitary practitioners may follow a framework that is similar to ours. Others may not and it should be remembered that theirs is probably as valid a system as any other.
The other thing I wish to address is our sources. While a little of this may be unique to us, most of it has come from other authorities. We relied heavily on Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet & Stewart Farrar when we put together the Book of Shadows that we now use. Even though we have not been slaves to it, our themes that run through our sabbats parallels theirs closely. Other works have had influence on us including those on our Suggested Reading List. We have come up with a framework of sabbats that has meaning for us by using the work of others and adapting it to suit us. Any similarity in the content of this page to the works of other is thus expected.
The esbats, with their blatant lunar overtones, has always been a time to emphasize the Goddess. Likewise, since the sabbats seem to correlate to the lengthening and shortening of the days, we view them as solar. Solar festivals seem to us to stress the importance of the God. These are not exclusive, since we do acknowledge the God during our esbat ceremonies. As you will see, the Goddess has not been left out of the sabbats either. In fact, she is quite important to the theme.
The deities need a little explanation before we begin. We believe that all deity is one Deity. Deitu is something beyond our comprehension as human beings. In order to relate to this all-encompassing and all-powerful entity, we break it up into aspects that we can understand and relate to. The first division is to break this Deity down into a Goddess and a God. Since the Deity is all-encompassing, it must contain both masculine and feminine polarities. If this is true, then why not break it down in this way? We can relate to a Mother and Father, since this is a part of our human experience. Most of us view ourselves as children of the Deity, and this breaking down into a Goddess and God is natural.
We further break down the Goddess into three aspects. We view her as a Maiden, Mother and Crone. These aspects correspond to the waxing, full and waning Moons respectively. The sabbats are very fertility oriented, so when the Goddess is portrayed, she is in the aspect of the Mother. She is not only the consort of the God, but she becomes pregnant by him and gives birth to him.
The Celts viewed the year as only really having two seasons, and many witches today follow suit. These are winter and summer and each begins with a sabbat celebration. Summer begins on May 1st with Beltane, and winter begins on November 1st with Samhain. These two sabbats are considered the most significant of the year. Together with Imbolg (February 1st) and Lughnasadh (August 1st), they make up the Greater Sabbats.
The Lesser Sabbats consist of the solstices and equinoxes. They are also known as the Cross Quarter Days, since they are eqaully spaced bewtween the Greater Sabbats on the Wheel of the Year. (See our "Definition of Terms" page for the meanings of any words that are unfamiliar to you.) With the four Greater Sabbats and the four Lesser Sabbats, the year of solar festivals is completed. The Year begins and ends at Samhain. We shall begin our explanation with Yule and end at Samhain.
Another thing to be remembered is that a holiday begins at sundown on the day before. It is thus considered normal tohave the big celebration on the night preceding the date for the Sabbat. Thus even though Samhain, is November 1st, we celebrate it on the night of October 31st. The holiday is still on the modern calender as Halloween.
The Sun God is born at Yule. For the last six months the amount of day light has decreased daily. Now with the Sun God reborn, the light will begin to return. The Mother Goddess gives birth to the God and he is destined to becom her consort and lover. This seems taboo to us, but it must be remembered that these are natural forces and not people we are talking about. The female and male polarity unite to create everything in nature. It is the female that ultimately gives birth to the creation and thus it is so with the forces of nature. There is a saying that witches are fond of. "As above, so it is below." The forces of Nature, recreating themselves from this polarity, is a good example of this.
The Sun God is not the only aspect of the God that gets played out throughout the Sabbats. There is also the Oak King and the Holly King and they both play a part at Yule. The Holly King is the God of the Waning Year and he has ruled since the Summer Solstice. Now at the Winter Solstice, Yule, the Oak King will begin his half year reign as the God of the Waxing Year. This isn't just a passing of power from one to the other, but a conquering of one by the other. In order for the Oak King to rule, he must defeat and slay the Holly King.
These are the two main themes of this Sabbat. The Mother Goddess gives birth to the Sun God, and the Oak King Slays the Holly King. Many Gods of various religions were suppose to be born about solstice time. Most of these were solar deities or gods of light. Mithras was one and nobody would deny that Jesus Christ is a God of Light. The Holly King has lived on in the form of Father Christmas and eventually Santa Claus. Old Nick is an ancient name for the God in parts of England. Is it a coincidence that we refer to Santa as Old Saint Nick?
Imbolg is also called Imbolc, Brigantia, and Candlemas, and it is celebrated on February 1st. While this holiday is still celebrated in some European countries, it remains on our calendar as Groundhog Day. The Basic meaning of Groundhog Day is that winter is almost over and spring will soon arrive. This isn't too far from the meaning of this sabbat, except that witches put many times more emphasis on it that we do Groundhog Day. The Goddess has now recovered from giving birth to the God at Yule. She can now turn her energies to nurturing him. He is maturing and growing stronger. The days are starting to get longer. The first signs that winter may soon end can be seen. The first buds appear on the trees and the Earth begins to stir from its winter nap. There is evidence that this sabbat was also connected to the lactating of the ewes, which occurs at about this time. This reinforces the nurturing aspect of this holiday.
Ostara, or the Vernal Equinox, is a relative late comer to the witch sabbats. It falls sometime around the 22nd of March. The equinoxes are magical times when the day and night are equal. The last inklings of winter should be passed. The Sun God continues to wax stronger as the days become longer. This is the time of the year when the day light increases the most from day to day. This is indicative of the Oak King at the zenith of his power. Many of the symbols of our pagan past that have worked their way into Easter celebrations, are also still found in many Ostara rites. These include colored eggs, bunnies and other newborn animals.
Beltane is also known as May Day and Walpurgis, and it falls on May 1st. It is probably the greatest fertility celebration on the calendar and it marks the beginning of summer. While most people are familiar with maypoles and their obvious phallic symbolism, not everyone is aware of how far things went in the past. Our European ancestors had great May Day celebrations and they were not complete without the maids all running out into the forests with young men in pursuit. This was often referred to as maying, but the term was also used for outings during which there was picnicking and flower picking. Children conceived on this magical occasion were often considered magical themselves. The mating ritual is carried over into the sabbat symbolism by the ritual mating of the Oak King with the Mother Goddess. He not only mates with her, but dies out of love for her. She, out of love for him, resurrects him and he continues reigning over the Waxing Year. The seed has now been planted in her womb and come next Yule, a New Sun God can now be born. The fertility rituals were supposed to help insure a bountiful crop in the coming season.
Litha is also known as Midsummer and St. John's Day. It is the Summer Solstice and occurs about June 22nd. It is the longest day of the year and as such, the Sun God is at his most powerful. From now on the days will start to get shorter and the Sun God will become weaker. It is now time for the Holly King, the King of the Waning Year, to take over rulership from the Oak King. As at Yule, he does this by defeating and slaying him. The Holly King will now rule until he too will die in six months.
Also know as Lammas, it is celebrated on August 1st. This time of year traditionally marks the beginning of the harvest season. The Holly King is also the Corn King since he rules over harvest time. As the Oak King mated with the Mother Goddess and died for his love, so does the Corn/Holly King now. It is now his turn to mate with the Earth Mother and die for his love. This is very symbolic of reaping the grain, which in fact is killing the plants themselves. Remnants of the folklore can be found in some old folk tunes. One of these is John Barleycorn Must Die, which was recorded on the album of the same name by Traffic years ago. He too is resurrected by the Goddess so he can continue his reign. The Sun God continues to get weaker.
This is the Autumnal Equinox and occurs about the 22nd of September. Just as the Oak King was at his zenith of power at the Vernal Equinox, the Holly king now is at his most powerful. Most of the harvest should be in by now and it is time to give thanks for the bounty of the Earth. The Goddess is sad though, because she realizes that her consort, the Sun God, is dying.
This is the beginning of winter and is celebrated on November 1st. It marks the beginning of the dark half of the year and is the Feast of the Dead. Witches do not look at death as a bad thing. It is the inevitable conclusion to life. We believe in reincarnation, so this is a necessary step toward a new life. There is no death without life, but more importantly, there is no life without death. The Death motif is everywhere in this sabbat. The Sun God dies, to be reborn at Yule. The Earth seems to die as it goes to sleep for the winter. There is something else special about this day. It marked the end of the old year, which also died at this time. This day was more than that however, since it belonged to neither the old year, nor the new one. Since this day was not a part of any year, it was special and magical. Because of this the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest. If loved ones can come back to visit, now is when it will happen. This adds to the Feast of the Dead theme and people often honor their dead relatives at this time. There are hopes for survival through the winter ahead. This sabbat has obviously survived until this day as Halloween.
After this, we begin with Yule again and the Sun God is Reborn, etc. Each year acts as a model of our own lives. Like the Wheel of the Year turns through each subsequent cycle, so do our lives follow one another as we reincarnate from one life to the other. We celebrate this throughout the year as we celebrate the sabbats.