CELEBRATING THE YEAR

OUR LOCAL LIBRARY had a display of occult and Pagan material just before Halloween, and I borrowed a couple of books to explore.  Wisely, pagans celebrate more than just the four corners of the calendar: the well-worn spring and vernal equinoxes -- when the number  of daylit hours speeds up or slows down rapidly -- and the wondrous summer and winter solstices -- when the Sun almost stands still for a week, as morning minutes are exchanged for evening minutes.  Pagans also stop to savor the four cross-quarter days from Celtic mythologies: Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. 

Imbolc (also Imbolg or St Brigid’s Day, or in the Anglican calendar, Candlemas) coincides with our Groundhog Day, February 2. Last winter I heard it called “Solar Spring” for the first time: and the word Spring was a true anodyne in the midst of that snow seige. In our Boston suburb, it’s always a time of hope: we can start looking for snowdrops on the mild, sunny days, or drive by local farms and see the first lambs of the season.  But even though the sun promises warmer days ahead, make no mistake: there’s a reason it’s called Candlemas on some Christian calendars. We’ll keep the hearth fires burning for a bit longer; there’s still some weather ahead.  Still, Imbolc is a welcome stop on the way to the spring equinox on March 21-23.

Beltane --  May 1, our Mayday -- is the original Pagan fertility festival, the start of all the magic and bounty that summer brings.  It's grounds for a grateful shout-out, and leads us on to the full celebration of the midsummer festival  at the solstice in June.

Lughnasadh (lun' asuh), August 1, is a personal favorite, for I was born on the eve of this holiday. Lammas bread was traditionally made from the first harvesting of the wheat. We don’t celebrate so much with bread these days , but instead with the onset of garden greens and early vegetables -- and the promise of tomatoes by August. 

Samhain (sah' win) is November 1, the end of the harvest, and also known as All Souls Day (our Halloween). This year they really turned out the lights in our community -- up to a week in some spots -- and let us know that darker days were at hand!

And so on to the winter solstice in late December, when we "turn the sun around" for a new season of light and warmth. These cross-quarter days offer stops on the way to the four corners of the year.  They help us feel gratitude for the cycle of light and dark, the alternating tides of high and low, cold and warm, as even the planet seems to breath in and out.