Wheel of the Year

Wheel of the Year
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"Sabbats" redirects here. For other uses of sabbat or sabbath, see Sabbath (disambiguation). For Wheel of time, see Wheel of time (disambiguation).
This article is about the modern Wiccan Sabbat. For the historical and legendary Witches' Sabbath, see Witches' Sabbath.
"Sabbat" redirects here. For the English band, see Sabbat (band). For the Japanese band, see Sabbat (Japanese band).

The Wheel of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere these festivals are commonly shifted by six months to match the local seasons.

Painted Wheel of the Year from the Museum of Witchcraft , Boscastle.

The Wheel of the Year is a modern Pagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are often referred to as Sabbats /ˈsæbət/. While the term Sabbat originated from Judaism and is of Hebrew origin, the festivals themselves have historical origins in Celtic and Germanic pre-Christian feasts, and the Wheel of the Year, as has developed in modern Paganism and Wicca, is really a combination of the two cultures' solstice and equinox celebrations. When melded together, the two European Festival Cycles merge to form eight festivals in modern renderings. Together, these festivals are understood by some neo-pagans to be the Bronze Age religious festivals of Europe. As with all cultures' use of festivals and traditions, these festivals have been utilized by European cultures in both the pre- and post-Christian eras as traditional times for the community to celebrate the planting and harvest seasons. The Wheel of the Year has been important to many people both ancient and modern, from various religious as well as cultural and secular viewpoints.

In many forms of Paganism, natural processes are seen as following a continuous cycle. The passing of time is also seen as cyclical, and is represented by a circle or wheel. The progression of birth, life, decline and death, as experienced in human lives, is echoed in the progression of the seasons. This cycle is seen as an echo of life, death and rebirth of the God and the fertility of the Goddess. While most of these names derive from historical Celtic and Germanic festivals, the non-traditional names Litha and Mabon, which have become popular in North American Wicca, were introduced by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s. The word "sabbat" itself comes from the witches' sabbath or sabbat attested to in Early Modern witch trials.