The Great Sabbats

The Major Sabbats are religious festivals that are celebrated at more or less spaced intervals throughout the year. The term Saturday originates from Abrahamic religions with Hebrew origin and has been adapted by modern Wiccan followers to describe the festivities of the year. There are a total of eight Sabbats in the Wiccan calendar, four of which are major Sabbats and four minor.

The four major Sabbats are linked to the four seasons and are held at times when the seasons change. They are also known as cross quarter days, lunar Sabbats or fire festivals and are most closely associated with the ancient Gaelic festivals. Today they are celebrated on fixed days of the year by most of the Western world, but pagan and neopagan religious groups often hold their own religious practices on the actual day of the festival each year. The holidays follow lunar and solar cycles, which means that the actual day varies from year to year, but for most of us a fixed date is more convenient.

Sabbat dates follow the Northern Hemisphere calendar, which causes some problems when those in the Southern Hemisphere wish to celebrate them. The most common solution is to add six months for the southern hemisphere to align the celebrations, which means that Neopagans often celebrate an opposite festival at any time of the year. Someone in Australia, for example, might be celebrating Samhain when someone in England is observing the Beltane festival. Those who live on the equator are in a difficult situation and can choose any direction.

The four Greater Sabbats are:

Samhain, also known as Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve, which falls on October 31; Candlemas, also known as Imbolc or Brigit’s Day, celebrated on February 2; Beltane, also known as May Day or Cetsamhain, celebrated on May 1; and Lammas, also called Lughnasadh, celebrated on August 1.

These festivals have been followed in one form or another for centuries by many pagan societies and have all acquired other names over time. They are known by many other names in other cultures and the alternatives here are the more common Western alternatives. Not all pagan or neopagan religions celebrate all Sabbats, greater or lesser, but those that do tend to observe the greater Sabbats.

Followers of the Abrahamic religions are probably familiar with Halloween and following the trick-or-treat theme, but few will celebrate any of the other great Sabbats, though there are exceptions. Candlemas is very popular in Ireland, as Brigit is the Irish goddess of poetry, crafts, prophecy, and divination. The Gaelic origin of these festivals makes them more popular in the British Isles than in other countries.