Part 3

by A.C. Fisher Aldag

The Holidays or Sabbats:

Anthropologists and folklorists have various theories about the eight "Wheel of the Year" Sabbats, or holy days related to the seasons and positions of the sun. Many sources show that all of these holidays were observed by the ancient Britons. Others believe that prehistoric societies celebrated just the Solstices and Equinoxes. Some maintain that the Druids only held rites on the "cross-quarters": Imbolc, Bealtain, Lughnassadh and Samhain. These "quarter days" were used in the British Isles to divide the year for the purpose of paying rents, taxes and wages. Dr. Murray found evidence to support the idea that the Saxons brought the equinox holiday customs to Britain, but other archeologists argue that the seasonal holidays were celebrated long before the Celts began trade with the Germanic tribes. There are debates about whether the Celtic holidays began at sunset, moonrise or the first full or new moon before or after the day, and whether they were solar events, seasonal celebrations, fire festivals, agrarian (farming) holidays, animal herding schedules, secular observations, or all of the above. Some scholars suggest that the eight holidays were created by Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams) and Rev. Edward Celtic Davies during the "romantic Druid revival" of the late 1700s. Others think that Gardner and his contemporaries wholly invented the Sabbat rituals. It’s interesting to note that the ceremonies in the original Gardnerian Book of Shadows have plain English names, such as August Eve or Spring Equinox. Of course, the word "Sabbat" itself came from the "Sabbath" of the Judaic tradition or perhaps from the French word for "celebration". Both of these sources have roots in the Greek word "sabatu", or the Latin "sabbatum", which roughly translates as "to rest".

I personally believe that all eight seasonal holidays were celebrated in the British Isles from at least the Neolithic era until the present day. Evidence includes the placement of dolmens, tomb doorways and the architectural design of various sacred sites to align with sunrise, sunset or moonrise and moonset on these specific days. The Sequani Calendar, a bronze tablet discovered near Coligny France in 1897, depicts solar and lunar events during the Solstices and Equinoxes, as well as the cross-quarter days. Many of these events correspond with the constellations, linking sacred astronomy, archeology and geometry. Most of the holidays coincide with astrologic occurrences, such as the Sun entering Libra on the fall equinox. Artifacts relating to the Sabbats have been found within sacred sites and in the excavations of ordinary homes and businesses.

And no matter what some scholars write, there are plenty of modern celebrations that correspond to the wheel of the year. To me, it’s just too coincidental that so many Christian holidays occur close to the events related to Pagan sabbats. Not to mention that so many customs and ceremonies associated with the holidays have nothing whatsoever to do with Christian belief or practice. Many holiday traditions endured in the rural working-class of Britain and America until the early twentieth century, documented by historians and family archives. Some customs are no longer practiced, but several of them survived to the present day.

Modern Pagan / Wiccan names for the holidays:

Feb. 2 – Candlemas, Lady Day, Brigit’s Day, Imbolc

March 21 – Oestara, Ostara, Eostare, Eostre, Spring Equinox

May 1 – May Day, Beltain, Beltane

June 21 – Summer Solstice, Leitha, Litha, Midsummer Day

August 1 – Lughnasa, Lughnassadh, Lammas

Sept. 21 – Mabon, Madron, Fall Equinox, Autumnal Equinox

Oct. 31 – Hallows, Hallowmas, Hallowe’en, Samhain, Celtic New Year

Dec. 21 – Winter Solstice, Yule, Midwinter Day

Welsh Names:

Feb. 1 – Calan Fair, Nos Gwyl Fair (was not widely celebrated in Wales)

Spring Equinox – Alban Eilir, Gwyl Canol Gwenwynol

May 1 – Bealtaine, Calan Mai, Nos Galan Mai

Summer Solstice – Alban Hefyn, Alban Hefin, Alban Heurin, Gwyl Canol Haf

August 1 – Calan Awst, Nos Gwyl Awst, Gwi Awst, Ffhaile Llew, first harvest (was not widely celebrated in Wales)

Fall Equinox – Alban Elfed, Gwyl Canol Hydref, second harvest

Oct. 31 – Calan Gaeaf, Nos Galan Gaeaf, various other spellings, final harvest, New Year, Merry Night

Winter Solstice – Alban Arthan, Gwyl Canol Gaeof

In addition to these, there are a lot of other Welsh holidays – Pagan, Christian and national, including St. David’s day on March 1, Rhiannon’s day on Dec. 18, Merry Night whenever you’re finished harvesting, and many more.

Irish Names:

Feb. 7 – Oimelc, Imbolg, La Fheile Brighde

Circa March 21 –Mean Earraigh (not widely celebrated in Ireland)

May 6 or 7 – Beltaine, Beltene, Beltine, Cetsamhain, Sam (beginning of summer)

Circa June 21 to 24 – Mean Samraidh

August 6 or 7 – Lughnasa, Lunasa, Lughnassadh

Circa Sept. 21 to 23 – Mean Foghamar (not widely celebrated in Ireland)

Oct. 31 to Nov. 7 –Samhain, Samhaine, La Samhne, Gam (beginning of winter)

Circa Dec. 21 – Mean Geimhridh

In Ireland the year is divided into "Raitheanna", quarters and cross quarters, headed by "Raithe", the beginning day of the quarter. The "true quarters" are Samhain, Imbolg, Beltain, and Lughnassadh. The others are called "crooked quarters" and refer to either the seasonal solstices and equinoxes or Christian holidays such as St. John’s Day on June 24^th. Some believe that these sacred days were celebrated on the new or full moon following the solstice, equinox or true-quarter day.

The dates listed above may have shifted to the present holiday dates after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. This measurement was designed to show the actual length of time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun. In 1582, Pope Gregory decreed that calendars should drop 15 days to rectify solar time with the actual date. The Protestant Germanic countries didn’t change their calendars until 1700. By this time, the calendar date trailed the seasons by 11 days. Britain finally changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian system in 1752.

There are many other English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh holidays with Pagan overtones, including Twelfth Night, Plough Monday, Witsunday, Martinmas, Rag Day, Up Hella Aa, Hogmany, the Muckle Supper and so forth. For expedience I’ve listed some of them under the modern neo-Pagan name for the holiday (see below).

Rituals: What the ancients (probably) did:

*Honored the fertilization, pregnancy and birth of people and animals

*Lighted fires on hilltops and within holy sites, burned sacred wood

*Divination using natural methods such as the flight of birds

*Worshipped at sacred wells and springs

*Shamanic trancework, ecstatic rituals

*Hoodening – dressing in animal skins for the purpose of hunting or animal fertility

*Burned a Wicker Man or other effigies

*Used natural events to schedule actions related to nomadic herding – moving to new graze land, slaughter of herd animals

*Brought greenery indoors in winter, decorated with greenery and flowers in springtime

*Herbalism for healing, protection and magic

*After agriculture was invented, celebrated the planting, harvest, and threshing of grain

*Created talismans for homes, barns, workplaces and travel

*Performed rites to promote craftsmanship, hunting, fishing, and domestic harmony

*Plow ceremonies on Imbolc, planting rituals between Spring Equinox and Bealtaine

*Harvest ceremonies between the first of August and the last day of October

*Ritual cleaning of the home

*Held dances and agricultural fairs with games, feats of skill and sporting events

*Told and acted out stories in a ritualistic manner

*Placed holy objects onto sacred trees or bushes, decorated trees with ribbons or trinkets

*Held gatherings at sacred sites, including Newgrange and Stonehenge

What the ancient Celts did NOT do:

*Build the standing stone monuments… most were erected by earlier inhabitants

*Lighted candles on Imbolc – this tradition likely dates to Medieval times

*Colored Easter eggs – This custom came from the Slavic and Baltic territories, by way of the Saxons, probably during the early Middle Ages; however, there is some evidence that the Celts dyed eggs red with ochre or madder to represent birth.

*Lammas Loaf – The ancients probably never baked anything with trinkets in it, such as figgy pudding with a sixpence, or a loaf of bread with prizes. These customs likely developed in more modern times, with the invention of the brick or iron oven. This may date the practice as a "mere" two thousand years old. Some traditions had objects associated with divination hidden in mashed potatoes or turnips.

*Called the Fall Equinox holiday "Mabon" – this name was likely invented by Valiente or perhaps Aidan Kelly

*Trick-or-Treat – Not as we know it today. Mummers’ plays, wassail processions, hoodening parades and other house-to-house customs may have contributed to the modern tradition.

*Carved pumpkins – Instead they carved turnips, placed lights in small clay or chalk vessels, or used burning rushes or torches in processions.

*Put a Yule tree in the house – Ancient people often decorated trees outside using ribbons, rags, food offerings, trinkets, coins, and sacrificial animals (sorry – the Romans wrote about this often enough for it to be true.) Many ornamented trees or bushes are found near sacred wells in the British Islands up to the present day. Tying a rag or ribbon to their branches is believed to have magical or healing effects. The custom was not specific to any one holiday. The decorated Yule tree was a later tradition brought from Scandinavia and Germany.

Which leads us to – The meaning behind the Pagan holidays:

Much of the information Mr. Gardner found about the "Wheel of the Year" holidays came from Sir James G. Frazer’s book of comparative folklore, The Golden Bough, first published in 1890 and revised in 1922.  Some scholars like to say that Frazer was "discredited", but this is not true. Frazer was a Fellow at Cambridge University, where he translated classic literature, including Homer. He wrote over twenty other books, several of which are still in print and used to teach mythology in college courses today.  Frazer’s theory about every religious system containing a "sacrificial king" hasn’t held up to scrutiny, but many of his other ideas have been supported by historians.

For The Golden Bough, Frazer did ethnographic studies of European Pagan customs by sending letters to missionaries who had witnessed the ceremonies firsthand.  (So yes, they said things like "The Celts worshipped the trees" because in the context of the late 19^th century, that is what they thought they were observing.)  Frazer then paralleled the European traditions with Christian legends, as well as Greek and Roman literature, in which he is still considered to be an expert.  He wrote extensively about his findings, noting similarities and differences and making speculations about the origins of worship.  Other writers, sociologists and folklorists have made similar observations about these Pagan holiday customs.

A popular historian recently accused some of the anthropologists of manipulating data on the seasonal ceremonies. Supposedly, they asked participants to include certain elements such as "fire worship" in their rituals. However this does not take into account the similarities found in ceremonies held across Europe during nearly 150 years of study. Many of these traditions were also documented by local folklore societies or family historians, who interviewed older residents with the intent of preserving individual town histories. Some of the rites vary in minor ways, such as the wording of song lyrics. Many of the traditions that Frazer wrote about were photographed, often by family members with no scholarly agenda, and these pictures now appear online. Several of the customs are still practiced in isolated European communities, or are being revived in the present day. Here are a few:

Imbolc, Imbolg, Oimelc – Translations: In Belly, In the Bag, Sheep’s Milk. This was one of the four holidays believed to be celebrated by the ancient Irish. The day was originally intended to commemorate the birth of lambs, an economically important event in past times. Several rituals were performed to enhance the fertility of the flocks, such as wreathing them with ribbons and blessing them, or putting up talismans in barns. Other sheep-related rites including drinking ewe milk and eating the last stored mutton. Cheese made from sheep milk was sometimes served for breakfast.

Imbolc was the day to begin plowing the fields, as the climate was warmer during the Bronze and Iron ages. Pliny the Elder noted in the first century C.E. that the Celts had better plows than the Romans, and that they began plowing "early". These tools were also used to cut turf for fuel. Plowing games and races were enjoyed, with attendant feasting. Some customs, such as Plough Monday, now celebrated in Britain near Twelfth Night or the Christian Epiphany, may have originally been related to Imbolc. A plow is decorated and carried from house to house by plow boys, plow jacks or plow stotts, young men dressed in rags with blackened faces who sing rowdy songs and beg for treats. Sometimes they were even called "plow witches". Homeowners that refused to give them an offering would risk having their front yard plowed up. The Ploughboys are sometimes accompanied by a Molly or Malkin, a man dressed as a woman who performed a lively rustic dance. This custom was first written about in the sixth century, when some plow jacks got into trouble for plowing up the kirkyard in Scotland.

The custom of dressing a Straw Man or Straw Bear and parading him through the streets is also part of this holiday in Scotland, Ireland and Northern England. This may have come from the Germanic countries, because the Saxons had outposts in these locations. A similar straw figure is used in Norway and Germany in recent times. This figure may originally have been related to the fertility of the fields, or he may have served as a symbolic scarecrow. Imbolc was also the day that greenery left over from Christmas or Yule was removed from the home. It was often ritually burned. In some locations, it wasn’t removed until spring. Both the straw bear and the greenery may have protective or talismanic qualities, removing "evil" from the locality.

Brighid’s Day or Bridget’s Day was adapted by the Catholic Church as a saint’s day on February 1^st or 2^nd, very probably derived from ancient Irish worship of the goddess Brighid. It was celebrated on the Continent as well as in the British Islands. In Britain, it was observed as the Wives’ Feast. This holiday was never that important to the Welsh or Scots. Irish women create equal-armed Brighid’s crosses, which may have been an older custom which was Christianized during the Middle Ages. These crosses were made from rushes or straw saved from the last sheaf of grain harvested in the fall, and were used to bless and protect the home or cattle barn. Like the Celtic cross, they may represent the sun or the compass points. Women would also create "Bridey" dolls of straw and cloth. These were taken to sacred wells to be anointed and blessed. Villagers would decorate these holy wellsprings on Brighid’s Day, including the font at Kildare in Ireland dedicated to St. Bridget. There are hundreds of symbols, sacred sites and legends of Brighid, both as goddess and Catholic saint. Many can be found online.

Oestara – The use of the name may be old, or may be the invention of Doreen Valiente, who sought balance with the divine feminine. The word Easter may have come from a little-mentioned Teutonic goddess Eostare or Oestara, or possibly Esther, Astarte or Ishtar. It might derive from the Norse "aestur" which means to "grow warm". After the rise of Christianity, the Venerable Bede wrote about "Eostur Monath" or "Eastre", which took place in April on the European continent. It’s notable that he used this name rather than calling it "Paschal month" for Passover or the passion of Christ. Alban Eilir can be translated as Time of Spring or Light of Earth in old Welsh. The equinoxes mark a time of equal daylight and darkness, and the dates when the sun crosses the celestial equator.

Dr. Margaret Murray wrote that the equinoxes were never celebrated in Britain until the Saxon invasions – but that would make the holiday "only" 1,600 years old. There is archeological evidence that spring equinox customs may have been celebrated in ancient times in Great Britain, then died out during the Iron Age, and later revived during the Roman occupation. The Sequani Calendar marks the equinoxes as astronomic events, as do various sacred sites of the British Islands

The Romans used either the first of March or the spring equinox to mark the first day of the new year. With the changeover from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian in Europe, the day of the new year moved from sometime between March 25^th (Lady Day) and April 1^st, to the first day of January. This change may be the precedent for April Fool’s Day. People who still celebrated the new year around the equinox were called "April fish". Some of the current April Fool customs may be related to the first day of spring, or they might have come from the tomfoolery originally associated with Bealtaine.

Coloring eggs may have had a ritual significance as early as the Bronze Age on the European continent and in the Scandinavian, Baltic and Slavic countries. Fragments of dyed eggs have been found in excavations of Saxon homes, and creating elaborate multicolored eggs is a Scandinavian art. Pace Egging endures as a working-class tradition in rural England and Ireland and may be based on a Pagan rite, although the name likely derived from "paschal". On Easter, eggers go from house to house, singing songs, performing short plays and begging for colored eggs or treats. One description of the eggers says that they originally wore animal skins, linking the custom to hoodening. The term "egging him on" came from the bad puns and insults which Pace Eggers yelled at those who refused to give them a treat. An older celebration included looking for bird’s eggs in nests, because birds will not usually lay their eggs until the weather is warm enough for their survival. This information would be vital to an agrarian society, and the need to plant crops after all danger of frost is past.

Folklore relating to hares and rabbits comes from both Celtic and Saxon traditions. The moon in March is called the "Hare Moon", and the saying "mad as a March hare" refers to the crazy behavior of mating bunnies. Witches were said to transform themselves into hares, which may be the remnant of a shamanic belief in animal totems. (The word totem is used here to mean a spirit being, helper or guide in the form of an animal, or a special creature which the seeker has an affinity with.) Seeing a hare before sundown was said to bring good luck, but after sunset it may be an ill omen. And "hare pie" was a favorite dish amongst peasants and nobility alike.

Hot cross buns may have been baked as a Pagan tradition, before their use as an Easter treat. The cross may represent the directions, the quarters of the moon, or it may be a solar cross. In some locations they were hidden away in the attic as talismans.

The early Catholic Church held St. Patrick’s feast Day on March 17^th and Lady Day on March 25^th, both close to the spring equinox. The Christian holy day of Easter is held on the Sunday following the first full moon following the spring equinox, which has distinct Pagan overtones. The rites of spring were celebrated in Wales with sowing and planting activities, including plowman games. This may be patterned after the Roman rites of spring, which was also a time of feasting and games. Of course, the pre-Lenten Carnival or Mardi Gras activities have their roots in Pagan celebrations.

Bealtaine – There are varying spellings and pronunciations, including "Bell-tawn-yah". Bel, Bile, Belatucadros, Belenus or Belanos is the British or Gaulish sun god, called Beli Mawr in Welsh. "Bel" is an older Irish and Welsh word for fire or brightness. "Tain" is a word for fire in Welsh, or raid in Irish. Sometimes Beli or Bile is also a god of death. Belisama is a British or Gaulish fire goddess. The Basque god Bel also had his holy day on May 1^st. Calan Mai is Welsh for the first day of May, or calend of May. It was called Walpurgistag in Germany after the saint Walpurgia, or possibly an older Pagan deity.

Catholics celebrated this holiday as Roodmas. This name comes from the Holy Rood, or the thorn tree which was the legendary wood used for the crucifixion (or perhaps the crown of thorns). One ceremony includes "bauming the thorn", adorning a hawthorn tree with ribbons and trinkets. This may have been an older custom which was Christianized, as hawthorns were sacred in many Pagan traditions, providing visionary capabilities, homes for fairies, and protection against baneful magic. This parallels the custom of the clootie tree, although these decorated trees are not always hawthorns. Much lore about the hawthorn tree survives, including the belief that bringing the flowers indoors on Mayday is good luck, but previous to that date the flowers are unlucky. Similar tales are also told of rowan trees, said to be found at the middle of fairy rings.

Bealtaine was / is celebrated in Britain, Wales, the Isle of Man and Cornwall continually up to present times, documented well before Mr. Gardner wrote about Wicca. The holiday was definitely observed as a fire festival. In a book first published in 1894, Irish Druids and Old Irish Religion, a folklore scholar named James Bonwick compared the elder Mayday customs to ceremonies performed in his time. He interviewed local historians, including a Mrs. Bryant, listed as an "expert on Irish Celts", who said, "There is more trace of sun and fire worship in the peasantry lingering among us today, than in the Bardic literature of the remote Irish past."

Several other Bealtaine customs are related to fire, including the well-known bonfire jumping by a couple to ensure their fertility. Fires were kindled on hilltops, and often were the focus of all-night May festivities. In some localities, hearth fires were extinguished, to be rekindled by a coal from the community "balefire." This word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon languages, and may have the connotation of holding "baleful" or bad influences at bay. The word bonfire may have come from "bone fire", or fires which were composed of animal bones. It may also have arisen from the French "bon", or good. In Scotland, an elaborate ritual was enacted to kindle the fire, as documented by Robert Burn’s patron, Lord John Ramsay. Across the UK, cattle were driven between two fires for their spiritual protection. And couples would sometimes lay by the fires to engage in more pleasurable activities.

Some Bealtaine traditions may have come from the Roman Floralia, or Flora’s day, when revelers adorned their homes with flowers in honor of the spring goddess Flora. The "Furry Dance" or Flora’s Dance of Cornwell is listed on several town websites as an older Pagan custom. Participants garland buildings with greenery and flowers, and dance through the villages in a day-long celebration, singing folk songs. "Bringing in the May", or wearing flowers and leafy branches, is practiced at dawn accompanied by music and dancing throughout Europe. Churchmen were forbidden to participate in this rite as far back as the 1200s. In some costal locations a wreath of flowers and leaves was made to adorn boats, or thrown into water to appease the sea. Some of the materials used included hawthorn flowers, commonly called "the May", birch branches, apple blossoms or greenery from the rowan tree.

Young men wearing elaborate leafy costumes called "Jack in the Green" parade through the streets of Great Britain on Mayday, accompanied by young ladies with flowery crowns or chaplets. While Jack in the Green can only be traced to the mid-1700s, practiced by chimney sweeps in urban areas, the custom might have been brought to the cities by rural youths longing for greenery. A similar ritual was enacted in several English locations, including the construction of a female foliage statue. These traditions may have been originally performed in honor of various forest deities and fertility goddesses. They could be related to the "Woodwose", or wild man of the woods, a legendary figure sometimes portrayed as half-man, half-plant.

The custom of the May basket may be an older one, related to courtship. Often they were hung over the doorknob for the lady of the house to find. In more recent days, baskets of flowers, or bouquets called nosegays or posies were given to mothers, teachers and sweethearts. In Victorian times, the flowers came to have symbolic meaning, such as violets for remembrance. May baskets were also placed on top of the Maypole.

As previously mentioned, the May pole might have come from the Saxon incursions, or it may have been an expansion of the clootie tree rites or bauming the thorn. The Saxon tradition of using only red and white ribbons may have come from healing bandages, similar to the barber pole. An elaborate stained glass window in Betley Hall, probably dated from the early 1500s, shows one such maypole. Some earlier English records indicate that maypoles weren’t originally decorated with ribbons, but with paint or garlands of greenery and flowers. Later societies used various colors of ribbon. There are town maypoles in Germany which are over 1,600 years old, still in use today. A similar ritual was said to be practiced in ancient Greece. A group of men carrying something that looks remarkably like a maypole is depicted on the Gundestrup cauldron. The Basque people may have originated the custom, and still hold maypole dances for tourists and their own enjoyment in France, Spain, and Boise, Idaho. May branches decorated with flowers and streamers are an old Welsh tradition, possibly related to these spring totems. One custom includes adorning the May branch with hollow colored eggs.

"Rushbearing", or bringing in rushes to cover cold stone floors, was a Mayday practice that was later Christianized. The rush leaves were also used as materials for baskets and Brighid’s crosses, or bound to be used as torches for Samhain and Yule. Decorated "rushcarts" overflowing with rush leaves, accompanied by dancers and street actors, could be found in small towns across the UK until the late 1870s. Some carts were formed into images, rather like a parade float. The celebration has been revived as a community festival for tourist enjoyment.

Morris dancing and mummers’ plays, or folkplays performed by street actors, may be more recent Bealtaine traditions, possibly based on elder rites. These folk customs involve a dance or dramatization presented outdoors or taken from house to house by amateur performers. The first known written reference to mumming is from 1377. The stained glass window in Betley Hall portrays mummery characters and Morris dancers, as well as a king and queen of the May. The earliest known record of the Morris dance dates from 1448, but Geoffrey of Monmouth made an observation about a similar dance being held at Stonehenge. Dancers wear bells on their legs, matching outfits, and sometimes wave handkerchiefs, sticks or swords. Many Morris "sides" or dance teams include a fool, a Molly or man dressed in women’s clothes, and a person wearing an animal costume. The famous Hobby Horses or "Obby Oss" of Padstow and Minehead in Cornwall and the "’Ooser" of Dorset, England are favorite Mayday spectacles which often accompany mummers or dancers. Both of these customs are likely related to the rite of hoodening or guising, wearing masks and disguises for ritual purposes.

Hoodening, wearing animal skins with horns or antlers, was practiced in many British villages from ancient times until the present day. This custom may have arisen from primitive hunting rituals or shamanic rites. Sometimes a "hooden horse" is used in a comic play with rural characters trying to shoe or ride an obstinate steed. Hoodening and similar folk dances are all performed several times a year in various locations throughout western Europe, especially at Bealtaine. In the early nineteenth century, they were called "ritual dances" by folklorists and the participants themselves. Several of the dance troupes carried a maypole, a small branch decorated with ribbons and tipped with garlic.

Some scholars believe that these folk dances are not really Pagan in origin, because the Morris was documented as a fad amongst the British nobility during the late middle ages. These historians speculate that the Morris craze spread from the upper classes to the "common" people. I believe these scholars may have it backwards. Like modern rap music, the Morris could have originated with working-class individuals, and then spread to the leisure class. While the nobility got bored with the Morris fad, the chimney sweeps and milkmaids continued their tradition. As one Morris website points out, "Nobody asked the (chimney) sweeps".

In 1899, a folklorist and musician named Cecil Sharpe witnessed rural British men dancing the Morris on Whitsun Day ("white Sunday"), a Christian holiday celebrating the Pentecost which takes place fifty days or seven Sundays after Easter, usually in mid-May to early June. (Other sources indicate that Sharpe first viewed the dance on Boxing Day, Dec. 26^th.) Sharpe began documenting various Morris tunes, dances and customs, theorizing that these "ritual dances" had origins in an older Pagan tradition. As a result, the dance began a revival. Sharpe was accused of both gentrifying and Paganizing the tradition. Several Morris dances and folk plays reflect Pagan themes, including nature and hunting symbolism.

Leitha – The name is possibly the invention of Aidan Kelly, or perhaps it is derived from an Old English (Anglo Saxon) word for leaves. The Venerable Bede called both June and July "Litha Monath". The word may also have roots in the Scottish village of Leith. In the nineteenth century, Leatha was a popular name for women. Alban Hefyn means "time of warming" or "light of summer" in old Welsh, but using this name for the holiday may be Iolo Morganwg’s contribution. It can also be spelled Alban Hefin. On the modern Welsh calendar it is listed as Gwyl Canol Haf, or first day of summer. The Irish name "Samraidh" can be translated as "summertime". Christians celebrate St. John’s day anywhere from June 23^rd to June 25^th. Midsummer, as the name implies, was the midpoint of summer to some of the Celtic nations, whose summer season began at Bealtaine. It was the observation of the date between sowing seeds and harvesting the crop. Other civilizations recognized June 21^st as the beginning of summer, when the earth begins to tilt toward the sun. The Solstice has the longest day and shortest night, which was likely significant to ancient people.

There is considerable evidence that shows that older civilizations celebrated Midsummer as a holy day. Several stone-age monuments, including the famous Stonehenge, and the ruins of buildings have architectural features corresponding to the solstice sunrise or moonrise. The Scottish dolmens at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis also feature summer solstice markers, and one legend says that "the shining one" visited this monument at Leitha. (Could the island be named for the god Lugh / Llew / Lugos?) The Sequani Calendar links Midsummer Day to several astronomic events.

Midsummer traditions included bonfires, games, music, agricultural fairs, and divination using a glass ornament or crystal called a "glaine" or witch’s ball. Several fragments of these glass balls, also called "Druid’s glass", have been discovered buried within sacred sites. Many different fire customs, including rolling a burning wagon wheel or carrying buckets of lit tar, were documented since the Medieval period. Some of these are attributed to burning St. Catherine’s torture device, or burning a scarecrow symbolizing Guy Fawkes, yet other rites seem authentically pre-Christian. Processions using lit torches were documented from Roman days. The burning of a Wicker Man on the solstice holiday was recorded both by Claudius Caesar and the Normans, and the custom survived until the mid-1880s, as observed by Mr. Bonwick. Wicker men were burned in Russia and the Germanic territories as well. Straw effigies were also set on fire in other locations. Harvest customs such as wearing straw costumes or leafy branches were practiced at Midsummer and survived in the British Islands until the 1930s. These traditions may point to a time when criminals were used as a human sacrifice. Later, scarecrows and straw men were burned instead.

Another favorite custom involves the gathering of oak, ash and thorn sprigs at Midsummer, immortalized in Rudyard Kipling’s Tree Poem. Oak represents strength, hawthorn was a protection against baneful magic, fairies and more mundane thieves, and ash was commonly used for arrow shafts, as well as a charm against fire. This is because in a forest fire, ash wood often does not burn. The three twigs are tied together with red ribbon and used as a talisman to protect the home, barn or workplace.

Many Midsummer customs involve fairies and other spirit beings, either the desire to see them or protection against their pranks. Sleeping beneath an elderberry bush on Midsummer night was guaranteed to make fairies appear, but the seeker was advised to wear her clothing inside out and carry a sprig of rue to prevent bewitchment. Milk and strawberries were left outdoors, often on the back step, to appease the fairies. Elves were said to created tangled "elf locks" in the manes of horses or lovers caught sleeping outdoors on the shortest night. And of course Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream contained legends of the fairy folk, including the playful Puck. In many localities, belief in fairies, elves and sprites long outlasted the advent of Christianity.

Leitha was a favorite time for pilgrimages to sacred wellsprings, where the font would be decorated with flowers, green branches, straw decorations and trinkets. These holy wells, often dedicated to goddesses, fairies or water nymphs, were believed to have purifying or healing properties. Sometimes the legend was altered to include a Catholic saint as the founder of the well. However, Pagan rituals associated with wellsprings were practiced right up to the present day. Approaching the well before dawn, circumnavigating the water three times, leaving an offering of silver, bathing in the spring for healing or purification, praying to the spirit of the well, and other overtly Pagan rituals were common at Midsummer as well as on the designated saint’s day. Some of these rites were documented as banned by the Church, although that didn’t seem to have much effect on their practice. Many photographs of these sacred wells appear online.

Another popular tradition is "dressing the well", which occurs in the Peak district of England in small villages each summer. Well-dressing involves pressing flowers, leaves and other natural materials into a clay-lined frame to create a design or picture. The image is paraded through town and displayed at the site of a sacred well (or lacking that, the public water pipe or horse trough). Originally believed to be a Celtic custom, well-dressing was noted by the Roman Seneca. The first modern reference to dressing the well is from Tissington in Derbyshire, documented in 1349. The practice has since become Christianized, with Biblical-themed pictures and blessings by local ministers. This tradition is enjoyed from Ascension Day, forty days after Easter, until early autumn. Many of the wells are adorned around Bealtaine, Leitha and the summer bank holiday. Images can take days to create, but are rather ephemeral, lasting a mere week on the average. Most tourist websites about dressing the well cheerfully acknowledge the custom’s Pagan origin, possibly related to water worship or association with the goddesses of the sacred wells.

Lughnassadh – This was / is a two-week to month-long harvest festival in Ireland, celebrated with county fairs, dances, abundance rituals, sheep shearing contests, greased pig chases, kissing games, and other fun activities. The name may have come from the feast day of Lugh, a god associated with the sun, gaming, sports and skilled labor. His name is also given as Lug, Lugos, Llew, Lleu and Louis. The name Lunassa was used on the Isle of Man until recent times. Several small towns in England, Scotland and Cornwall still hold harvest ceremonies on or around August 1^st. It was and is only a minor observation in Wales.

The holiday was not called Lammas, or Loaf-mass, until after the Anglo-Saxon invasions. This term may have come from the Middle English "hlaef masse", which means loaf mass or bread ritual. The custom of baking trinkets into a loaf of bread, as mentioned previously, occurred after the invention of iron ovens. Each trinket represents a prediction, such as a coin for wealth or a ring symbolizing marriage. Another possible origin of the word Lammas may come from the old Spanish or old French word for lambs. In several locations, a roast lamb or whole side of mutton was roasted over a fire on the closing day of the Lammas festival. The word may also come from the name of a special harvest drink, La Mas Ushal.

Mr. Bonwick wrote that the Lughnassad customs survived until the mid-1800s in Ireland as "Lucaid lamh fada", which he translates as "festival of love". This may have a relationship to the trial relationships or "greenwood" marriages which took place during the holiday. The term "Telltown marriage", or a marriage lasting for a specified period of time, may have come from the name Tailltiu, who was Lugh’s mother.

In older times in Ireland, the entire month of August was traditionally the season for trade, convening court, and settling debt. Picking bilberries was a traditional Lughnassadh pastime, documented in the theatrical production Dancing at Lughnasa. Throughout Europe, Lughnassadh was the day to begin brewing beer from grain and hops. Harvest Home, the Ingathering and Muckle Suppers were celebrated from August to mid-September by Christians as a commemoration of the harvest (see below).

Mabon – Valiente probably named this holiday after the Welsh legend of Mabon, son of Madrone, which appears in the Mabinogion. The word might be the invention of Aidan Kelly. However, the name may come from the Goddess / heroine / fairy queen Mab. (More about her later.) There is a St. Mabyn of Wales and Cornwell, about whom very little is known. The words Alban Elfed mean "time of autumn" or "light of the harvest" in old Welsh, and may come from Mr. Morganwg. In English, this holiday is sometimes called Harvest Home, possibly the invention of the Puritans, but it is likely based on older Pagan gleaning and threshing celebrations. The Muckle Supper, or harvest feast, was celebrated in the Orkney Islands. The word "muckle" meant plenty or large, as "pickle" meant little, but Muckle may also be a corruption of the name Michael. The Christian feast of St. Michael was held around September 24^th as Michaelmas. Merry Night, a surviving Welsh tradition, is a day off from work to commemorate the conclusion of the harvest. The Ingathering, a Christian celebration, probably came from older Pagan harvest ceremonies.

One custom included throwing a sickle at the last sheaf of grain, so that the spirit of the corn would not blame any particular individual for its death. Farmers used straw from the final grain harvested to create various ornaments, including a "corn dolly" or woven wheat-straw figure. The dolly was often adorned with feminine clothing and ribbons, perhaps in honor of the goddess or spirit of the grain. Sometimes the straws were saved to make Brighid’s crosses or Bridey dolls in the early spring. Another tradition was to create a "bickle", "bikko" or straw dog, and jestingly award it to the farmer who was the last to gather his harvest. Threshers would playfully spank the slowest farmer with a sheaf of his own grain. Other traditions included building a huge pile of straw on the back of a wagon, then parading it through the village, singing songs with both celebratory and funereal themes.

Of course after all this harvesting came the feasting. The modern American Thanksgiving Day, ostensibly "invented" by the Puritans, likely had its origins in older European traditions. Celebratory dinners, contests, drinking games, harvest dances and folksongs are well documented in numerous sources. Offerings were given to the Roman goddess Ceres or the local version of the grain goddess or harvest god in small roadside shrines. These locations later became dedicated to Catholic saints. This tradition also survived in the offerings left outside for fairies, sprites or the pookah. In many places, any fruit, grain or vegetables left outside after a certain date became the property of the spirits. Filling a cornucopia, or horn of plenty, was a custom that came from the Romans. Various goddesses are portrayed holding these woven wicker baskets overflowing with fruit, including Ceres, Hecate, Diana and the three Matronae, statues of which have been found in Britain.

The famous Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, a folk custom at least 900 years old, occurs each year in early September near the autumnal equinox. Dancers called "deermen" carry wooden stags’ heads fitted with real antlers, perhaps to commemorate the deer rutting season or in memory of a hunting ritual. The horns have been dated as over 1,200 years old, and come from a species of deer now extinct in Britain, or perhaps the antlers were imported from Scandinavia. The dance is quite similar to the Morris and hoodening rituals. A young man with a bow and arrows, a man dressed as a woman called Maid Marian, and various musicians accompany the deermen.

The autumn equinox and other harvest holidays are still celebrated with sports, games, parties, wine tasting festivals and bonfires throughout the U.K. and America. The tradition of the County Fair, with its contests, agriculture exhibitions and cooking awards likely came from these older harvest celebrations.

Samhain – This word is old Irish Gaelic for "summer is done". "Ain" may be the origin of the word "ain’t", although scholars have fits whenever I suggest it! The Welsh call this holiday Nos Galan Gaeaf, which means night before New Year’s Day or night of the winter calend. Nos Calan Gwaf is the Cornish version. This night is considered the Celtic New Year, or new year’s eve, which was widely celebrated across western Europe, especially in Ireland and Wales. Several cultures marked it as the beginning of the winter season. In many locations, the festivities lasted for three days. Historians have traced some Samhain lore to the 5^th century B.C.E.

Numerous Celtic and Anglo-Saxon legends center on ghosts, frightening old hags, monsters and the gods of death, including the Wild Hunt riding to collect departed souls. The Cailleach Bheur is a fearsome crone representing winter in Ireland, while the Mailte y Nos is the night-hag of Wales, who rides along with the wild hunters. Perhaps the legends of darkness, death, and fierce supernatural beings associated with Samhain can be traced to actual events common in ancient Britain and Ireland at this time of year. This was typically the season to slaughter animals to provide enough food to last throughout the entire winter. It was also the final time to harvest the crops and gather wood from the forests before harsh rainy or snowy weather made it difficult to find sources of food or fuel. Other concerns included hunting and gathering enough medicinal herbs. Many of the ceremonies focused on preserving and maintaining the food supply. In several cultures, Death is personified as a specter or fearful entity, and with good reason. Ill preparation for the season could have meant starvation or hypothermia. This may be why ancient people seemed fixated on placating spirits and appeasing the gods. Much of our American Halloween celebration was likely derived from these British and Irish survival customs.

Samhain was considered to be outside of the calendar, a time when the boundaries between the material world and the unseen realms were able to be crossed. Several Halloween rituals involve contacting the spirits or protecting oneself from their wrath. Some rites include divination to learn about the events of the coming year. This included "scrying" or "kenning" using the flames of a bonfire or candle, gazing into a bowl of water or a dark mirror, and using natural objects such as stones or nuts for ritualized fortune-telling. In The Golden Bough, Sir James Frazer lists several older Samhain ceremonies, including divination and offering food to ancestors or spirits. The "dumb supper" may be one such ritual, or it could be attributed to spiritualism, which enjoyed a revival during the Victorian era. The dumb supper was practiced in Appalachia by Scots-Irish immigrants as a rite of prognostication or communion with a departed loved one, recorded by a folklorist in 1954. The table was to be set backward, with forks on the right. A plate of food was prepared for the dead ancestor, or empty plates left to represent future marriage prospects. Both ceremonies required all participants to eat silently. Some scholars believe this rite was not originally part of the Celtic holiday. Others think it was equated with offerings left out of doors for ancestor spirits.

Trick-or-Treating may come from the more recent Irish and English tradition of collecting "soul cakes" on All Soul’s eve, or it might derive from the ancient practice of giving wayfarers a dinner to show them hospitality. It was considered good luck to feed the first person to cross your threshold on New Year’s Day. Trick-or-Treating might also derive from the ritual of feeding ancestor spirits to honor or placate them. In the old days, fairies and unhappy ghosts were considered responsible for playing tricks. Parallel traditions to the modern Trick-or-Treat include mummery, plough plays, wassailing (caroling), pace egging, and other house-to-house begging for coins and goodies by village youngsters or adult farm laborers. In Ireland, children requested "Money for the King, money for the Queen" on Samhain night, documented from the 1800s into the 1950s. The modern purpose of Trick-or-Treating has become less about survival and more about fun.

Dressing up in costume may originally have been a shamanic ritual, revived during the Renaissance with the people’s love of theatre. Wearing a disguise may have been intended to fool angry spirits or to trick the gods of death. It may also have arisen from the ritual of hoodening, a continuous practice throughout the British Isles up to at least the 1930s. Hoodening is wearing the disguise of a stag, bull, ram or horse and going door-to-door, singing traditional songs and performing a ritual dance or theatre skit. Participants were rewarded with apples, nuts and small change. In Scotland, costumes are called "guises", and Trick-or-Treating is called "guising". Dressing in costumes made of straw, called ‘skekling’ was a Halloween custom in the Orkneys, Shetland Isles and remote locations of Ireland, suggesting a Scandinavian or Saxon influence. There are also skeklers, straw men and straw bears in modern-day Germany, parading through villages on All Hallow’s Eve and other traditional Pagan holidays.

Bobbing for apples is a genuinely older custom. One ritual includes naming a particular apple for one’s intended lover, then attempting to capture it in a sympathetic magic ritual for catching that person. Apples, quite abundant at this time of year, were considered the symbolic fruit of Avalon (Island of Apples) representing the fairy realm and the underworld. An apple can be cut around its middle to reveal a pentagram within the seed cavity. Even though my favorite custom, the Samhaine rotten-apple fight, might be a recent invention, I’m willing to bet that a few of my ancestors indulged in this tradition. Seriously, apples were easy to keep throughout the cold winter months, as preserves, dried or as apple cider. They may have been one of the main staples of the British and Irish peoples’ diet.

Samhain was another traditional fire festival, documented by various writers from the time of Julius Caesar. Bonfires were a common sight in the British Isles and America well into modern days. In the 1860s, one Scots Protestant clergyman despaired, "The practice of lighting bonfires prevails in this and the neighboring Highland Parishes." Mr. Bonwick wrote, "In the Western Islands (of Ireland) the old superstition is dying very hard, and tradition is still well alive." In some locations, all of the hearth fires were extinguished and re-kindled from a common village bonfire. In other places, this ritual was performed on Yule, Bealtaine, or all of these holidays. Fire was used as a fertility symbol, to protect animals, to scare away harmful entities, and in some cases to light the way for friendly spirits. Burning rushes or torches were often paraded through town. Turnips, or beets were hollowed out and filled with oil, or carved and placed over a candle, to create a light to scare off baneful specters or welcome ancestors to the home. They may have been used to fetch a coal from the communal "need fire". This custom later evolved into the legend about "Jack of the lantern", a dead man forced to wander earth searching for an honest person. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, and soon found that pumpkins were much easier to carve into Jack O’Lanterns. The familiar orange gourd may have taken its name from "punkies", the gourds or turnips used as containers for fire in Somerset, England at Samhain.

Yule or Alban Arthan – Although some websites claim it means "light of Arthur", this is not true. The name actually signifies the time of winter or light of winter in old Welsh. It has also been translated as "point of roughness", perhaps describing the stormy winter weather. The holiday is also called Yule, the Norse word for wheel, which may derive from the Anglo-Saxon "Yula". This holiday was originally spelled Iul or Jul, since the Norse language had no letter Y. Jul might be the root word of the term jolly. The name may have come from the old Welsh "heul", which means sunlight, or the English word yew, as in the tree. Astronomically speaking, this is the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the earth begins to tilt toward the sun.

In Ireland, the Newgrange monolithic tomb is arranged so that the first light of the winter solstice falls upon what is believed to be an altar stone. Stonehenge also marks the winter solstice as an important date. While the Druids did not build these structures, the artifacts discovered within show that the Bronze Age and Iron Age Celts likely used them for worship rites. Other sacred sites have similar architectural features which align with astronomic events.

The many non-Christian winter solstice traditions suggest that the ancients really did celebrate this holiday. Decorating with greenery was a common practice. Traces of evergreen branches have been found in several Neolithic sacred sites as well as the excavations of older private dwellings. Fire rituals were frequent as well. Some of the prehistoric temples were found to have yew or birch wood burned in their fire pits. More recent ceremonies included setting fire to brush piles, old furniture and wagon wheels. The custom of lighting bonfires on hilltops continued well into the 20^th century. These traditions may be connected to observing the return of the sun. This would seem logical, to create more light on the shortest period of daylight during the year.

Mummers’ plays, believed by some scholars to have ancient origins, were presented at Christmas time right up to the 1930s in many isolated communities. This tradition of street acting is depicted on the stained glass window of Betley Hall, and is referred to in a much older manuscript from the 1300s, describing the same scene found on the window. Shakespeare also made mention of the custom. Mummers’ plays feature characters who represent light and dark, or good and evil, one of whom wounds or kills the other. A comic doctor, jester, dame or old witch named "Besom Betty" revives the injured or dead character and restores him to health with a magic potion. This folk custom might have led to Gardner’s "Oak King / Holly King" dramatization. It may carry a reference to the victory of sunlight over darkness, which begins on the winter solstice. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the "bad guy" arrives carrying holly, perhaps to represent winter. Sir Gawain’s name in Welsh is Gwalchmai, which means "hawk of the May", which might represent summer. The two engage in battle, with Gawain winning, perhaps symbolic of summer’s victory over winter. This poem may have inspired the Gardnerian Wiccan ceremony for Yule.

The custom of the Mari Llwyd, or "old grey mare" still exists in Wales and Cornwall as a tourist attraction on New Year’s Day or Twelfth Night. A horse skull is decorated with ribbons, cloth flowers, bottle-glass eyes and trinkets, and carried from house to house while participants sing bawdy songs, tell bad puns, and perform a rambunctious dance. Often a Mari has a skirt for the operator to hide beneath, so that the skull seems animated, and the songs and puns are attributed to the dead horse. Sometimes a candle is burned inside the skull. The procession often culminated at the village tavern. This practice is thought to be historically Pagan and probably originated in ancient times as a tribute to the personification of Death. (Or possibly as laughing in the face of death.) The Mari is paralleled by hoodening rituals, the Hobby Horse / Obby Oss, the horse character in some mummers’ plays, and other folk customs where a person is disguised as an animal such as a horse, bull, ram or stag. In Derbyshire, a ram skull called the "Derby Tup" is similarly decorated and paraded through the villages.

Another Welsh tradition includes hunting and killing a man dressed as a stag on the winter solstice, perhaps a form of the hoodening ritual. A parallel custom is the Welsh and Irish "Hunting the Wren" on St. Stephen’s Day, which is observed on Dec. 26^th. The "Cutty Wren" song is sung by participants. Since "cutty" in a Northumberland dialect means old, worn out and shabby, it may refer to the past year. These traditions probably derive from much older hunting ceremonies. Santa’s reindeer may also have their origin in the hoodener or shamanic huntsman.

Perhaps Santa Claus himself came from the Pagan gift-giving traditions of the Celts or the Roman celebration of Saturnalia. Dedicated to the god Saturn, this holiday was brought to Gaul and then Britain by Roman soldiers during the invasions. The Saturnalia festivities include a gift exchange, attributed to an elderly white-bearded god. Some historians believe that Santa was actually modeled on Saturn, or perhaps the god Odin of the German, Icelandic and Scandinavian pantheons. Santa’s reindeer chariot may have come from the Finnish legend of Vainamoinen, who also lived in the north, had a magical workshop, and wore a long white beard.

There are many holiday foods associated exclusively with the winter solstice. Figgy pudding containing a sixpence, or plum pudding with trinkets, likely became popular during the late Iron Age, when brick or iron ovens were invented. Cookies or cakes shaped to represent human and animal figures, perhaps as a poppet or to align oneself with a certain totem, were eaten as well. Wassailing, or singing from house to house, is also an older custom. Wassail is a drink made from hard apple cider or mulled wine mixed with spices and herbs. It was also sprinkled on the apple trees to ensure their fertility. Several wassail bowls dating from Medieval times can be found in British and Welsh museums. The name may derive from the Saxon "waes heil", a greeting that means "to your health". Gingerbread cookies were believed to have been eaten during the harvest holidays, but today they are a popular Yuletide treat.

The traditional Welsh carol "Deck the Halls" makes reference to decorating with greenery and burning the Yule log. Originally called "Nos Calan", which means new year or night of calends in Welsh, the song may have first been performed at Halloween. There is much debate about the Yule log, and whether its use began with the British Celts or if it was a Saxon custom brought to England. Burning a fire all night may have been intended to protect people during the longest night of the year, or to remind the sun to return. In some places the log is called the "Cailleach Block", referring to the crone goddess who represents death, winter and darkness. One tradition includes burning a whole tree for twelve days, perhaps referring to the Twelve Days of Christmas, Twelfth Night or the Epiphany, or it may come from an older custom.

As stated previously, the decorated Yule tree may have derived from the raggy bush or clootie tree, although these were not holiday-specific. Evergreen trees were adorned at Yule in Scandinavia and Germany as far back as the year 500, before Christianity was widely accepted by the working-class people of those nations. Most of the trees were kept alive outdoors. In Latvia, a tree was adorned with cloth flowers, paraded through town, used as the center of a circle dance, then burned. In Denmark during Medieval days, a tree was brought indoors in the wintertime, but they hung it upside down from the rafters to save space. As were many other customs, the decorated tree was adopted by Christians. Queen Victoria introduced the Christmas tree to England, and immigrants brought it to America where it remains a staple of holiday fun.

Most of these traditions have little or nothing to do with celebrating the birth of Jesus at Christmas, yet they still continued to be practiced around the winter solstice time. As the Christian religion became established in Britain, the older beliefs were incorporated into the new holy day, such as decorating with greenery, caroling, and using glass balls for ornamentation. It’s possible that the date of Christmas, December 25^th, came from the birth of Mithras, whose worship was brought into Great Britain and Gaul by Roman soldiers. As with other Pagan holidays, Christians adopted the calendar date for their own use.

Of course, just because a custom is ancient does not mean that it’s something you are required to do to celebrate a holiday. And newer Pagan practices are just as magically valid. Our family enjoys coloring eggs for Alban Eilir, going to the beach on Midsummer, and cutting our Yule tree at a farm. Any ritual that commemorates the season and honors your own spirituality is wonderful!