Wiccan Holidays

Depending on who you ask Wicca is either a new found religion or one of the oldest religions to be, and to be honest both of these statements would be true. Just as any other religion Wicca has conformed and grown over the years. Todays’ Wicca is an extension of the Wiccan religion that was traced back to Gardnerian Witchcraft which was founded in the UK during the late 1940s. But just as in any other religion Wicca holidays can still be found today.

WICCA is based on the symbols, seasonal days of celebration, beliefs and deities of ancient Celtic society. Wiccans recognize the existence of many ancient Gods and Goddesses, including Pan, Diana, Dionysius, Fergus, etc. However they also view the God and Goddess as symbols, not living entities. In the trees, rain, flowers, the sea, in each other and all of natures creatures. This means that they believe in treating “all things” of the Earth as aspects of the divine.

And this brings us to the point of our topic today. There are eight commonly-recognized and celebrated Wiccan holidays. Four of these (the quarter days) are held at the time of the solstices or equinoxes. The other four are cross-quarter days, held roughly in between one solstice and the subsequent equinox. Historical research shows that these holidays were probably celebrated throughout Europe and the British Isles in pre-Christian times. Many of the festivals were so popular that the Christian church could not prevent the common people from commemorating them, so they were appropriated and held under the aegis of various (and frequently spurious) Christian saints. The popularity of these ancient holy occasions is linked to changes in the earth and sky, the seasons, and the natural year-round seasonal shifts that dramatically affect human beings, animals, and plants.

BRIGANTIA or as it is more commonly known as Imbolc (the day when newborn lambs begin to nurse) or, to the Christians, Candle-mas (the purification of the Virgin), Brigantia is usually celebrated February 2. It marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, when buried seeds begin to stir within the earth. It also marks the beginning of the third of the year which belongs to the Maiden aspect of the three-fold goddess. “Brigantia” is the day of Brigit, an Irish goddess of smith-craft, healing, and poetry. The old Saxon and Norse communities knew her as Birgit, the lusty, spring-loving consort of Ullr, the god of winter. The color of this day is red.