Within contemporary witchcraft, as with other modern pagan traditions, the turning of the seasonal Wheel of the Year is often considered just as important as the lunar cycles.  When we consciously follow and observe Earth’s dance with the sun through the eight festivals, known as “Sabbats”,  not only do we gain a better appreciation of nature and what is happening around us, but we also gain a deeper, and often profound, understanding of our own selves.

The Sabbats themselves are often divided into two types: Greater and Lesser. The designation has nothing to do with importance but to what they represent.

The Greater Sabbats celebrate agricultural cycles, the natural cycle of life, death and rebirth. They take place on the same calendar date each year.  As these festivals are Celtic in origin, whose celebration cycle was from dusk until dawn, I incorporate this into the dates of the Greater Sabbats as to when the occur here in the Southern Hemisphere:

Lughnasadh - 31 January or 1 February (Southern Hemisphere) or 1 August (Northern Hemisphere)

Samhain - 30 April (Southern Hemisphere) or 31 October (Northern Hemisphere)

Imbolc - 31 July or 1 August (Southern Hemisphere) or 1 February (Northern Hemisphere)

Bealtaine - 31 October (Southern Hemisphere) or 1 May (Northern Hemisphere)

The Lesser Sabbats are solar celebrations that honour where the sun is located in the sky. They coincide with the two solstices and two equinoxes. The dates of the Lesser Sabbats are determined astronomically so they fluctuate from year to year.

Autumn Equinox - 20 to 23 March (Southern Hemisphere) or 20 - 23 September (Northern Hemisphere)

Winter Solstice - 20 to 23 December (Southern Hemisphere) or 20 - 23 December (Northern Hemisphere)

Spring Equinox - 20 - 23 September (Southern Hemisphere) or 20 - 23 March (Northern Hemisphere)

Summer Solstice - 20 - 23 June (Southern Hemisphere) or 20 - 23 June (Northern Hemisphere)

Depending on tradition and teaching, the Wheel of the Year can commence at various times depending on the sacred mythos being observed.  Within modern pagan today, Samhain is often considered the “Witch’s New Year”, a somewhat erroneous interpretation of a particular paragraph (about Dis Pater written by Julius Caesar) by Sir John Rhys, a Welsh scholar and the first Professor of Celtic studies at Oxford University.   Yet, this interpretation was never challenged and subsequently found its way into other foundational texts of modern paganism, including Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough.  I expand more about this falsehood in my book Dancing the Sacred Wheel or you can read the originating article source here at Caer Australis.

When it comes to working with the Wheel of the Year, the emphasis is on creating balance.  This is because each sabbat has an opposite.  Yet, as we move from one year to another, we do so not in a circle,  but in a spiral, arriving at each sabbat with (hopefully) a deeper understanding based on our experience and knowledge gained throughout the year, coupled with other cosmic influences that are also occurring at that time.

An example of this balance are the Sabbats of Bealtaine (where the focus is on life) and Samhain (death). While on the surface there are distinct and opposite aspects - life and death - there are are also similarities of the veil between the earthly world and the spirit dimension being at its thinnest. 

With contemporary witchcraft, there are often deeper and more profound teachings connected with the Wheel of the Year that also incorporate Craft mythos.  These however are taught within coven settings.  The Temple of the Dark Moon also incorporates observances from where we reside on Kaurna Country.