It's About Time: Sabbat and Esbat Calendars

In the Braided Wheel tradition we do not celebrate the Sabbats on a lunar schedule because the Sun does not bow to the whims of the Moon, neither does the Moon bow to the whims of the Sun, but both effect each other.

Celtic and Germanic days started at sundown so it is not surprising that holy days start at sundown and continue to the next sundown. For our modern understanding, these events can be celebrated as Eves and Days. For modern convenience, these festivals are often celebrated on the nearest weekend before or after the preserved folk date.

The Esbats

New Moon Rituals take place within three days after the calculated first visible lunation. We generally hold these rituals within three days of when we believe the first crescent will be visible.

Full Moon Rituals take place within three days of the calculated full moon. We generally hold these rituals the day before, the day of, or the day after we believe the moon to be full.

Dark Moon Rituals take place within three days of the calculated dark moon. We generally hold these rituals the day before, the day of, or the day after we believe the moon to be dark. Once you see the new crescent, you can not have a Dark Moon ritual

An Esbat ritual held when the moon is increasing in visibility is called a Waxing Moon Esbat. An Esbat ritual held when the moon is decreasing in visibility is called a Waning Moon Esbat.

It is always appropriate to consider the time of year and the relevant Sabbat when planing an Esbat.

Check the time of the lunar event as well as the date, if the event happens before sunset the holy day would historically have begun the previous evening.

The Sabbats

There are two types of Sabbats: Quarters and Cross Quarters.

The Quarters fall on the calculated dates of the solstices and the equinoxes. If possible, they should be celebrated on those dates. Check the time of the solar event as well as the date. If the event happens after sunset, the festival would historically have carried on to the next day. If the event happens before sunset, the holy day would historically have begun the previous evening.

Logically the Cross-Quarters should fall half way between these celestial events.

Given that the Gregorian civil calendar is solar but prone to slight yearly drift; and modern conventions of travel and work make weekends more convenient for large rituals; and the solar cross-quarters are up to a week after the preserved folk date of the festivals; it is reasonable to celebrate the cross-quarters anytime within the first week of the month they are associated with (November in the case of Samhain).

Some people disparage Wiccans for using information from Gerald Gardener, but he did not just make up these dates. He chose to perpetuate the dates preserved in folk tradition. Many of the traditions associated with Imbolc are still practiced in England and Ireland today, under no influence from the Neopagan movement.(Farrar,pp14,72)

Some notes on Calendars

Among the Celtic and Germanic people Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasad are described as fixed solar festivals occurring on November 1, February 1, May 1, and August 1. (Davidson, p37) There is good evidence that the Celts used a lunisolar calendar. The fact that the festivals became attached to the first days of the Julian months leads many Neo-pagans to conclude that they were originally celebrated on the first days of lunar months. To complicate things further some tribes counted the months from full to full instead of new to new.

Both the Celtic and Germanic people made use of a solar count half year (182 days per half year, 364 days per year.) With the first day being "Samain" and the half-year point being "Beltene". That would preclude Samain and Beltene from being celebrated on a lunar schedule. Imbolc and Lughnasad were quarterly festivals probably set by day counts to occur 91 days (one quarter of the solar year) after the previous fixed festival. In that case the fact that Imbolc and Lughnasad fall on the first days of the Julian and Gregorian calendar months is just a coincidence and not evidence that they were celebrated on a the first day of a lunar month. (Davidson, p38)

The Roman Calendar was originally lunar and subject to extreme drift corrected by occasional leap months, as is common of lunisolar calendars. In 46 b.c.e. Julius Caesar instituted a solar calendar with leap days every four years, while retaining the lunar month names and approximate lengths (corrected to prevent drift). He wanted to start the year on the solstice as well but the Senate overruled him. (Meyer)

That calendar lost one day every 128 years. By 1582 it had lost about 12 days and needed to be corrected again. So our calendar reached it's current form the Gregorian calendar. It is essentially the Julian calendar with minor corrections to prevent drift. (Meyer)

Many of the debates over the proper dates for festivals stem from disagreement about calendar systems. See these calendar links to get a better understanding of the issues.

Calendar links

• The Julian and the Gregorian Calendars by Peter Meyer -A very detailed explanation of the history of our civil calendar. Scholarly, with an emphasis on the basic issues and political process of calendar reform.
• Calendars by L. E. Doggett - Includes Julian, Gregorian, Jewish, Islamic, Indian, and Chinese Calendars. Scholarly, and very formula based. Good overview of the basic issues in calendar reform.
• The history of the Gregorian Calendar- An astronomy web Site. With a history of our currant calendar and a date generating program for various calendars. Very basic and short.
• Overview of Calendars A sub page of Rosetta Calendar A Calendar Conversion Service.
• NIST-Ancient Calendars- Very basic introduction to calendars and time keeping. Heavy on the graphics. Good for children. Put up by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology).

Lunar Calendars

• Jewish Calendar - Wonderful explanation of the history of the Jewish calendar. Includes Jewish calendar months with Gregorian civil months/days written in. Basic and easy to read.
• Islamic Calendar - Wonderful explanation of the criteria for Islamic lunar months.(visible first sighting). Includes software for predicting first sightings. No actual calendar. However, it does include a year date and listings for probable month start dates.

What is the Pagan thing to do?

The problem is that everyone had their own calendar. Wiccans generally accept that the solar year began at Samhain but I have found no information on how the date for Samhain was determined. It was expected to be solar and amended by the Lawspeaker at the Althing when it drifted. So in the absence of a Lawspeaker what are we to do?

The first law of pagan practice is that you ask the Gods for guidance and then you do what you feel is right.

If you want to celebrate the Sabbats according to a lunar calendar, you must first determine if your calendar is strictly lunar or lunisolar. I recommend lunisolar calendars because strictly lunar calendars drift in relation to the seasons and the Sabbats are based on European seasonal festivals. Keep in mind that the Julian calendar is also paleo-pagan calendar.

If you want to use a lunisolar calendar, you must decide what your starting date is and how you are going to correct for drift.

Here are some Neopagan lunisolar calendars

• The Goddess Calendar- by Peter Meyer. A lunar calendar that keeps up with the solar year without drifting. An interesting intellectual exercise. All the months are named after Goddesses in Alphabetical order.
• Druidic Lunar Calendar- Lunar year based on Samhain being the last full moon in October. It does not answer the question "How did the Druids know it was October?" or "How did they correct for drift?" This calendar is subject to extreme drift.
• The Celtic Year a good site about the Celtic lunar calendar.

If you decide to invent your own calendar, don't be surprised if people don't take you seriously.

One of the problems with cyclical occurrences is that starting and ending points are arbitrary. Our current calendar day starts at midnight and our calendar year starts over a week after the winter solstice. In addition, our months, although originally based on lunar months, are arbitrary day counts.

Here are some of the cycles that we use to measure time. They are arranged in correspondences. The first one is one I personally feel comfortable with, right now, living in upstate New York. On this table the solar cycle correlates to the seasons as we experience them. The lunar cycle matches the solar cycle and the diurnal cycle.

This is the same only with the lunar cycle running counter to the solar cycle something I am also very comfortable with.

Here is another way to organize them. The Solar cycle matches the British seasonal cycle, as I understand it (never having been to Britain). The Lunar cycle is linked to the solar cycle and the Diurnal cycle begins at sunset. These are probably the correspondences the Celtic and Germanic people would have resonated with. The Celtic and Germanic people started their days at sunset their months on the dark, first crescent or full of the month, and their years at Samhain. Traditionally Samhain is associated with sunset and Beltane with sunrise. There is no evidence that the festivals were placed on lunar cycles. The dates of both festivals were set by seasonal counts and began at sunset on the appropriate day of the solar calendar. (Davidson, p38)

This lunar cycle is linked to popular Americans opinions about the seasons, weekdays and time of day.

A Year and A Day

The tradition of apprenticeships lasting "a year and a day" comes to us from Germanic contract law. In it's original context it was understood that a year from January 1 was December 31 so January 1 this year to January 1 next year is "a year and a day". Many Neopagans have misunderstood the term and believe that a year and a day from January 1 is January 2.

Works Cited

• Davidson, H.R.Ellis. "Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions", Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988.
• Farrar, Janet and Stewart. "A Witches Bible Compleat." New York: Magickal Childe, 1984.
• Meyer, Peter (1999) The Julian and the Gregorian Calendars [Online]. Avalible: http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_stud/cal_art.htm