There was once a time when the year was not a calendar on a screen, but a wheel you could feel. You felt it in the light that came and went, in the earth that froze and thawed, in the grain that was sown and harvested. Women followed the wheel with their hands and bodies, and they marked its turning points with fire, food, song and silence.
That wheel is today called the witch's wheel of the year, and it consists of eight festivals, called sabbats. Four of them are solar festivals: the two solstices and the two equinoxes, where the sun's course turns or balances. The four others are fire festivals, sitting midway between and marking the full power of each season.
And here is the beautiful part: You already celebrate half of them without knowing it.
Samhain, 31 October
The witch's new year and the night of the dead. We know it as All Hallows and Halloween, the night we remember those who went before us.
Yule, around 21 December
At the winter solstice we celebrate that the light is born in the deepest darkness. The Nordic Christmas with its evergreens, candles and feasting is full of the old traces, jól was the name of the festival in the North long before Christianity.
Imbolc, 1 to 2 February
The first light and the first sprouts. In Denmark it is called kyndelmisse, the mass of candles, where midwinter ties its knot and we light candles against the dark.
Ostara, around 20 March
The spring equinox celebrates the balance between light and dark and everything that is waking up. The eggs and spring letters of our Easter are Ostara's old symbols of new life.
Beltane, 30 April
Walpurgis Night is the festival of life force and blossoming, with bonfires and May greens.
Litha, around 21 June
The summer solstice we know as Sankthans, or Midsummer: the bonfires, the bright night, the highest sun of the year.
Lammas, 1 August
The first harvest festival, where the first grain is cut and the first bread is baked.
Mabon, around 22 September
The autumn equinox is the great festival of thanksgiving, where we harvest, give thanks and begin to let go, just like the trees.
The wheel tells one great story
The wheel tells one great story, year after year: The light is born, grows, culminates, wanes and rests, and is then born again. It is the story of the grain and the story of the sun, and if you dare to look, also your own. Everything in your life has its springs, its harvests and its winters. When you follow the wheel, you practise living in that rhythm instead of fighting against it.
You do not need to celebrate all eight festivals. Start with the ones that already live in your calendar: Christmas, Easter, Midsummer, All Hallows. Light a candle, bake a loaf, step out at dusk and say thank you. It has always been the small acts of the home that kept the wheel turning, not the grand ceremonies.
The wheel turns, and you turn with it. Everything has its time, and everything comes again.