We have our huge autumn equinox celebration tonight with a dessert potluck. We have monthly full moon and new moon celebrations, generally with a witchy craft or spellwork.
We also hold the following celebrations:
Winter Solstice
Spring Equinox
May Day
Summer Solstice
First Harvest
Autumn Equinox
Samhain
Occasionally we will hold something for the other cross quarter day but most of us hole up between Jan-March.
Personally, I've never held full/new moon rituals.
Time to own the truth. Due to a lot of factors, mainly depression and physical issues, I haven't regularly celebrated holidays in quite some time. It's hard to keep oneself motivated when it's just you and the brain weasels are out in full force.
I've made some changes in my life recently and am determined to recapture parts of the me-that-once-was. Starting on Samhain this year I'd like to try and do at least a lil something for the "Big 8".
I totally get that. It was way harder to do anything major when my kids were little. And in the winter, I just want to hibernate. Big part of leading a group sort of forces me to participate and I appreciate that part of it.
@KentuckyConjurer I celebrate all the traditional wheel of the year. Mostly quietly, but Samhain I get to be more loud since it falls on Halloween, so no one questions me having a fire in the pit that day. And since so much of Yule decorations are incorporated in cmas, I bring it all out.
Since I garden and preserve veggies, mid-summer and the three harvest days I just go all out. Sweets, cakes, big meals. For me, winter solstice symbolizes time when I get to hibernate and I love it. Three months of puzzles and sorting through closets, and reading books, and no demands.
@KentuckyConjurer
Scots- Canadian, I celebrate the usual eight as Oidhche Fhàda (Long Night), Latha Fhèile Brighide, Latha Na Caillich, Latha Buidhe Beàlltainn, Latha Fhàda (Long Day), Lùnasdal, Harvest Home, & Oidhche Shamhna. I also do Hynni, since each holiday marks the start of a Hynni cycle. Full moons & new moons, I might do micro-rites or contemplation.
Hynni is on my list of things to research this winter. I was trained in Reiki but never connected to it. I love doing energy work, and had seen Hynni mentioned in a couple of articles.
@KentuckyConjurer
I practiced Reiki for years & I have never seen such concrete results as I'm seeing with Hynni. Nothing I could point to & say, That's a direct result of the work we did. Tiffany Lazic pulled together something amazing.
I never like the left out there sort of 'the divine' aspect to how I was taught Reiki. Elements...I can see and hear and feel when I'm doing energy work. The seasons and that aspect and flow made so much sense to me when I read it.
@KentuckyConjurer
I'm seeing many of the people in my life feeling grateful & uplifted, or feeling purposeless or disconnected, & all of that is part of Cycle 7 of Hynni, which started with the autumn equinox. Observing patterns like that is what led Tiffany to develop Hynni as a modality & it's impressive just how well it works.
If you ever want to experience a session, just ask
@KentuckyConjurer I celebrate the 8 year-wheel days - with a variety of communities, depending on where I am at the time, but also solo and with household rituals. I also do Canadian Thanksgiving - which is the halfway point between Autumn Equinox and Samhain. Teen Witch Me was extremely happy to have a lunisolar holiday (with actual official time off!) that was explicitly Christian, and Mid-40s Me appreciates having a Harvest holiday that my non-Pagan relatives are familiar with.
I'm from the US and since my kids (19 & 23) were very little, we celebrated Good Food Day instead of Thanksgiving. We have a huge vegan Friendsgiving every year.
I like that so many share in Harvest festivals that we can celebrate together, too. I love all the cooking and having extra days off.
@KentuckyConjurer Also, for hyper-local Reasons, Canadian Thanksgiving also carries shades of, basically, "Beltane But With Teeth" and, consequently, I have a number of romantic anniversaries that fall at that time.
As far as lunar rituals go: I tend to keep those for Magic stuff, more than Religious stuff, but I do take the opportunity to say a Hello to my various Lunar gods, just because I can.
I have always tracked my period by the moon since Sassy magazine (back when it was cool) showed me how in the late 80s/early 90s. So for me, that was pretty much the extent of my engaging with the moon, besides stating how pretty or creepy she was.
@KentuckyConjurer I work with the Wheel of the Year, monthly lunar micro-rites, & like Cat I also fold in the Roman New Year (though it doesn't mark my new ritual year) & then I still observe Christmas as a kind of syncretic animist extension of Jól on the solstice.
@fey@KentuckyConjurer Ave Janus! Yeah, my ritual year ends and starts at Samhain, like most others', it just feels right.
Though, there's something really magical about that liminal space between Christmas and New Year's in the US. Like, people are off work a lot, routines get turned on their head, the whole week is the holiday, to me.
@KentuckyConjurer I celebrate the classic 8 holidays of the wheel of the year, along with activities and/or rituals for New and Full moons. But I also include New Year's in my pagan calendar, since I work with Janus, I celebrate it in a very pagan way, so I think it counts.
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