days of celebration

Neopagans usually call themselves simply Pagans. This use of the term embraces a wide range of Earth centered beliefs involving living with and in harmony with the cycles of nature. This often involves religions based on deities, symbols, practices, and seasonal days of celebration. Many of these are based on surviving components of ancient suppressed religions. Some of the groups I this category would be the Celtic Druidic religion, the Norse Asatru, and the pre-Celtic Wiccans. Others may follow Roman, Greek, Egyptian or other traditions



I was wondering, what are the seasonal days of celebration..? Would this include the solstice, equinox, etc..?

 

Sorry but I'm too lazy to link you to anything directly right now. But I will tell you this. www.google.com or whatever search engine you prefer. Look up Sabbats. Those are the major "holidays".

 

Yeah, that's what I was going to say.


Wiccan sabbats...
Samhain [Halloween]
Yule [winter solstic]
Imbolic [begining of spring; 2nd feb]
Eostre [spring equinox]
Beltaine [may day]
Litha [summer solstic]
Lammas [end of harvest; 1st Aug]
Mabon [autumn equiniox]
(Do allow for some variation in spelling/terms. Dates given are approximate)

Can't say I know enough about other specific traditions to comment on those in particular, but those are the general ones, celebrated by most wiccans/neo pagans.

 

yep, that's the main list

There are some that also celebrate the Celtic Tree Month changes, as well as borrow some other religions' holidays as their own to celebrate their favourite dieties.

 

hey, thanks everyone

 

I don't have them to hand, but if your intrested in the Egyptian ones I'm happy to type them up for you

 

sure I'd love hearing about those as well

 

The wiccan list is one made of combined cultural holidays,
non-wiccan pagans normally celebrate the ones of their own
particular cultural influences.

I only celebrated my ancestoral holidays, but
would observe the Germanic ones with friends.

But when our tribe all adopted each other, taking
each others ancestors as our own, i celebrate the
Germanic holidays whole heartedly because of
my friends German ancestory. So since his ancestors
are mine through adoption, then so are their holidays.

We all also celebrate the Lunar New Year as our
own because of my wifes culture.

We truely share ancestory together.

 

oh and for the record, i personally despise the word
Neopagan.

I am pagan, my ancestors were pagan, and my children are pagan.

nothing Neo about it.

Are christians today neochristians? what about neobuddhists?

 

http://www.cassandraeason.co.uk/druidic_year.htm

That's the one we followed in me parents house......and it'll be mine when i stop farting around with life and get down to some study

 

oh, i'm sorry.. i didn't originally post that, that was something i read somewhere, and forgot to state that I was quoting..i don't know what it means either, it was something i had read

 

I know it isn't your fault, SurfHipE but utt pains me that we go through this time and time and time again. I thought the WINNERS were supposed to rewrite history. That's why Rome was civilized and Celts were barbarians, right? Bah...

 

ah, you didn't read what i had posted above your post.. i did NOT say that, I was simply re typing something I had previously read

 

for someone who is in the beginnings of learning, copy and paste is forgivable, but to know what it is that you copy will prevent future mistakes.

But dont feel bad, i know people who have been pagan longer than I have been alive who only know what the read, and only speak what they repeat.

So no worries, but learn all you can, forget it all, then build your own perspective on the knowledge.

 

And I was referring to the fact that such falacies even exist, not that you had re-typed it. My apologies if you felt anything other. What Heron said.

 

I hate that word too! Some poeple use it to distinguish between indigenous beliefs and modern day pagan practices, but the word pagan comes from the Roman paganus, meaning country dweller. Therefore, to me the link between the word pagan and nature is clear and I feel comfortable in identifying as pagan. I feel no need to stick "neo" on the start just to be technical... anyway, I feel that in many ways modern pagan religions are a revival of the "old ways".

 

I suspect that many people who use the word "neopagan" to describe themselves and their beliefs are trying to stress that the connection between themselves and their ancestors has been broken.

Most pagans in the USA today are first-generation or possibly second-generation. It's not something that was handed down parents to children in a clear and unbroken line back to the old ones.

We can't always be sure that our revival of the "old ways" is completely accurate. We may very well make some changes to suit modern needs.

That is why you find the prefix "neo-" attached to "pagan."

Much of what I've learned comes from books, and much of the rest of it comes from other first-generation pagans. I'm still learning, and I still have more to learn. I have no knowledge of any specific pagan ancestors, so my particular pagan-ness is probably "neo-" in some sense. I don't begrudge other people their right to label themselves as they choose.

 

Every thing i have learned came from nature, prayer and thought.

so i am not a neo-pagan, because i learn the same way that someone
50,000 years ago learned. They never read a book to understand the spirit,
and i am the same way. Wiccan knowledge exists in books, but the Spirit knowledge exists in nature.