paganism · the seasonal calendar
Wheel of the Year: 2026 and 2027
Eight festivals, evenly spaced: four solar stations — the solstices and equinoxes, whose exact moments shift a little each year — and four cross-quarter "fire festivals" on fixed folk dates between them. The solar dates below are computed astronomically and refresh whenever this page is rebuilt, so they are never stale.
Northern Hemisphere
| Sabbat | 2026 | 2027 | Southern 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samhain | Oct 31 – Nov 1 | Oct 31 – Nov 1 | Apr 30 – May 1 |
| Yule | Dec 21 | Dec 22 | Jun 21 |
| Imbolc | Feb 1 – 2 | Feb 1 – 2 | Aug 1 – 2 |
| Ostara | Mar 20 | Mar 20 | Sep 23 |
| Beltane | Apr 30 – May 1 | Apr 30 – May 1 | Oct 31 – Nov 1 |
| Litha | Jun 21 | Jun 21 | Dec 21 |
| Lammas | Aug 1 | Aug 1 | Feb 1 |
| Mabon | Sep 23 | Sep 23 | Mar 20 |
Southern Hemisphere practice shifts each festival six months to match local seasons — the last column shows the common Southern date. Exact solar moments (UTC), 2026: spring equinox Mar 20, 14:46 UTC · summer solstice Jun 21, 08:26 UTC · autumn equinox Sep 23, 00:06 UTC · winter solstice Dec 21, 20:51 UTC.
An honest word on origins
No ancient culture kept this exact eight-spoke calendar. The Wheel was popularized in the mid-1960s within Wicca and modern Druidry, drawing on real antiquity: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh are old Gaelic seasonal festivals; Yule is Germanic midwinter; and the names Ostara, Litha and Mabon were attached to the solar holidays in the modern era — Mabon as late as 1974, by Wiccan writer Aidan Kelly. Knowing this changes nothing about the pleasure of marking seasons; it only keeps the candles honest.
How to use it
Pick the festivals that fit your climate and temperament — many people keep just Samhain and Beltane, the year's two hinges — and celebrate at the scale of a kitchen: seasonal food, a candle, a short list of what you're releasing or planting. Our gentle rituals shelf and the moon calendar pair well with any spoke of the wheel.
The cat observes every seasonal ritual from the warmest available surface: "The wheel turns. The radiator remains."
We tell the Wheel's history straight: the eight-sabbat cycle is a modern construction woven from genuinely old festivals. That honesty subtracts nothing from a good bonfire.