Every religion has thier religious holidays

And ours seem to overlap so often with Chistianity....hmm, I wonder why?



So there are 8 Holidays Samhain (halloween), Yule/Winter Solstice (Christmas), Imbolc (groundhogs day way back when), Ostara, (same thing as easter), Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lughnasadh, and Mabon. Each one corresponding to a certain time of year. Obviously the solsices are easy, then there is the autumnal and spring equinoxes at Mabon and Ostara, Beltain is a yay its spring/fertility day (yeah you have the right idea, you do not want to know the symbolism of the may pole). Lughnasadh is a harvest festival (there are a few but this one was the begining of the harvest). Samhain is the begining of winter (the dark time) as well as the pagan new year....why that is the new year it never made sense to me would make more sense to have a Imbolc as new year beacause its after the dark time. Imbolc is the time when the days are begining to be noticeably longer and that makes everyone happy up here in Ohio.

Many of these are celtic holidays originally and depending on ones pagan tradition you may celebrate more or not, or not even celebrate these...like I said its whatever floats your boat. One thing that I read that Dianne Sylvan wrote smacked me upside the head and I will share it. She talked about how if you live in the Southern hemisphere your seasons are different so don't celebrate Yule on the summer solstice, celebrate things the way the seasons in your area are (I had a holy crap I wonder how many people are celebrating Yule on the Summer Solstice moment). It makes a whole heap of sense but this is what we get for being so used to our religions be so rigid and strict, we read something and automatically think it cannot be changed even if it doesn't make sense. Later I will be reading up about Samhain and see if I can't change my own personal tradition so the new year is somthing more sensible (at least to me).