Nature Festivals
Pagan nature based festivals honor the Divine through nature's annual cycle which modern Pagans call the "Wheel of the Year." The main historical sources used to develop these festivals during the modern Pagan revival were a 750 BCE poem in a medieval Irish commentary called Hibernica Minora on the Psalter (Psalms) and inferences made by Aiden Kelly based on old Pagan source material in 1974.
The words which became the quarter (or fire) festivals are Akkadian phrases during this early time period. The Druid Akkadian translation below describes them as:
- Belltaine = "Nourishments from the high-life-powers are being split-off by Ayu revealing nothing." Non-revealed divine nourishments are represented by flowers. Divine nourishments will eventually be revealed when those flowers turn into food.
- Lugnassad = "Lack of fear can reveal the celestial-healing of Su's Instigator (Thu)." By holding onto faith that food will come, the food will come. This first harvest festival usually involving grains.
- Lugnasaid = "Lack of fear can reveal the celestial-healing of Ayu's manifestations." This is a slight variation of the first meaning. While this one mentions the life power goddess Ayu, the one above refers to Thu who is the hermaphrodite connective deity of the motion powers who moves the nourishments through the life network.
- Samna = "The activity of the Reed-Boat's (Ayu) revelations have been shown." This last harvest festival celebrates the overcoming of death for another year by experiencing all the harvest festivals. This festival is also called Halloween.
- Imbulc = "Emotions can nourish Alu's involvement." Alu is the life source god so this festival uses emotion magic to keep his life powers coming though the depth of winter.
Translation of Hibernica Minora Using Druid Akkadian
This translation is talking about using emotion magic to fix a drought. Ayu is the crescent moon goddess who edits the connections of the life network. The translation is:- This astrology-magic can nourish the harboring of emotions. Emotional-coercion is the enemy. Lack is from stickiness (in the rain making sky shell). Activating Ayu is revealing nothing.
- The Instigator (Thu) is being shown. Nourishments with the Instigator is being shown. Nourishments from the high-life-powers are being split-off by Ayu revealing nothing (Belltaine).
- Don't prod with emotional-releases (of emotion magic). Fertility-fluids can be made ineffective by prodding from Moon-Eye (Su). Su with the priest-parents can result in confusion. Su can harbor the eyes-of-fate (planets).
- The emotion-owls are following tradition. Dawn is energizing the eagle-vultures and Thu. The divine-motion-powers: Astrology-magic can re-assign the life-channels.
- Lack of fear can reveal the celestial-healing of Su's Instigator (Lugnassad). Love Ayu's manifestations. The conclusion: Hu is shown by the Instigator (Thu).
- Involvement is shown by the shouting. Don't restrain the Instigator in revealing that. Involvement can make ineffective the Moon-Eye's fertility-fluid's controlling that.
- Openings can shepherd the fertility-fluids of the Instigator. Involve the shouting. The pasture (starry night sky) manifests the eagle-vultures of Ayu. The prodding: [word] is restraining Ayu's manifestations.
- Don't nourish the Instigator (Thu). The lack of the Originator (Su) manifests the eagle-vultures of Ayu. The lack is being shown. Lack of fear can reveal the celestial-healing of Ayu's manifestations (Lugnasaid).
- Involvement of the Controllers (night deities of Su, Selene, and Kate/Hekate) is shown by the revelations. Involvement can be fate-cursed by the emotional-releases (of emotion magic). Involvement emotionally-affects the emotional-triggering of the shedding (of rain). The involvement of the Instigator is lacking that.
- Omen ineffectiveness: The Instigator is being shown. Revelations are being shown. The activity of the Reed-Boat's (Ayu) revelations are being shown (Samhain)
- Astrology-magic can re-assign the manifestations of Alu. The Controllers: Involvement can reveal the shuttling. Prod the revelations. [word] eagle-vultures makes ineffective the Moon-Eye's (Su) revelations.
- Restrain those Thu-powered attendants (owls). Nourish the eagle-vulture's shouting. Astrology-magic can be considered. The dawn makes ineffective the emotional-triggering of the fertility-fluids.
- Openings are instigated by the shepherd's fertility-fluids. Involve the attendants. Nourish the life-channels. Are they not being controlled? [word] manifests the dawn.
- The Woman (Selene) can activate motivations. Manifestations are lacking the neglect of those astrological-fate-powers. The Moon-Eye [word]. Emotions can nourish Alu's involvement (Imbulc)
- Manifestations can be redirected by the chaos of the attendants (owls and eagle-vultures). Lacking Ayu makes ineffective the fertility-fluids. Confusion: Don't involve the chaos.
- Confusion: The Reed-Boat is lacking those life-channel-powers. Activate the Moon-Eye (Su). Those emotional-arousals are harboring the emotional-triggers.
References
HIBERNICA MINORA - BEING A FRAGMENT OF AN OLD- IRISH TREATISE ON THE PSALTER WITH TRANSLATION, NOTES AND GLOSSARY, AND AN APPENDIX CONTAINING EXTRACTS HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED FROM MS. RAWLINSON , B. 512 IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. EDITED BY KUNO MEYER. Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1894. Online at: https://ia903205.us.archive.org/20/items/HibernicaMinoraMeyer/Hibernica_minora_Meyer.pdfOld Irish Dictionaries
- eDIL - Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language. A joint project of Queen's University in Belfast, University of Cambridge: https://dil.ie/
- Old Irish Online from the University of Texas: https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol_base_form_dictionary/iriol/17
Traditional 1894 Translation of the Old Irish Text Which First Mentions the Quarter Festivals - But This Translation is Very Wrong
(November 8, 2024) The Hibernica Minora is found in the appendix (page 49) of a medieval Irish psalter commentary. The traditional translation of the poem is:
Atberim frib, lith saine, I'll tell to you a special festival,ada buada belltaine: The glorious dues of Beltanecoirm, mecoin, suabais serig, Ale, worts, sweet wheyocus urgruth do tenid. And fresh curds to the fire
Lugnassad, luaid a hada Lammas- day, make known its duescecha bliadna ceinmara In each distant yearfromad cech toraid co m- blaid Tasting every famous fruit,biad lusraid la Lugnasaid. Food of herbs on Lammas- day.
Carna, cuirm, cnoimes, cadla, Meat, ale, nut-mast, tripe,it e ada na samna, These are the dues of Samaintendal ar cnuc con - grinde, A bonfire on a hill pleasantlyblathach, brechtan urimme. Buttermilk, a roll of fresh butter
Fromad cach bid iar n- urd, Tasting every food in order,issed dlegair in- Imbulc, This is what behooves us at Imbolc,díunnach laime is coissi is cinn, Washing of hand and foot and head,is amlaid sin atberim. It is thus I say.
Notice Lammas Day actually has 2 different Gaelic spellings (in red) indicating they are different words. Yet in another example of the linguistic sloppiness of Gaelic linguists of the past, these 2 words are treated as the same word.
Translation Using the Latest Old Irish Dictionary eDIL
(Justification below. This text can no longer be successfully translated in Old Irish. Red indicates words with unknown meanings, that is, the word used in the above translation does not work in other texts)A suitable frib can be different from a festivalA fitting buada is belltaineAle mecoin kind resolutenessClose urgruth so tenid
Lugnassad can proceed with that fit.Every bliadna ceinmaraTest every toraid with m[1] fameThe food of plants goes along with Lugnasaid
Meat, ale, cniomes, are beautifulIt, they do not fit samna (Samain)Fire can destroy the cnuc's lawful pleasantnessButtermilks butter urimme
Taste every bid after [ ] urdIssed dlegair [ ] ImbulcWash the axe, is cossi? is cinn?Is so that atberim
References
HIBERNICA MINORA - BEING A FRAGMENT OF AN OLD- IRISH TREATISE ON THE PSALTER WITH TRANSLATION, NOTES AND GLOSSARY, AND AN APPENDIX CONTAINING EXTRACTS HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED FROM MS. RAWLINSON , B. 512 IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY. EDITED BY KUNO MEYER. Oxford AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1894. Online at: https://ia903205.us.archive.org/20/items/HibernicaMinoraMeyer/Hibernica_minora_Meyer.pdf
Kelly Aiden Fills in the Rest of the Festivals
This leaves the names of the celestial festivals to be inferred with some historical detective work. Subsequent investigations confirms these Pagan festivals were widely observed although called by different names. This was done by Aidan Kelly in 1974. He recalls his thought process in these blog entries:
Back in 1974, I was putting together a “Pagan-Craft” calendar—the first of its kind, as far as I know—listing the holidays, astrological aspects, and other stuff of interest to Pagans. We have Gaelic names for the four Celtic holidays. It offended my aesthetic sensibilities that there seemed to be no Pagan names for the summer solstice or the fall equinox equivalent to Yule or Beltane—so I decided to supply them.
The spring equinox was almost a nonissue. The Venerable Bede says that it was sacred to a Saxon Goddess, Ostara or Eostre, from whom we get the name “Easter,” which, almost everywhere else, is called something like “Pasch,” derived, of course, from Pesach.
Summer was also rather easy. The Saxon calendar described by Bede was lunisolar. It usually had 12 months, but in the third, fifth, and last month of an 8-year cycle, a 13th month was added to keep it (more or less) in sync with the solar years. The last and first months in the calendar were named Foreyule and Afteryule, respectively, and obviously framed the holiday of Yule. The sixth and seventh months were named Forelitha and Afterlitha; furthermore, when the thirteenth month was added, it went in between them, and the year was then called a Threelitha. Obviously, by analogy with Yule, the summer solstice must have been called Litha. (I later discovered that Tolkien had figured this out also.)
The Fall equinox Mabon name comes from the Welsh Mabinogion version of the common Pagan myth in which the underworld god causes life on earth to sleep until his love is returned. In most Pagan myths his love is kidnapped (or rescued) in the fall.
In the Mabinogion collection, the story of Mabon ap Modron (which translates as “Son of the Mother,” just as Kore simply meant “girl”), whom Gwydion rescues from the underworld, much as Theseus rescued Helen. It would have been aesthetically better to have found a Saxon name, but . . . so I picked “Mabon” as the name for the holiday in my calendar. It was not an arbitrary choice. I sent a copy of the calendar to Oberon (then still Tim), who liked these new names and began using them in Green Egg, whence they passed into the national Pagan vocabulary.
"Mabon ap Modron" is in reality an Akkadian phrase "Mu-A-Ba'u-Nu APu Ma'u-Du-Re'u-Mu" or "The fertility-fluids resulting from the nest's revelations veiled by pushing-away the manifestations from shepherding the fertility-fluids."
While superficially, these medieval bardic tales are simple adventure and love stories they all have a hidden meanings which would have been known by its native listeners schooled in their ancient traditions. Names used in these tales tend to be Akkadian phrases describing some Druid spiritual powers and that is the case here.
This phrase is saying the life network's (nest) fertility-fluids which normally flow through it have been hidden (veiled) by magic crafters (shepherds) who have pushed them away from triggering life forms on earth. So is Mabon still a good name for the harvest festival of Halloween? It would seem so if it is considered as an abbreviation of the whole phrase because this is the time when the appearance of new life ends (becomes veiled).
References
Kelly, Aiden (September 21, 2017) About Naming Ostara, Litha, and Mabon (Personal recollection of his naming of the Pagan celestial festivals). Online at: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/aidankelly/2017/05/naming-ostara-litha-mabon/
Yule, Christmas, New Year - December 22 Winter Solstice
(July 3, 2022) Yule eve is the longest night of the year and thus it is a time for reflection on the past. Traditionally this connection to the past is represented by the Yule log which is piece of wood taken from last year’s fire and placed into this year's fire.
Yule was also a time of feasting, mostly on pig because the forest floor nuts which they ate were almost be gone now. Consequently, any pigs not destined for breeding had to be killed before they starved. After a Yule ceremony at Stonehenge such feasting commenced the next day at nearby Woodhenge where archaeologists found lots of yearling pig bones.
This festival is called Yalda in ancient Persian and Syriac suggesting it originated as an Indo-European word where it means "birth."
Yule has nothing to do with the final Roman harvest festival of Saturnalia which comes right after the olive harvest is done in early December. The planet Saturn, being the slowest planet, represented harvest time and the end of life. The following quote from a Roman text shows Saturnalia was not associated with the winter solstice:
When on the day of the solstice, which followed the festivals of the Saturnalia in which those banquets were celebrated, I was at home, empty of legal care and in a happier mood, when Eusebius came with a few of his followers ... The Saturnalia - page 2
The Romans were the ones who separated the winter soltice from the feasting celebrations surrounding the end of the old year (Saturnalia). Their solstice day was January 1 and called Aesculapio Vediovi (Aesculapius' is Seen) which celebrates the healing of the celestial light from the sun. Their final olive harvest celebration may simply have coopted the older winter solstice feasting.
References
"The Saturnalia." Online at: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/1*.html
The Old Irish Text Hibernica Minora (750 CE) says this:
- Tasting every food in order,
- This is what behooves us at Imbolc,
- Washing of hand and foot and head,
- It is thus I say.
- "Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate. "(from History Society of Berks County, Reading, Pennsylvania)
In Europe the predicting creature was a hedgehog or a badger (der Dachs). On Dachstag (Badger Day) if a badger emerged from its den and saw its shadow, it presaged four more weeks of winter.
In Germany, Candlemas or Lichtmess (lightmas) was the beginning of the “farmer’s year.” It was a legal holiday in Bavaria until 1912. It was also associated with weather lore and associated rural sayings (Bauernregeln).
Imbolc, Candlemas, Lightmas, Groundhog Day - February 1 or 2
(January 28, 2023) Imbolc/Imbolk is a festival of purification and focus on the essentials of one's life, qualities needed to persevere through the depths of winter. This focusing is represented by candles and hearth fires which naturally draw one's attention.
Imbolk is a Druid Akkadian phrase meaning "emotion's involvement with life-constraints" from IM.BL.K. This indicates that it is a pre-Christian festival. Yet this festival entered the Christian calendar as Candlemas after it was first associated with the next Pagan festival, the Spring budding festival (Ostara), then being celebrated around Jerusalem.
This happened during the late 300's CE when the Western pilgrim Etheria attended this celebration in Jerusalem which the local Christians had connected to Jesus by giving it a cover story that it was celebrating the legend that Jesus was presented to the temple shortly after he was born. It's date that year was on February 14.
At this time Jerusalem was no longer Jewish. After the final Jewish revolt against the Romans called the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136) led by Simon bar Kokhba Jews were no longer allowed to enter Jerusalem, exempting only those Jews who wished to enter the city for Tisha B'Av (a day of remembrance for all the disasters which had befallen the Jewish people held in late July or early August).
She wrote about it in her travel book, the Peregrinatio Etheriae. It soon spread to other Eastern Roman cities. In 542 Justinian I decreed that its date should be moved to February 2 (40 days after Christmas and co-opting northern Pagan Imbolc). By the middle of the 5th century the custom of observing the festival with lighted candles was adopted and the name Candlemas developed from this custom.
The Pagan festival Etheria experienced in Jerusalem also became the Jewish holiday called the “15th of Shevat” which is its date on the Jewish calendar. This date ranges from January 25 to February 15. This festival is also known as “Tu Bishvat.” It celebrates the first budding of the trees in the Levant. The earliest Jewish mention of this festival is the Mishna (200-300 CE).
The word "Imbolc" is Gaelic from Ireland and it is pronounced "imbolg." (The introduction of the letter C into the alphabet was because K had developed a /g/ sound in some situations. The /c/ sound has remained rather fluid ever since). In Ireland this holiday became associated with Saint Brigid who would have died just before Justinian's proclamation.
Brigid was born, according to tradition, in Fochart, near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. She died around 525 in Kildare, Ireland. She was the abbess of Kildare and became one of the patron saints of Ireland alongside Saint Patrick. Irish traditions surrounding this holiday include making a straw doll and doing things around the home fire such as baking and singing poetry.
References
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Candlemashttps://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/holidays-and-celebrations/groundhog-day-the-german-connection/
Alphabetic Akkadian Lexicon - 4th Edition 2023. Online at these 2 places:
Ostara/Valentine's Day (Roman Liberalia Agonia - Liberation from Struggle) - March 22 Spring Equinox
(January 28, 2023) Ostara is the name given to the Pagan budding festival although due to a complex history Valentine's Day is also mixed in with it. This is a time in the northern hemisphere when buds appear on trees and the grass starts to turn green and grow again. Eggs are the animal equivalent of tree buds.
The earliest historical record of this festival is found earlier and further south in Roman Judea where budding begins earlier. At this time Jerusalem was no longer Jewish. After the final Jewish revolt against the Romans called the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136) led by Simon bar Kokhba Jews were no longer allowed to enter Jerusalem. The only exception was for the Jewish disaster remembrance day of Tisha B'Av (late July or early August).
In mid February during the ate 300's CE a western pilgrim named Etheria attended its celebration in Jerusalem which the local Christians had connected to Jesus by giving it a cover story that it was celebrating the legend that the new born Jesus was presented to the temple shortly at this time. This festival became the Jewish holiday called the “15th of Shevat” which is its date on the Jewish calendar. This date ranges from January 25 to February 15. This festival is also known as “Tu Bishvat.” It celebrates the first budding of the trees in the Levant. The earliest Jewish mention of this festival is the Mishna (200-300 CE). Tu Bishvat informally became the February 14th Christian Valentine's day during the medieval 1300's.
The word Ostara itself is the modern Pagan spelling of the goddess Eostre (Easter) who is mentioned by the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede (672-735 CE) as giving her name to the month which the English Christians were then trying to change to Paschal month. Here is the quote:
Eosturmonath (Eostre month) has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance." (in De temporum ratione by Bede translated in Wallace 1999 page 55)
April - Eosturmonath: from Akkadian phrase Ea'u.ŠuTu meaning "Yahu's time month." Since life manifestations are normally associated with women giving birth this became the goddess Ostara which Bede mentioned in several places in his books.
("er" is an Indo-European ending.) The Indo-Europeans seem to have started their new year during the spring equinox which is still seen in the Persian New Year festival called Nowruz.
Beltane or May Day (Gaelic Beltane, Roman Ludi Florae - Festival of Flowers, Germanic Walpurgisnacht) May 1
(updated May 1, 2024) Beltane is a celebration of Spring. This is the time when flowers appear and the buzz of summer begins releasing the feelings of new energy.
Beltane's main symbol today is the maypole which originally was a public pole on which were placed flower garlands. In the Nordic countries in which summer comes late, Maypoles are associated with the Midsummer festival and not with Beltane.
Colorful ribbons replaced garlands in some areas. The earliest picture of a maypole with ribbons dates to a private garden party held in 1759 at Ranelagh Garden in London. This was a for-profit public garden which charged an entrance fee. See it at: https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=6819&WINID=1649681830068
Belltaine seems to be the Akkadian phrase B.LT.N (Bu.LeTu.Nu) meaning "Nourishing.the Splitter's.revelations" where "Splitter" is an epithet for the life connective crescent moon goddess Ayu who edits the life network which brings life powers to earth. She splits of the life network links/channels as needed to maintain the natural order. "Platonic" life forms so triggered by Ayu then need to be revealed/manifested on earth by the god Yahu.
Maypoles were not a phallic symbol. Historian Ronald Hutton who has studied historical Paganism extensively says this:
"There is no historical basis for his claim, and no sign that the people who used maypoles thought that they were phallic" and that "they were not carved to appear so." (Hutton 1996)References
Hutton, Ronald (1996). Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198205708. pages 233-235
Niana Pottamkam (April 29, 2020; Updated April 26, 2024) Walpurgisnacht: The German Night of the Witches explained
It is customary also to solemnize in Uppsala, at nine-year intervals, a general feast of all the provinces of Sweden. From attendance at this festival no one is exempted Kings and people all and singly send their gifts to Uppsala .... Feasts and sacrifices of this kind are solemnized for nine days. On each day they offer a man along with other living beings in such a number that in the course of the nine days they will have made offerings of seventy-two creatures. This sacrifice takes place about the time of the vernal equinox. (Online at: http://germanicmythology.com/works/uppsalatemple.html
Mid-Summer or Litha (Gaelic Alban Hefin, Roman Summanos) June 22 Summer Solstice
(July 5, 2023) This holiday celebrates the power of light and passion which is at its maximum during the summer solstice. This energy is celebrated with community bonfires.
Midsummer is a time of openness and imagination. It is a time to dream as evidenced by Shakespeare's play “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.” This is a time to let the mind run free about life’s future possibilities before time runs out for now the light of day begins to shorten. Don't forget to live for today for the time of life on earth is limited so it should not be wasted.
Lammas (Gaelic Lughnasadh, Roman Lucaria) August 1
(July 3, 2022) This is the first of three harvest holidays of the year. Because grains were the fastest growing this holiday typically focuses on the virtue of growth.
The word Lammas comes from the Old English word meaning “loaf mass.” This holiday is celebrated by baking a loaf out of the first grains of the season. Lammas is also celebrated as Lughnassadh after the Celtic god called Lugh.
Mabon (Gaelic Alban Elfed, Roman Anual Market Day) September 21 Fall Equinox
(February 1, 2024) In the north this is the second of the three harvest holidays in which fruits and berries were harvested. In Italy is is the final harvest which adds summer vegetables to the fruits. The final harvest signals a month of plenty and leisure which is why this became the main market day in Italy. This month of plenty is represented by the cornucopia. Finally, this is also the Fall equinox in which night is balanced with day.
Fruits represent a life balance because trees and bushes must balance their need for survival versus their need to reproduce by committing energy to fruits. This holiday is a good time to focus on various spiritual balance practices.
Samhain or Halloween (Gaelic Samhain) October 31
(July 3, 2022) Samhain is the last of the three harvest holidays. Samhain focuses on the virtue of connection in general and specifically on the connection between life and death. Life cannot exist without death to make room for new living things.
This is the time of year when plants begin to go dormant in preparation for the winter. This was also the time when farm animals (except for free ranging pigs) not saved for breeding or farm work were killed and their meat preserved. This is why spiritually attuned people say that the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest at this time of year.
Samhain was also a time of giving thanks for the sacrifices of food animals as well as for the sacrifices made by one's own ancestors. Due to historical circumstances in the United States, Thanksgiving was shifted to the fourth Thursday of November in an attempt to ignore its religious origins. This artificial split left Halloween as the celebration part of the holiday.
The English word "Halloween" derives from the Akkadian phrase Hu'u-Liwa meaning "astrological-owl love." These owls were omens of change because they influence the flow rate of life-powers through the life network. This owl connection is seen in Middle English of the late 1300's in the word holowen meaning "to make hollow" because owls live in hollowed out tree trunks. The date of Oct. 31 is described as alle halwe eue or all hallow's eve by c. 1300 as in it was an omened day of change. "Hallow" became associated with "good omens" or "holy omens." Consequently the Christian church tried to co-opt Halloween by associating it with the honoring holy persons or saints. Hallow-day for "All-Saints Day" is from 1590s.