The Sabbats
THE EIGHT SABBATS-Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer, Lammas,
and Mabon-comprise the major festivals of our calendar year. We celebrate them to
honor the change of the seasons and commemorate the Cross-Quarter Days. In doing
so, we stay in sync with Nature. We strike a balance between the world of the
spirit and the world of the physical. And we do it all while living our own lives
in the present. It's a pretty tall order, but we're perfectly capable of standing
up to the task. After all, celebrating the Sabbats makes for powerful stuff.
It's important to note that all Wiccans aren't necessarily celebrating the
same Sabbats all the time, though. Why? Because unlike the Wheel of the Year in
the Northern Hemisphere, that in the Southern Hemisphere turns in a counter-clockwise
direction. That affects the seasons, which, in turn, affects celebration time. This
isn't as confusing as it may sound, though. All it really means is that our neighbors
below the equator are always celebrating the Sabbat directly opposite ours; for
example, they're having Yule when we're enjoying Midsummer, Beltane when we're
celebrating Samhain, and so forth. And together, we make the world of magic go 'round.
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