in paleopagan times there were only two fire festivals, beltaine and samhain (pronounced sow-een), to welcome and to bid farewell to the seasons of birth and death. at the highest point on the land and at the appropriate hour, the people would light bonfires until the entire countryside blazed with controlled fires. to many europeans, the offical ceremony began at sunset the day before, and ended three days later at sunset. fire festivals were associated with planting, harvesting and hunting ceremonies. some witches call the fire festival days the "days of power". as european history progressed, two additional holidays were added. imbolgc and lammas. german pagans added the equinoxes and solstices, creating eight high holy days. during medieval times, chruch chroniclers decided to turn the history of these pagan events into a weapon of misinformantion. they wanted to discourage the faithful from entertaining thoughts of celebrating pagan holidays. the church chroniclers practiced historical revisionism (the practice of rewritting current and historical events to meet specific needs)by collectively naming the eight pagan holidays "sabbats". the word "sabbat" comes from the french derivation of "s'battre", meaning "to frolic" or "to celebrate". church officals contended that people who participated in the pagan celebrations were frolicking with the devil, and therefore sabbats were evil. many dictionaries and folklore complications of today still incorrectly associate sabbats with evil, which truly isn't the case, where others have begun to weed out the historical inaccuracies.

todays wiccans celebrate the sabbats much like our ancestors did. the sabbats track the movement of the sun through the year and are thought to bring good fortune and prosperity according to the segment of the year to which each holiday relates. this means that our sabbats are seasonaly driven, and that we use the energies of the changing seasons to enhance our lives. this cycle of growth and death is described as "major feasts" beacause we always have tons of yummy food after the ceremonies. ;)
in the ceremonies of many wiccan traditions, these rituals allow the male energy to come into balance with the female energy. the events include a re-enactment of a legend associated with the individual holiday. the play (or re-enactment) is based on a story or legend that contains a moral. not every wiccan group re-enacts the same legend for the same holiday, which can be confusing to newcomers.


to learn a bit more about each sabbat, click on it...*not many are up yet*

samhain
imbolgc
beltaine
lammas
yule
ostara
mid summer
mabon





*note: some information on this page was taken from silver ravenwolf's books without permission.*