Pagan Festival, Celebrations, Religion

Pagan festivals or celebrations are times throughout the year when celebrations occur. These celebrations were based upon seasonal highs and lows and were later hijacked by Christianity and given the more common names we are use to now. Yule time therefore being changed to Christ-mas time etc. Imbolc was a celebration of the beginning of spring when the first flowers and growth shoots could be seen throughout the land. The Ostara pagan festival was to celebrate the real start of summer and the time for regeneration and plans. Beltane saw the first crops growing and the birth of young animals thus providing meat, eggs and milk essential for survival. Litha or midsummer was a time of celebration, the crops were ripe, food more plentiful and the weather warm. Lammas was a time to reap the crop and begin picking and drying foods to last through the winter months. Mabon festival was a time to bring the animals in for winter, refit homes for the winter months and prepare for the cold to come. Samhain (Halloween) was a time when the veil between life and death, this world and the next, was at its weakest point allowing contact with and remembering of those who had gone before. And finally Yule time was a time of celebration as winter had now peaked and spring was just around the corner, thus celebrations of dried fruits, meats and nuts were common as these were then plentiful. By wearing oils or burning incense tied to the festivals you can celebrate this eternal cycle of nature.