When you think of a typical year, at what time of year do you generally have a big celebration? Perhaps your family traditions are reflective of the Christian calendar with a focus on Christmas? Maybe you're from a Muslim background and Eid-al-Fitr at the beginning of May is a focal point of the year? Or perhaps you have Chinese heritage and Chinese New Year is your biggest celebration around the beginning of February?

Whether or not any of these times of celebration, feasting and being with loved ones are part of your family heritage or culture, they all have something in common: they mark the passing of time and a special event in our calendars.

The Neo-Pagan Wheel of the Year offers us not one, not two, but eight (!) opportunities to celebrate throughout the year! This course does not aim to promote any one religion or form of spirituality. I came across the Wheel of the Year relatively recently and find it useful for noticing both what's happening in terms of day length, as well as marking the seasons and significant events in the more-than-human world (such as harvest times). For me, this calendar is a meaningful framework for embedding purpose into my practice of connecting to nature and if it resonates with you, then great, if not, that's also absolutely fine!

The 8 sabbats or celebrations can also be divided into two: the quarter days and the cross-quarter days:

Quarter days (also known as Solar Fire Festivals)
20 March: Ostara (Spring Equinox)
21 June: Litha (Summer Solstice)
23 September: Mabon (Autumn Equinox)
21/22 December: Yule (Winter Solstice)

Cross-quarter days (also known as Lunar Fire Festivals)
1/2 February: Imbolc 1 May: Beltane
1 August: Lughnasadh (also known as Lammas)
31 October: Samhain

During our 5 months together we will begin on Imbolc (1/2 February) and journey around the Wheel to Litha (the Summer Solstice) on 21 June.