The dates people keep are not the dates the sky gives
Four of the eight festivals — Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain —
are called cross-quarter days because they fall halfway between a
solstice and an equinox. Modern practice keeps them on fixed
calendar dates: 1 February, 1 May, 1 August, 31 October. The
actual halfway point is where the Sun's longitude reaches 315°, 45°, 135°
and 225° — and it arrives days later, every single year.
| Festival | Date kept | Astronomical midpoint | Gap |
|---|
| Beltane | 1 May | May 4 or May 5 | 4.3 days later
(3.9–4.7 across 12 years) |
| Lughnasadh | 1 August | Aug 6 or Aug 7 | 6.3 days later
(5.9–6.7 across 12 years) |
| Samhain | 31 October | Nov 6 or Nov 7 | 7.3 days later
(6.9–7.7 across 12 years) |
| Imbolc | 1 February | Feb 3 or Feb 4 | 2.9 days later
(2.5–3.4 across 12 years) |
Neither column is wrong. The fixed dates are what the tradition actually
observes and what everyone else will be celebrating; the midpoints are
where the Sun genuinely is. What is wrong is the very common claim that
they are the same thing. Samhain is the worst offender at
7.3 days —
the true midpoint of autumn falls in the first week of November, not on
Hallowe'en.
And "halfway" is itself two different instants
There are two defensible ways to split a season in half: halfway in
ANGLE (the Sun's 45° crossing) and halfway in TIME (the exact middle
moment between the solstice and the equinox). They are not the same,
because Earth's orbit is an ellipse and the Sun does not walk the four
quarters of the zodiac at an even pace. Across the
47 quarters in this table
the two definitions sit up to
0.5 days apart
(average 0.39).
This page uses the angle, which is the standard astronomical definition
of a cross-quarter day.
The solstices and equinoxes have a smaller version of the
same problem: they are instants, not dates, and they drift.
In 2024–2035 the spring equinox lands on
Mar 20, the June solstice on
Jun 20 or Jun 21, the September equinox on
Sep 22 or Sep 23 and the December solstice on
Dec 21 or Dec 22 — which is why the table
below prints every year separately instead of repeating one date.
The eight festivals
Four solar points and four that sit between them. Each one
below says plainly whether its NAME is genuinely early or was coined in
the twentieth century — because five of these are medieval and three are
from 1974, and almost nothing on the internet tells you which is which.
Day and night the same length, and only one of them still growing.
Next Sat, Mar 20, 2027
Falls on Mar 20
Sun at 0° of ecliptic longitude
In the south this date is Mabon At the equinox the Sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night come out level — the same everywhere on earth, on the same day, which is not true of any other date in this calendar. From here the light keeps winning until midsummer. Ostara is the sabbat of visible growth and of things finally being said.
Is this name actually old?
The equinox is astronomy and needs no defending. The NAME does. Bede, writing in 725, lists an Anglo-Saxon month called Eosturmonath and says it was named after a goddess, Eostre; Jacob Grimm reconstructed a German form, Ostara, in 1835. Neither records a festival by that name. 'Ostara' was attached to the spring-equinox sabbat by Aidan Kelly in 1974, along with Litha and Mabon. Spring rites in general are ancient and everywhere; this particular label is fifty years old.
What Ostara is traditionally for
- Starting the thing you named at Imbolc, out loud and where people can see it
- Balance, in the literal sense: what you are giving against what you are getting
- Planting — actual seeds if you have soil, and the metaphor if you don't
- Repairing something rather than replacing it
Three things to actually do
Plant something you will have to keep aliveSeeds in a pot on a windowsill. The ritual is not the planting, it is the watering in six weeks' time when the novelty has gone.
Balance the two columnsThe equinox is the year's only exactly even day. Write what is taking your energy and what is returning it, side by side, and change one line.
Open the windowsThe oldest spring rite in northern Europe is simply airing the house. Do it with intent: every window, ten minutes, whatever the weather.
On the altar
- Green and pale yellow
- Eggs
- Daffodils
- Fresh soil
- Seeds going into the ground
“I am allowed to be seen starting something.”
The fire festival that starts the summer half of the year.
Next Wed, May 5, 2027
Date kept 1 May
Sun at 45° of ecliptic longitude
Beltane is the opposite pole of Samhain and behaves like it: a hinge, a night when the ordinary rules are held to be loosened. Where Samhain turns towards the dead, Beltane turns towards heat, appetite, risk and company. It is the least contemplative sabbat on the wheel and it is not trying to be.
Is this name actually old?
Genuinely early. Beltaine is one of the four festivals named in medieval Irish sources, and Sanas Cormaic — a glossary compiled around 900 — describes cattle being driven between two fires at it, to protect them for the season on the open pasture. The Gaelic year splits in two at Beltane and Samhain, summer half and winter half, which is why those two are the pair that face each other across this wheel.
What Beltane is traditionally for
- Anything you have been too careful about
- Attraction, desire and partnership — the sabbat most associated with them
- Fire in the literal sense: a real flame, outdoors if you can
- Committing to something in front of other people
Three things to actually do
Make a real fireA garden fire pit, a barbecue, a beach. Beltane is the one sabbat where a candle is a poor substitute. Walk past it, or step over the embers when it is safe to — the traditional gesture is passing THROUGH the fire's influence, not sitting near it.
Say the risky thingBeltane's whole character is the loosened rule. Pick one thing you have been managing carefully and say it plainly to the person it concerns.
Bring something living indoorsHawthorn is the traditional Beltane branch, and old British folklore is emphatic that you don't cut it and bring it inside on any other day. Flowers on the table will do.
On the altar
- Red and green
- Hawthorn blossom
- Ribbons
- Honey
- Anything that burns safely
“I am allowed to want things out loud.”
The longest day, and the moment the light starts losing.
Next Mon, Jun 21, 2027
Falls on Jun 20 or Jun 21
Sun at 90° of ecliptic longitude
In the south this date is Yule The solstice is the instant the Sun stops climbing — solstice means 'sun stands still'. It is the longest day, the shortest night, and the exact point at which the light begins to go. Every honest midsummer tradition holds both of those at once, which is why the celebration is loud and the symbolism is about impermanence.
Is this name actually old?
Midsummer bonfires are extremely well attested across medieval and early-modern Europe — the eve of St John, 23 June, was one of the great fire nights of the year, and the customs are recorded in detail. The name 'Litha' is a different matter: Liða is one of the Anglo-Saxon month names Bede lists in 725, covering roughly June and July, and it was not a festival. Aidan Kelly attached it to the solstice sabbat in 1974.
What Litha is traditionally for
- Enjoying something at its peak without trying to keep it there
- Strength, confidence, visibility, doing the thing in public
- Gratitude for what is currently working — before it changes
- Herbs: the traditional day for gathering them, at their strongest
Three things to actually do
Stay up for the whole of the shortest nightOr get up for the sunrise. Midsummer is a night festival about a day, and the point is to notice how little dark there is.
Cut herbs at their peakSt John's Eve is the traditional herb-gathering night across Europe. Dry a bunch of whatever is growing near you and use it in the winter.
Name what is going wellOut loud, specifically, without adding 'but'. The solstice is the year's one unambiguous high point and it is short.
On the altar
- Gold and orange
- Sunflowers
- St John's wort
- Fresh fruit
- A mirror to catch the light
“I can enjoy this without needing it to last.”
The first cut of the harvest, and the first bill for the work.
Next Sat, Aug 7, 2027
Date kept 1 August
Sun at 135° of ecliptic longitude
In the south this date is Imbolc The first of the three harvest sabbats. Something is ready — not everything, the first thing — and the mood of Lughnasadh is the honest one that comes with it: satisfaction plus the knowledge of exactly how much work it took and how much is left. It is the festival of skill, of games, and of paying for what you got.
Is this name actually old?
Genuinely early, and unusually well documented. Lugnasad is named in medieval Irish literature after the god Lug, and it carried a great assembly — the Óenach Tailten, with fairs, games, contracts and trial marriages. 'Lammas' is a separate English word for the same date: hlāfmæsse, 'loaf-mass', the Christian blessing of a loaf baked from the first of the new grain. Two traditions, one day, and the site names both because people search for both.
What Lughnasadh is traditionally for
- Finishing and shipping a thing rather than improving it further
- Skill and craft — the sabbat traditionally marked by competition and games
- Counting what actually came in, honestly
- Debts, contracts and agreements
Three things to actually do
Bake breadThe Lammas rite in one line. If you bake nothing else all year, bake this — and give some of it away, which is the older half of the custom.
Finish one thing badlyLughnasadh rewards the harvested, not the perfect. Take the project at 90% and call it done today.
Count itWrite down what this year has actually produced so far. Not what you hoped for in January — what is in the barn.
On the altar
- Deep yellow and bronze
- A loaf of bread
- Corn dollies
- The first fruit of anything you grew
- Coins
“I can be pleased with what is finished.”
Level again — and this time the dark is the one still growing.
Next Wed, Sep 23, 2026
Falls on Sep 22 or Sep 23
Sun at 180° of ecliptic longitude
In the south this date is Ostara The mirror of Ostara. Day and night level out again and the balance tips the other way — from here the dark grows until midwinter. The second harvest is the substantial one: fruit, roots, the things that store. Mabon is the sabbat of taking stock without flinching, and of being grateful in the specific rather than the general.
Is this name actually old?
The most clearly modern name on the wheel, and the site is not going to pretend otherwise. Aidan Kelly coined 'Mabon' for the autumn equinox in 1974, borrowing the name of Mabon ap Modron, a figure from Welsh literature — the Mabinogion and Culhwch and Olwen — who is a stolen child rescued from imprisonment and has no recorded link to harvests, equinoxes or festivals of any kind. Harvest-home customs at the end of the reaping ARE old and well recorded across Britain; the name attached to them here is not.
What Mabon is traditionally for
- Gratitude with names attached — for a person, a job, a particular piece of luck
- Balance again, this time as letting go rather than starting
- Preserving: storing, saving, putting aside for later
- Closing something out cleanly
Three things to actually do
Say thank you to one person, properlyNot a text. Mabon's gratitude is meant to be specific and delivered.
Preserve somethingJam, pickles, a freezer bag, a savings transfer. The autumn instinct is storage, and it works as well on money as on fruit.
Write the year's second columnTake the Ostara list out again. What did the balance actually turn out to be? This is the checking, not the planning.
On the altar
- Russet and deep red
- Apples
- Blackberries
- Acorns
- Two candles of equal height
“I can put things down at the right time.”
The year's other hinge — the one that faces backwards.
Next Sat, Nov 7, 2026
Date kept 31 October
Sun at 225° of ecliptic longitude
The Gaelic year turns here, into the dark half, and Samhain has always been the night that looks backwards. It is the sabbat for the dead, for the year that just ended, and for the things you are carrying that are finished but not put down. It is the wheel's most serious festival and the one people find most useful.
Is this name actually old?
Genuinely early, and genuinely over-claimed. Samain is named in medieval Irish literature as the great assembly of the year and the start of the winter half; the tales do put it at the boundary where the síde, the otherworld mounds, stand open. What is NOT settled is the popular story that the Church deliberately moved All Saints' Day onto a pagan festival to suppress it: All Saints' was kept on 13 May in Rome, moved to 1 November in the eighth and ninth centuries, and the Irish and Northumbrian churches appear to have used a November date first. Historians treat the direct-replacement story as unproven. 'The veil is thin' is modern phrasing for an old idea.
What Samhain is traditionally for
- Remembering specific people who died
- Ending something formally rather than letting it trail off
- Divination — the sabbat traditionally most associated with it
- Facing the part of the year you would rather summarise
Three things to actually do
Set a place at the tableThe dumb supper: one extra place, one serving, no conversation for the length of the meal. It is the oldest and plainest ancestor rite in the tradition.
Say the namesOut loud, one at a time, with a candle for each if you like. Include the ones nobody else in the room remembers.
Write down what ended this yearJobs, friendships, versions of yourself, plans. Read it once. Burn it safely or file it — but do one or the other, deliberately.
On the altar
- Black and deep purple
- Photographs
- Apples
- A candle in a window
- Something that belonged to someone who died
“I can put down what is already over.”
The longest night, and the moment the light starts winning.
Next Mon, Dec 21, 2026
Falls on Dec 21 or Dec 22
Sun at 270° of ecliptic longitude
In the south this date is Litha The mirror of Litha. The Sun stops falling, holds, and turns — the longest night of the year is also the first night that is shorter than the one before it. Yule is the sabbat of the low point that is already reversing, and its whole emotional content is that you cannot see the reversal yet and it has happened anyway.
Is this name actually old?
The name is genuinely early: Old English ġēol and Old Norse jól, a midwinter period Bede refers to as Giuli and Norse sources describe as a drinking feast. What the medieval sources do NOT support is the tidy modern claim that Christmas was calculated to overwrite a solstice festival — the reasoning behind the 25 December date is argued over by historians and the pagan-replacement version is one theory among several. Midwinter observance itself is about as old as anything gets: Newgrange, built around 3200 BC, is aligned so that the rising midwinter sun reaches the chamber floor.
What Yule is traditionally for
- Rest, in the unproductive sense
- Hope that has no evidence for it yet
- Light kept going in company — the oldest midwinter instinct there is
- Deciding what the next turn of the wheel is for
Three things to actually do
Sit up for the longest nightThe traditional vigil: stay awake as late as you can and watch the sun come up. If that is not realistic, get up for the sunrise instead — it is the same gesture.
Bring in evergreenHolly, ivy, pine, whatever survives near you. The point of the evergreen is that it is the only thing still green, which is the entire argument of the festival.
Rest without earning itYule's hardest instruction. One day, or one afternoon, with nothing produced and no guilt attached.
On the altar
- Deep green, gold and white
- Evergreen branches
- A log
- Oranges and cloves
- Every candle you own
“The turn has already happened, whether or not I can feel it.”
The light comes back before the warmth does.
Next Thu, Feb 4, 2027
Date kept 1 February
Sun at 315° of ecliptic longitude
Imbolc sits at the lowest point of the year that is already turning. Nothing is growing yet, the ground is still hard, and the days have been getting longer for six weeks. It is the festival of the thing you cannot see happening yet — the lambs not born, the seed not sprouted, the decision not made out loud.
Is this name actually old?
Genuinely early. Imbolc is one of the four festivals named in medieval Irish literature — it appears in the list given in the tale Tochmarc Emire — and it is tied to Brigid, who is both a saint with a 1 February feast day and, in later scholarship, a figure with older roots. The etymology is argued over: the two readings usually offered are 'in the belly', for ewes carrying lambs, and a word for washing or cleansing. Nobody knows for certain.
What Imbolc is traditionally for
- Clearing out what accumulated over the winter — the room, the calendar, the inbox, the half-finished thing
- Naming a plan while it is still small enough to change
- Candle work: one flame lit deliberately, for something specific
- Anything to do with beginnings that are not ready to be announced
Three things to actually do
Light one candle, not twelveThe traditional Imbolc gesture is a single flame in a dark house. Light one candle, say what it is for out loud, and let it burn down while you do something ordinary in the same room.
Clean one drawerThe cleansing reading of Imbolc is the practical one. Pick the smallest container of mess you own and empty it completely. The point is finishing something, not doing everything.
Write the plan you are not ready to sayPut the thing you have been circling on paper in one sentence. Fold it, put it somewhere you will find it at the spring equinox, and leave it alone until then.
On the altar
- White and pale blue
- Snowdrops
- Milk and butter
- A Brigid's cross of rushes or straw
- Seeds still in the packet
“What is beginning in me does not have to be visible yet.”
The two lunar points
The wheel is solar. The moon runs underneath it on its own
cycle of about 29 and a half days, and most practice marks both.
A new moon is not a phase you can look at: it is the instant the Moon and the Sun share the same apparent longitude, so the lit face is turned entirely away from us. The Moon rises and sets with the Sun and is invisible for a day or two either side. It is the darkest part of the lunar month, and in almost every tradition that makes it the start of one.
What it is traditionally for
- Setting an intention while nothing is committed yet
- Starting a cycle — a habit, a project, a month of something
- Rest, on the reading that the month's first days are for planning rather than doing
- Anything you want to keep private for now
Write one intention, not tenThe new-moon list that works is the one you can still remember at the full moon two weeks later.
Leave it in the darkFold it, put it away, and do not show anyone. The new moon's whole character is the uncommitted beginning.
Crystals traditionally worked with
🟡 Citrine❤️ Garnet🩵 Apatite
Tonight's phase, its ritual and its journal prompt →
A full moon is the instant the Moon sits 180 degrees from the Sun in apparent longitude, so the whole visible face is lit. It rises as the Sun sets and is up all night. It is the loudest point of the lunar month and, traditionally, the point at which whatever has been building becomes obvious.
What it is traditionally for
- Release: naming what is finished and letting it go
- Seeing clearly what was already there
- Charging and cleansing crystals — moonlight, unlike sunlight, will not fade a light-sensitive stone
- Gratitude for what the last two weeks actually produced
Read back the new-moon noteTwo weeks on. Not to grade yourself — to see what actually happened to it.
Put your stones on the sillThe one crystal practice with no physical risk attached: moonlight will not fade amethyst, rose quartz or fluorite the way a sunny windowsill will.
Crystals traditionally worked with
🟧 Calcite🤍 Selenite⬜ Apophyllite
Tonight's phase, its ritual and its journal prompt →
Where these dates come from
Not from another calendar site. Every instant on this page was solved
from NASA/JPL Horizons, on planetary ephemeris
DE441, using the apparent geocentric ecliptic-of-date
longitude — the same quantity a tropical ephemeris uses, including
light-time, gravitational deflection and aberration. Four definitions,
applied to one series of numbers:
- Solstice or equinox — the instant the Sun's apparent
longitude crosses 0°, 90°, 180° or 270°.
- Astronomical cross-quarter — a crossing of 45°, 135°,
225° or 315°: the exact halfway point in angle.
- New moon — the instant the Moon's apparent longitude
equals the Sun's.
- Full moon — the instant it is 180° away.
The series is sampled hourly across 2023–2036 and each
crossing is interpolated inside the hour that contains it, which places
every instant well under a minute from the truth — far tighter than the
minute this page prints. web/scripts/check-wheel.py re-derives
every published figure from the table on demand and can re-query a spread
of instants live from JPL, so the claim in this paragraph is auditable
rather than a boast.
Why we did not use an average month for the moons
The quick way to build a moon calendar is to take one known new moon and
add 29.530588 days over and over. This site's own live phase readout does
exactly that, and discloses it. Measured against the
297 real lunations in this table, that shortcut is
off by an average of 7.01 hours,
at worst 17.62 hours — and it
lands on a different calendar day
26.3% of the time. Roughly
one moon in four. That is why the dates above are ephemeris crossings, and
why Moon Phase Today now takes its full and
new moon dates from this same table.
What is old, what is modern, and what is disputed
The astronomy on this page is fact. The history is fact too,
and it is less flattering than the version usually told. The meanings and
practices are tradition, offered for reflection.
“The eight-sabbat Wheel of the Year is an ancient Celtic calendar.”
No. The eight-fold wheel in its current form was assembled in the 1950s. Gerald Gardner's Wicca kept the four Gaelic fire festivals; Ross Nichols' druidry kept the four solar points; the two men were friends and the calendars were combined between them. No documented pre-modern culture observed all eight. The individual festivals are a mixture of genuinely early and genuinely modern — this page marks which is which, one by one.
“Solstices and equinoxes fall on fixed dates.”
No. They are astronomical instants, not calendar dates, and they drift by a day or two against the Gregorian calendar because a tropical year is not a whole number of days. The exact date and minute for every year on this page is computed from the ephemeris, which is why the table does not simply say '21 June' eleven times.
“The cross-quarter festivals fall halfway between a solstice and an equinox.”
Not on the dates people keep. The astronomical midpoints are the Sun's 45, 135, 225 and 315 degree crossings — and they fall several days AFTER the fixed dates modern practice uses. This page prints both, with the gap measured for every year in the table. It is the single most useful thing on the page and nobody else publishes it.
“Halloween is a Christianised Samhain that the Church moved on purpose.”
Disputed. Samhain is genuinely old and 1 November is genuinely the date All Saints' ended up on. The causal story between them is not settled: All Saints' was kept in May at Rome before the eighth century, and the November date may have come from the Irish and Northumbrian churches rather than been imposed on them. Historians treat the deliberate-overwriting version as one hypothesis, not a fact.
“Ostara, Litha and Mabon are old festival names.”
No. All three were attached to their sabbats by Aidan Kelly in 1974. Eosturmonath and Liða are Anglo-Saxon MONTH names from Bede (725), not festivals; Mabon ap Modron is a character in Welsh literature with no harvest connection at all. Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, Samhain and Yule are the genuinely early names on this wheel.
“The wheel works the same way south of the equator.”
No. It is a seasonal calendar, and the seasons are reversed. Most southern-hemisphere practice turns the whole wheel by six months, so Samhain lands at the start of May and Beltane at the start of November; some practitioners keep the northern dates instead, to stay in step with everyone else. Both are current. Every date on this page can be relabelled for either.
“A full moon is a day.”
No. It is an instant — the moment the Moon reaches 180 degrees of elongation from the Sun — and it happens at the same moment everywhere on earth, which is why two calendars can print different dates for it without either being wrong. The one on your side of the date line may be the following day. Every time on this page is UTC and is converted to your own clock in your browser.
Sources for the historical claims: Ronald Hutton,
The Stations of the Sun (1996) and The Triumph of the
Moon (1999); Bede, De temporum ratione (725) for the
Anglo-Saxon month names; the early Irish festival names as they appear in
medieval Irish literature. None of this is medical advice, and none of it
is a claim about what any living community believes today.
Questions people actually ask
What is the Wheel of the Year?
A calendar of eight seasonal festivals — four solar (the solstices and equinoxes) and four that fall between them (Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain). It is the ritual year used across modern pagan, Wiccan and druid practice. In its eight-fold form it dates from the 1950s, when the Wiccan four-fire-festival calendar and the druid four-solar-point calendar were merged; the individual festivals range from genuinely medieval to coined in 1974.
What is the next sabbat?
The countdown at the top of this page answers that live, from a table of instants computed from NASA/JPL ephemeris data. It shows the next festival, the next solstice or equinox and the next full and new moon, all converted to your own time zone.
Why do different sites give different dates for the same sabbat?
Three separate reasons, and all of them are on this page. Solstices and equinoxes are instants that drift against the calendar, so the date genuinely changes year to year. The cross-quarter festivals have two defensible dates — the fixed calendar one and the astronomical midpoint, several days later. And an instant printed in UTC can fall on a different calendar day in your own time zone.
Are the cross-quarter days really halfway between the solstices and equinoxes?
The astronomical ones are, by definition — they are the Sun's 45, 135, 225 and 315 degree crossings. The dates most people actually keep are not: Imbolc on 1 February, Beltane on 1 May, Lughnasadh on 1 August and Samhain on 31 October are fixed calendar dates, and each falls several days before the true midpoint. Both are listed here for every year.
How do I follow the Wheel of the Year in the southern hemisphere?
Turn it by six months, which is what most southern practice does: the June solstice is Yule, the December solstice is Litha, Samhain falls at the start of May and Beltane at the start of November. Some practitioners deliberately keep the northern dates to stay in step with the wider community. Switch the hemisphere toggle on this page and every date is relabelled.
Do I have to celebrate all eight?
No, and historically nobody did — the eight-fold set is a modern compilation. Plenty of practice keeps only the four fire festivals, or only the solstices, or marks whichever ones match the seasons where they actually live.
Where do these dates come from?
Not from another website. Every solstice, equinox, cross-quarter, new moon and full moon in the table was solved from NASA/JPL Horizons apparent geocentric longitudes on planetary ephemeris DE441: a solstice or equinox is where the Sun's apparent longitude crosses a multiple of 90 degrees, a cross-quarter is a 45 degree crossing, a new moon is where the Moon's longitude equals the Sun's and a full moon where it is 180 degrees away.
Is any of this historically accurate?
The astronomy is. The history is marked festival by festival: Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, Samhain and Yule are names attested in medieval Irish, English or Norse sources; Ostara, Litha and Mabon were attached to their sabbats in 1974. The meanings, correspondences and practices are contemporary tradition, and are offered as reflection rather than as a claim about any ancient culture.
What is a Blue Moon and does this page show them?
The common modern definition is a second full moon inside one calendar month, and yes — the moon table marks them. They happen because the lunar month is about 29.5 days and most calendar months are longer, so roughly every two and a half years one month catches two.
Know