Feast Days and Sabbats

The rituals included in this section are appropriate to the holy days or Sabbats for which they are written. Many of these were written for a diverse group (including children) and may or may not represent my personal practice. Feel free to adapt them as you see fit but do not reproduce them and claim them as your own!

The Annular Ritual Cycle as I practice it goes like this:

February Eve
February Eve may be celebrated the first weekend of February, but technically it begins the first new moon of the lunar year. It is the beginning of preparation for the coming of Persephone. To this end we have the Rite of Awakening. This is followed by a month of fasting and purification, including spring cleaning culminating at the full moon with a house blessing rituali. We also use this time to dispose of those things we no longer need and so make many trips to the Salvation Army and perform the Cross Burning Rite. The Cross here represents anything that is bring us down or is dangerous to us and is not meant to insult Christians, though the metaphor is certainly rooted in Christian lore. This was originally adapted from a Celtic Feast of Brigid celebration that I learned from my Druid friends.

Spring Equinox
The Spring Equinox is a time of new beginnings and these are represented by the Dawn. So I celebrate (alone generally because nobody gets up that early) with a dawn ritual for Eos. We also have egg hunts with the kids later in the day and then settle down to paint eggs and plant seeds.

Feast of Persephone
Persephone's feast takes place the day we see the first blooming flower. It is just a feast and we pour libations in her honor over the flower in question. I'm not sure it likes it, but that's what we do.

The Feast of May
For the Feast of May (May 1st or the first Saturday in May) we have ritual honoring Aphrodite and I tell the Hellenic story of creation and invokei Aphrodite who offers Her blessings to the assembled. We also have a Maypole dance and a BBQ.

Midsummer
At Midsummer we celebrate the marriage of Zeus and Hera. Their statues are taken down, cleaned (separately) and then brought out to the garden altar. We have a big BBQ. Theoretically. Actually Midsummer is my birthday and I usually spend the weekend going to weddings and graduation parties and bitching about how I have to go to other peoples' weddings and graduation parties on not only a Pagan holiday but my birthday and promising that I am going to leave in my will that I want to have my funeral on either Easter or Christmas day just to get even. Instead we honor Zeus and Hera on our anniversary (the same as we did at our wedding) which is in August.

First Harvest
This is when we do our Wicker Man Effigy and sometimes the Stone Soup ritual. We usually have a camp out and games of skill... like noodle jousting and getting marbles out of tubs of water with our toes.

Second Harvest
This is a quiet festival. We generally get together and have a pot luck and bake bread. One loaf is offered to Demeter and the rest is shared with our families.

The Feast of the Dead
We set up an altar to Persephone and Hades. Hecate and Hermes are also present. Our guests all come bringing items representing their beloved dead and they write their names on a sheet of paper. Then we gather and call upon the psychopomps to guide those who have passed in the past year safely to the other side. We read the names of everyone we know who died as well as influential people who died. This can be quite long. Then we call upon Persephone and Hades to treat them well in the underworld and help them to prepare for rebirth. We give them offerings. Then we call all of our beloved dead and invite them to join our feast. We set up a place for them at the table. Then we all eat.
Afterward we gather around the bonfire and roast marshmellows and tell the story of Persephone's descent as well as any other story that comes to mind.

Midwinter
This is a family holiday for me. I honor Hestia and bless my hearth that it should always be welcoming and that my family should always have harmony. We exchange gifts in the traditional Christmasy manner, have a tree, bake cookies, etc.