The Wheel of the Year is the calendar behind most modern pagan and witchcraft practice: eight festivals, spaced roughly six or seven weeks apart, that follow the sun through the farming year. Four are solar, fixed by the solstices and equinoxes. Four fall between them and are older, tied to the land rather than the sky.
You do not need to believe anything in particular to find it useful. It is a rhythm for noticing the year going past, and it happens to line up with what the weather is actually doing outside your window.
The next one is Mabon, the autumn equinox, which falls on Wednesday 23 September 2026 here in the UK, at 01:05 in the morning.
The eight sabbats
Dates for the solar festivals move by a day or so each year because they are set by the actual moment of the solstice or equinox, not by the calendar. The four cross quarter days are traditionally fixed.
| Sabbat | Next date (UK) | What it marks |
|---|---|---|
| Mabon | Wed 23 September 2026 | Autumn equinox. Second harvest, balance, giving thanks. |
| Samhain | Sat 31 October 2026 | Final harvest. The dead, the ancestors, the year's end. |
| Yule | Mon 21 December 2026 | Winter solstice. Longest night, the return of the light. |
| Imbolc | Mon 1 February 2027 | First stirrings of spring. Brigid, milk, early lambs. |
| Ostara | Sat 20 March 2027 | Spring equinox. Balance again, but tipping towards light. |
| Beltane | Sat 1 May 2027 | Fire, fertility, the start of summer proper. |
| Litha | Mon 21 June 2027 | Summer solstice. Longest day, the sun at full strength. |
| Lammas | Sun 1 August 2027 | First harvest. Grain, bread, the first fruits of work. |
Mabon, the autumn equinox
Day and night are equal, and from here the dark wins by a little more each day. Mabon is the second of the three harvests and the most reflective of them. The traditional themes are balance, gratitude and gathering in: apples, blackberries, the last of the garden.
It is a good moment to take stock of the year so far, which is why it suits people who find New Year resolutions hollow. What actually worked since January? What are you carrying into the winter?
Samhain
The best known of the eight, and the one Halloween grew out of. Samhain is the year's end: the final harvest, the point where the veil is traditionally said to be thinnest, and the night for remembering the people you have lost. Many practitioners treat it as their new year rather than the 1st of January.
Yule
The longest night. Almost everything you recognise from a modern Christmas, including the evergreens, the log and the lights, has roots in midwinter festivals like this one. Yule is about holding on through the dark and marking the turn: from this night, the light comes back.
Imbolc
Halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and the first real hint that winter will end. Associated with Brigid, with milk and with the first snowdrops. Traditionally a festival of cleaning and clearing, which is where spring cleaning comes from.
Ostara
The spring equinox, and the mirror of Mabon: equal day and night, but tipping the other way. Eggs, hares and new growth. The traditional time for planting what you want to see grow, literally and otherwise.
Beltane
Fire festival, and one of the liveliest. Bonfires, flowers, dancing, and the beginning of summer. Opposite Samhain on the wheel, and traditionally the other night when the veil is thin, though Beltane's version is a good deal less solemn.
Litha
Midsummer, the sun at its highest, the shortest night of the year. A festival of strength and abundance with a shadow in it: from this day the light starts to go again, and the old midsummer customs know it.
Lammas
Also called Lughnasadh. The first harvest, and specifically the grain harvest, so bread is at the centre of it. The theme is the first return on work you put in months ago.
How to mark a sabbat without making a project of it
You can spend a weekend on this or you can spend ten minutes. Both count. If you are starting out, pick one of these and do only that:
- Light a candle. The single most common practice across all eight, and the simplest. One candle, lit deliberately, for the length of a cup of tea.
- Cook something seasonal. Bread at Lammas, apples at Mabon, something spiced at Yule. This is the oldest form of the whole thing.
- Write one page. What you are grateful for, what you are letting go of, what you are planting. Date it and keep it. Reading last Mabon's page next Mabon is the point.
- Go outside. Twenty minutes, no phone, looking at what the season is actually doing.
- Change your altar or your shelf. Swap the colours and the objects to match the season. It keeps the thing alive rather than ornamental.
A simple Mabon evening
If you want something ready made for the 23rd: clear a small surface. Lay a cloth. Put out something from the harvest, an apple will do. Light one candle. Write two short lists, what the year has given you and what you are ready to put down. Read them out. Sit with the candle until it feels finished, then eat the apple.
That is a complete ritual. Add to it over the years if you want to.
Building a seasonal shelf
Most people who follow the wheel end up with a small permanent space that changes eight times a year. It does not need to be an altar in any formal sense: a windowsill, a shelf, the top of a chest of drawers.
The pieces that earn their place:
- A cloth to define the space. Our fringed altar cloths are five pounds and instantly make a shelf look intentional. More in Altar Cloths and Bells.
- Candles you are happy to burn. A spell candle set covers most of the year's colours, or single protection and prosperity candles cost pennies. See Spell and Ritual Candles and the wider Candles range.
- Something that smells like the season. Incense, or a lunar wax melt if you would rather not burn anything. A triple moon cauldron incense holder does the job and looks the part. See Wax Melts and Incense, Smudge and Cleansing.
- A book to write in. A book of shadows journal is the traditional format, and eight entries a year is an achievable habit. More in Journals and Grimoires.
- Something to consult. A Rider Waite tarot deck or a red jasper rune set, if seasonal reflection is your way in. See Tarot and Oracle and Runes.
Crystals fit naturally into this too, swapped by season: dark grounding stones for Samhain and Yule, brighter pieces for Beltane and Litha. If you are not sure which, our guide to choosing your first crystal by intention is the place to start, and it is worth cleansing and charging them at each turn of the wheel.
Common questions
Do I have to be a witch or a pagan to follow the Wheel of the Year?
No. Plenty of people who would not use either word mark the solstices, and the wheel works perfectly well as a seasonal calendar on its own terms.
Why do the dates change?
The four solar festivals are set by astronomy, so they drift by a day or two. The four cross quarter days sit between them and are traditionally fixed to the 1st of the month, though some practitioners calculate those astronomically as well and end up a few days out.
Is the Wheel of the Year ancient?
The individual festivals are old and genuinely attested, some of them very old. The eight spoke wheel as a single unified calendar is modern, assembled in the mid twentieth century from Celtic and Germanic sources. That is not a mark against it. It is worth knowing, and most serious practitioners will tell you the same.
What about the southern hemisphere?
The dates flip by six months, so Mabon falls in March. Follow the season you are actually standing in.
Which sabbat should I start with?
The next one. That is the whole answer.
Ready for Mabon
The autumn equinox is on Wednesday 23 September. If you want to mark it properly, the Altar and Home collection has the pieces for a seasonal shelf, and Abundance gathers the stones traditionally associated with the harvest.
Everything we sell is chosen by hand by Alison, and you will still find us in person at craft fairs around Nottinghamshire through the autumn.
0 comments