Celebrating the Seasonal Festivals

Over the years, we have gone through cycles in our celebration of the seasonal festivals. Recently, the desire to observe and celebrate them has been waxing. The illustration above, and the two passages below, are from our book,
Wax Statues, Cotton Candy and the Second Coming.
 

The Cross-Quarter Days

It was toward the end of one winter that we had first moved to the mountains. In the mornings, just before sunrise, we would bundle up in coats, hats, and mittens and go outside to practice a set of standing yoga postures. Our place of practice was a small knoll that looked across a wooded valley to the line of hills forming our eastern horizon. We tried to time it so that the postures would be completed and we would be standing quietly as the first rays of the sun broke through the distant trees.

As the weeks passed, we noticed that the sun, rising each morning like an amber bubble in a jar of cold honey, was moving northward along the horizon. Correspondingly, the days were getting longer and warmer. This came as no surprise to our intellects. Emotionally, however, the impact was considerable. Having just made the transition from a centrally heated house to tents and sleeping bags, we formed a deep appreciation for the connection between the northerning path of the sun and the advent of spring.

We continued to follow the sun's steady passage along the ridge of hills until, at the summer solstice, it seemed to stand still. Then, reversing directions, it slowly retraced its path along the horizon, passing the equinoctial midpoint in September and completing its pendulum-like journey, far to the south, in late December. Thus was the wheel of the year quartered by the solstices and equinoxes into the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

By dividing each of these quarters into three, we arrive at the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve months of the year. According to another, less familiar arrangement, the wheel may be divided into eight sections rather than twelve. This gives us the four "cross-quarter days" that fall midway between the solstices and equinoxes. Candlemas, for example, celebrated on February 2nd, marks the depth of winter, just as Beltane (May Day) marks the middle of spring; Lammas (August 2nd) the peak of summer; and Hallowmas (October 31^st) the fullness of autumn.

Why is it that the division of the solar year into eight seasons is of such special significance that these cross-quarter points are acknowledged as holy-days in both the Christian and pagan traditions?   (Wax Statues, pages 71-72)

Beltane

It wasn't long, however, before we began to realize that, in former times, the observance of the eight solar festivals may have served a purpose beyond that of merely marking the passage of the earth's journey around the sun. Nor did the practical considerations of being able to correlate the various bread-labor activities of the year with specific seasons seem to offer a complete explanation. The tradition was too ancient and widespread to be entirely accounted for in this way.

Beltane, for example, was one of the Celtic cross-quarter days, which they celebrated by lighting bonfires on the hilltops on the first of May. The popular celebration of this festival usually included the crowning of a May queen and the erection of a Maypole as the focal point for dancing and games. May Day was also a favorite among the children, who would go out early in the morning to gather bouquets of wildflowers to leave on the doorsteps of neighbors and friends.

In time, as the Christian tradition superseded the Celtic, many of the former practices and observances were labeled as pagan superstition. Yet while the church denounced the manner in which the holy-days were celebrated, they retained the days themselves, but under new names, such as Candlemas, Lammas, and Hallowmas. Beltane was likewise assimilated, becoming associated with Whitsunday, the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost.   (Wax Statues, pages 117-118)

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