Pagans-A[n] Hallowe'en Question

Factual Questions
1

This is something that I’ve been wondering about for quite some time, and I’m hoping someone can clear this up for me.

It is my understanding that there are four major events in the pagan calendar (called the “corner days”): the two solstices and the two equinoxes. The solstices (of course) are when the sun reaches its northernmost point (June 21-23, depending), and its southernmost point (December 21-23, depending). The equinoxes, therefore, are the points where the sun crosses the halfway point between these two extremes: on the way north in the spring (March 21-23, depending) and on the way south in the fall (September 21-23, depending).

There are also four other events, which are referred to as the “quarter days” which fall between the above. They are Candlemas, Beltaine, Lammas, and Samhain. I always heard that these were supposed to be the midpoints between the above mentioned corner days, but they seem to be about a week off.

Candlemas is (I think, and please correct me if I am wrong…I’m just a dabbler here) Feb. 2, Beltaine is May 1, Lammas is Aug. 2, and Samhain (or Hallowe’en) is Oct 31/Nov. 1 (depending on how long one parties).

However, if you start counting days forward from the Autumnal Equinox (for example) and simultaneously backwards from the Winter Solstice, your fingers meet at about November 7th: a full week after the quarter day (Samhain/Hallowe’en) is celebrated. This holds true for all the quarter day celebrations: they’re all a week early.

So what’s the explanation here? Is it just tradition based on inaccurate counting, or is there another reason that I’m unaware of?

Just wondering, and with my favorite holiday coming up fast, I thought I’d see if anybody knew.

2

Your dates are correct. As for why they are not precisely in between the Equinoxes and Solstices, I have no idea. I’ve never noticed it before, to be honest. Although it does make me feel better about all those damn rituals that get scheduled for a week later for convenience’s sake.

(I’ve always heard them called “quarter” (Solstice and equinox) and “cross-quarter” (all the others) holidays, but I would know what you meant by your terms.)

3

I’d never noticed it before, either.

4

Celtic scholar Jean Markale addresses this very question in his book The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween (2001). I just read it, and should remember his explanation, but will probably screw it up if I try. Anyway, you’ll enjoy the book.

5

Or there’s Ronald Hutton’s view - set out in greatest detail in his Stations of the Sun - that the division of the year by Imbolc/Beltane/Lammas/Samhain and by solstices/equinoxes were two entirely separate systems followed in different places and that the idea of them as a single ‘Celtic calendar’ is largely the result of nineteenth-century historians conflating unrelated evidence. There is therefore no reason why they should combine into an evenly spaced pattern.

6

Ah, I do think I vaguely remember that, now that you mention it. Makes sense to me. It also helps explain why Lammas and Autumn Equinox are so similar.

7

This might very well be (and thanks for all the replies, by the way–I forgot about Imbolc as another more contextually correct name for Candlemas), but what is a head-scratcher for me is that they DO combine into an evenly spaced pattern…almost. The Imbolc/Beltaine/Lammas/Samhain quaternity are just as evenly spaced as the solstices/equinoxes, but a week off of being right between them.

I guess I figured it might be due to an attempt to celebrate days between the others, but calculations back in the day weren’t as exact as they are now, and the original holidays were off by a bit. Then, tradition took over, and they’ve been celebrated that way ever since.

Otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be anything special about the cross-quarter days in and of themselves, which brings to mind the question of “Why those days in particular?” If it wasn’t due to their relationship to the solstices/equinoxes, then is there any theory as to why those days were chosen?

I’ll check on those books. Stuff like this fascinates me for some reason.

8

If the early celebrants were able to calculate the solstices and the equinoxes to the correct day, they were capable of counting days between, and not be as far off as a week. Instead, some have suggested that the cross-quarter holidays were once moveable feasts, related to occurrence of the nearest full moon. Eventually, these dates became solidified, arbitarily.

9

Waloon, I agree, the “we can calculate the solstices/equinoxes, but can’t calculate the in-between days very well” hypothesis is not a very good one (but I was shooting in the dark). I would certainly be willing to consider “what’s nearest to the full moon” to be a factor, if it didn’t change so much. That still speaks of a one-time decision that was mindlessly propogated ever since without regard to the observable facts.

That reminds me of this week’s episode of Night Stalker: “the spontaneous combustion incidents were caused by an unknown, untraceable biological agent which left no evidence. Therefore, case closed!”

:smiley: Don’t get me wrong, it may be thus. But “moveable feasts tied to the full moon but independent of the full moon” had to be solidified at some point. The questions still needs to be answered: When and Why?