Seasons and holidays

[demonique]

So, what do you all do for your seasonal/wheel of the year/festival celebrations? Do you celebrate them when the weather outside matches the season of the holiday?

Take Beltane (the holiday on my mind). This was seen in Celtic societies as the beginning of summer, hence 'midsummer' - (the summer solstice) being the middle of summer. But where I live, May 1st is a long, long way from midsummer. We don't even have leaves on the trees most of the time - we haven't even planted gardens. It's barely /spring/.

May flowers on May Day? Only if we've had an /exceptionally/ mild or early-ending winter.

So what do you guys do? Celebrate the holidays according to the calendar, recognizing that there probably isn't too many areas of the world with exactly 3 months of each season, and deal with the fact that there's either exceptionally long winters, or exceptionally long summers, and exceptionally short autumns or springs, or whatever (depending on where you live)? Or do you celebrate when the actual seasons arrive at your area, even if it means, erm... celebrating the spring, summer, and fall holidays, for example, all in a six - seven month period of time, and stretch out the winter holidays over the next 5-6 months?

[one of mist]

Hi there,
Well where I am it's almost Samhain, so for me midsummer is not on my mind. I do however try and find something to celebrate at all times of the year. I find if you wait for summer to arrive, for example, you may be waiting a while....It stays cold where I am for a long time. but celebrating the fact that summer is comming is always a great way to help get over the cold nights :)
I love parties and any excuse to celebrate is good by me. so yes I try and celebrate as oftern as possible..

[Nitefalle]

I grew up in Texas and when I first got into Paganism, I never really thought about it until after I moved up here to New Jersey where, funnily enough, the seasons DO happen to match the Wheel of the Year. So that was a happy coincidence for me. However, I have often thought on how I might adapt to the holiday if I still lived at home or anywhere else in the world. (As an aside, I think "midsummer" is poorly named as for me, it's the first day of summer, just as my good ole' American calendar says. I call it Litha.) I think I would try and take the seasonal message and make it personal. For instance, Beltaine is about looking forward to summer, life awakening after the winter, getting ready for the busy season ahead, putting things in motion for later manifestation. So, perhaps there are projects that you are putting in motion now that may bear fruit later in the year? Perhaps you want to start a new business, go to a new school, you are planning a garden to plant later in the year? All of these things can be worked on for Beltane, no matter what the weather is doing outside. You can also still celebrate life even if snow is still on the ground, and look forward to / plan for the summer.

[cheddarsox]

I celebrate the wheel of the year...solar cycles...according to the seasons I am experiencing in my climate. My inner seasons are very much linked to the solar cycles, so this works for me.

I don't call the holidays by their Wicca names, nor hold strictly to those associations and traditions. I call them by solar names and while there is some overlap in symbolism, i tend to write my own rituals, prayers, etc according to what I am experiencing in my own life, and the significance the holidays/seasons have taken on for me over the years.

I have some traditions that I borrow from my own heritage, and that my family have created over the years.

[Amilee]

According to my charts Beltaine isn`t one of the big celebrations. It`s more like Mid Spring/Summer. Looks like the big celebration would be....Litha in June. Beltaine is a bonfire festival...

Hmm

Anyway, I try to celebrate them each in my own quiet way. A prayer, a ritual, a tarot card reading or just a friendly conversation with my plants!

[EvieLee]

I'm a go with the seasonal flow girl. Although I'm not too sure about names. The generic Equinox and Solstice names are a bit...I don't know... boring? But I steer clear of the Wiccan names because I don't follow the Wiccan wheel. So I'm still working on that. I have no family practices to fall back on apart from some distant scottish heritage that doesn't really call to me (apart from the prettiness and lovely cold) so I'm at a loss.

[Sionnach le Fey]

I'm lucky enough to live somewhere where the weather follows the wheel of the year quite nicely :)

[childofbast]

I've been thinking about that. I was worried there would be snow here on Beltain (I live in upstate New York), but things are blooming.

[blueangel]

I just do little things that mean a lot to me... light a candle, cook something seasonal and/or special. It's weird with the weather though, it's been the hottest April here since records began over 300 years ago! So I just do things day to day if the seasons seem to be merging.

[cheddarsox]

I've been thinking about that. I was worried there would be snow here on Beltain (I live in upstate New York), but things are blooming.

Ok, I'm a pantheist, so I am all about celebrating What Is..but still...one of the neat things that holidays offer is the opportunity to be challenged. Sometimes we get "stuck" with an idea of what a holiday is about and supposed to be, and sometimes the one's that don't go as planned end up offering us the best opportunity for insight and growth.

A favorite plot for tv shows is would christmas still be christmas without the presents...well...would May Day still be May Day without the flowers...if it were too cold to perform the fertility ritual on bare ground, if....whatever...It challenges us to stretch a little.

cheddar