Sabbats - Blog Posts
Quick Guide to Celebrating the Sabbats 🌻
LITHA
🧀Fruit & veg, herbed bread, cheese, honey cakes, chicken, pork, sunflower seeds, lemonade, ice tea.
🍋Lemon, orange, cinnamon, rose oils.
🔮Moonstone, tigers eye, amethyst, flourite, agate. {Or any crystals in warm colours}.
🌞See the sun rise & set, eat outdoors, make or buy a sun catcher, bake a sweet cake, let sunlight cleanse your rooms, clear cobwebs, wear a flower crown, make honey/sugar scrub, wear warm tones.
🎬Peter Pan, Fairy Tale, Ferngully, Stardust, Tinkerbell, Maleficent.
LAMMAS
🌽Multi grain bread, corn on the cob, bbq meats, fried chicken, potatoes, soup, rice, nuts, black current juice, beer, peppermint tea.
🌹Rose, chamomile, passion fruit, all spice oils/scents.
🔮Citrine, clear quartz, tigers eye.
📖Finish a project, make a bread to share, enjoy nature, take care of plants, decorate or craft, acknowledge what you are grateful for, journal future hopes.
🎬Parent Trap, Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Cheaper by the Dozen.
MABON
🍇Pies, nuts, smoked or roast poultry [bbq chicken with smoky bbq sauce], soup, corn, apples, plums, grapes, cinnamon donuts, caramel popcorn, peanut butter, butterscotch.
🌲Sage, pine, cinnamon oils/scents.
🔮Amethyst, clear quartz, citrine, yellow agate.
🌾Make scented pinecones, spend time under the stars, donate food or goods [RSPCA], burn bad habits, visit the deceased, harvest take care of plants, bask in nature, meditate.
🎬Open Season, Brother Bear, Spirit, Pocahontas, Brave.
SAMHAIN
🎃Pumpkins, toffee apples, ginger bread, chai, nutmeg or cinnamon spiced foods, hazelnuts, sweets.
🌰Nutmeg, cinnamon scents.
🔮Obsidian, onyx, bloodstone, amber, fossils.
🕯Cook a family recipe, light a fire, remember & honour the deceased.
🎬Hocus Pocus, Addams Family, Monsters Inc, Little Vampire, Corpse Bride, Casper, Hansel Gretel Witch Hunters, Underworld, Van Helsing.
YULE
🍪Cookies, fruit cake, turkey, eggnog, ginger tea.
🕎Cedar, frankincense, myrrh oils.
🔮Bloodstone, citrine, clear quartz.
❄Give or volunteer, bake shortbread or sugar cookies, share a meal with loved ones.
🎬Santa Clause, Rise of the Guardians, 101 Dalmatians, Frozen, Snow White Winters War, Narnia.
IMBOLC
🍩Poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds, bread butter pudding, scones, muffins, garlic, onions.
☕Vanilla, cinnamon oil.
🔮Amethyst, bloodstone, onyx.
🕯Light white candles, plant seeds, bless your pets, declutter & clean your living space, bake orange and poppy seed muffins or cake.
🎬Mr Poppers Penguins, Happy Feet, Balto, Ice Age, Mirror Mirror.
OSTARA
🍌Roast ham & pineapple, eggs, milk, seeds & nuts, banana bread, chocolate milk, green vegetables.
🌹Jasmine, light florals, sweet garden, wild flowers.
🔮Amethyst, rose quartz, moonstone.
🌹Light candles, plant seeds, share a roast ham with loved ones, bake banana bread, finish spring cleaning, lay tumbled stones in your garden bed, take deep breaths [inhale new energy & exhale old energies], wear spring colours whites & florals, collect wildflowers or buy flowers that call to you & research what they mean, walk through nature.
🎬Epic, Strange Magic, The Secret Garden, Spiderwick, A Bugs Life, Barbie Fairies.
BELTANE
🍞Breads, cakes, honey, leafy greens, fruit & veg, seafood, iced tea, lemonade, milk.
🌼Florals, sweet garden, honeysuckle, jasmine, rose.
🔮Amber, citrine, moonstone, red jasper, rose quartz.
🌼Wear a flower crown or flowers in your hair, dress in red or white, make a bonfire & roast marshmallows, garden, take a walk, spend time in nature, pick fresh flowers to decorate.
🎬Moana, Arthur Trilogy, Avatar, Jungle Book, Tinkerbell, Barbie.
HOW I CELEBRATE ALL SABBATS OR ESBATS
☾Sage cleanse the house, light candles, diffuse oils.
☾Clean sheets/bedding/pillowcases/towels.
☾Eat at least one traditional food.
☾Watch a relevant movie.
☾Take notes in my BOS of how I celebrated the Sabbat to look back on next year.
☾Charge my crystals & tarot decks in the full moonlight.
☾Do a tarot reading relevant to the Sabbat.
☾Spend time outside with my dogs 🐶
🔮🌙🔮🌙🔮🌙🔮🌙🔮🌙🔮🌙🔮🌙🔮🌙
Lammas - a festival to mark the annual wheat harvest, and is the first harvest festival of the year
OSTARA
Ostara is one of the eight sabbats on the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. It’s one of the four minor sabbats which fall on the equinoxes and solstices.
The day hangs in perfect balance with equal amounts of light and dark, bringing with it all the hope and promise that spring signifies. It falls between March 19th and March 22nd in the Northern Hemisphere. It is not necessarily a one day celebration, you can celebrate all week long.
→ HISTORY
Ostara is an ancient festival of Germanic origin celebrating the Goddess of the dawn. This name came from the Goddess of spring and the dawn, Eostre.
She was traditionally honored and celebrated during the month of April with feasts and celebrations focused on fertility, new beginnings and rebirth.
The first writings we have on Ostara come from the English monk Venerable Bede, who wrote of an ancient festival that has died out, though some of the traditions had been incorporated into the Anglo Saxon Christian customs.
It was a fertility festival in honor of the Goddess and the dawning of the new year.
The biggest influence Ostara traditions have had that we still can see in modern times is the Christian holiday Easter. The name Easter is a derivative of Ostara (Eostre – just change the “o” to an “a” and invert the “er” at the end).
→ SYMBOLS
The hare is strongly associated with the Goddess. A popular myth includes her finding a wounded bird and healing it by turning it into a hare as it could no longer fly. The hare retained its egg-laying abilities and laid colored eggs. It then gave these eggs to the Goddess as gratitude. The hare represents the graciousness of the Goddess and fertility, given how many young ones they have.
Eggs represent both fertility and birth. Worshippers also bring them gifts for the Goddess and eat them at feasts. They also represent abundance and the sun.
Baking is essential during this festivity and hot cross buns are a primary feature. The four cross points represent the four elements of Fire, Earth, Water, and Air.
Springtime also sees flowers emerge, which symbolize the end of winter. They are a symbol of hope and life.
The Ostara period is also the start of the planting season. The seeds have the potential for new life and represent hope in the abundance to come. They are also associated with fertility and nature’s rebirth.
→ COLORS
Colors hold plenty of meaning when associated with sabbats. Each Sabbat has its colors to go with its central themes. For Ostara, you can use the following colors in your decorations and rituals:
green represents all the newly growing plants. It represents the abundance of nature, hope, and new life. It also represents earth, growth, new opportunities, fertility, and forgiveness;
light blue represents healing, fairness and truthfulness, honest communication, trust, and patience. It is a virtuous color that also represents innocence and purity;
lavender is associated with romance, love, and healing;
pink’s soft and tender nature represents romantic love, good relationships at home and with friends, empathy, self-care, and healing the heart;
yellow celebrates the returning sunshine, which keeps getting stronger each day. It represents persuasion, protection, self-control, self-confidence, happiness, abundance, and self-empowerment;
white represents a blank slate to start over. It is the fresh start that spring offers so you can pursue new ideas and opportunities. It also signifies cleansing and purification, peace, and connection to divinity.
→ CELEBRATIONS
A ritual bath to clear away the dark lethargy of winter can be a great idea. Pick soaps with bright citrus or floral smells to wake your mind or remind you of flowering fields. Something with exfoliation to it wakes up the skin while scrubbing away what is no longer vital. Candle meditations embrace the fire and heat of the sun and place it at the tips of your fingers.
Take time to meditate or journal and think about your intentions for the next few weeks as it relates to the goals you want to achieve.
Create an Altar by yourself or with friends and loved ones, decorate an altar for spring. Make it a beautiful, colorful, celebration of life and new beginnings.
Get crafty: decorate eggs with dyes, decoupage or paint. You can purchase plastic or wooden eggs to decorate and use year after year as well (a vegan option).
Plant seeds for a vegetable or flower garden.
Reconnect with animals by taking yourself to the zoo or to a farm. Spend time with the small creatures and gaze into their beautiful, big eyes. Additionally, if there are new babies in your family, spend time with them. Take a picnic, a walk, or do whatever you are drawn to.
Feast with a nice and vibrant meal: have a picnic and try to find a place by water to represent the flowing energy of life and invite everyone to bring a dish that shows the vibrant colors of the season. It is not only a time for new beginnings, but for new friendship, adventures, atmospheres, and traditions. Take a nature walk.
Sources:
it’s always “ily” and never “tssbfaaytwtilwctmehktsftf” ugh