Pagan Festivals

> Sun festivals and fire festivals

> Days of the week

> Japanese months

Pagans also mark four ancient fire festivals at the four mid points between these:

• Imbolc (Candlemas) – candles are lit in the dark to mark the new strengthening of the Sun after Winter, (Imbolg – Irish for ‘in the belly’). Imbolc corresponds to the Feb. 1st or 2nd in the Gregorian calendar, during the ‘Sun’s Moon’
• Beltane – (‘bright fire’) the bold fires of spring
• Lughnasadh – with sacrifice to the sky god, campfires and barbecues marks the end of summer. Lughnasadh (or Lammas) is celebrated in the ‘Sky’s Moon’
• Samhain – a time of sacrifice and remembrance, when autumn bonfires burn off decaying vegetation and blaze against the dying of the light.

Our word ‘planet’ is derived from the Greek planētēs, from (asteres) planētai ‘wandering (stars)’, from planasthai ‘to wander’. The word originally included the sun and moon. Unlike the slow, predictable progression of the stars, the planets, sun and moon moved independently, sometimes even doubling back in their tracks from an earthbound perspective. These wandering stars were taken to represent gods, as they appeared independent of fate.

These gods and the days that they honour have been given many names in different cultures. Most English calendars use Germanic deities today in a slightly distorted form, except Roman Saturn for Saturday. French days of the week on the other hand are closer to Latin.

Because the Norse Odin, the Allfather god, is sometimes confused with the Anglo-Saxon Woden or Wotan (though the names have the same Germanic origin, Old Norse Oðinn, from Proto-Germanic Wodanaz ), we have used the Celtic High God Bran for Saturday in our Moon Calendar.

The god Odin is handed a full horn from which to drink by Agnarr, as described in Grímnismál. The list of illustrations in the front matter of the book gives this one the title Odin in Torment(Wikimedia Commons)