Liber ab Solemnitas (The Book of Holidays)^173
The Holidays
Wicca is a world religion. It embraces universal ideas such as the Creator being
Lord and Lady and it embraces specific incarnations of those universal ideas, such as
individual names for our Lord and Lady. As such, its eight major holidays are an amal-
gam of the holidays celebrated by the many cultures that have led to the union of reli-
gious observances that we today call the Wheel of the Year.
Unfortunately, even if the ancient cultures on which Wicca is based had kept clear
written records of their traditions and holidays, the past five or six hundred years have
seen a level of religious intolerance previously unknown during the many tens of thou-
sands of years that humanity has walked this Earth. Some traditions are being pieced
together. Many more have been lost forever. But records of one Pagan civilization
have survived much better than others. It language is in use in modern medicine, botany,
animal husbandry, and a variety of other sciences. From that Pagan civilization, we
have received the basis for modern government. From that culture we received the
Edict of Milan as the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States of America. I am of course speaking of the culture formed by the fusing of the
Roman and Greek cultures.
In understanding the modern Wiccan Holidays, we do well to examine the ancient
Pagan holidays. In examining the ancient Pagan holidays, we do well to look at the
Greek and Roman—not because they are ultimately better than the holidays of any
other group of people, but because their culture most resembles ours and because
their holidays were recorded well enough that they survived the test of time and the
onslaught of intolerance.The Ancient Greek ‘Hellenic’ Calendar and Holidays
Winter SolsticePoseidonMaimakterionPuanepsionBoedromionMetageitnionHekatombaionSkirophorionThargelionMounichionElapheblionAnthesterionGamelionThe Greek Wheel of the Yearr WB Chap 10.p65 173 7/11/2003, 5:54 PM