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Keep it Traditional<\/h2>\n
Let\u2019s have a look first at why some people choose to follow the northern hemisphere dates when living down south, and what the pros and cons are of this choice.<\/p>\n
The Cons<\/h3>\n
The Seasons.<\/strong>\u00a0 Celebrating an autumn festival in spring is a bit, off putting, to say the least.\u00a0 But not just that, when celebrating in a religious way, we are honouring nature and honouring what nature is not currently doing is not exactly an easy task.\u00a0 It also is not necessarily spiritually or religiously fulfilling to do.<\/p>\n D\u00e9cor<\/strong>.\u00a0 Some Pagans love to decorate their home for the season or Sabbat.\u00a0 If you follow the northern dates, do you decorate for the northern season as well? And how do you do that, when the natural world isn\u2019t necessarily going to comply (no autumn leaves in spring)?<\/p>\n Food<\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s not so much of an issue today where we are so often able to buy foods out of season, but it must be said that it is quite a bit more expensive to buy out of season fruits and vegetables.\u00a0 And if you prefer to use home grown foods, well, I wonder at your skill in harvesting pumpkin in October!\u00a0 Also, it\u2019s just a bit odd to eat summer fruits in winter, but maybe that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n All the Books<\/strong>.\u00a0 Most Pagan and Witchy books will have stuff for the northern dates, so will most blogs and websites and magazines (we don\u2019t have many Aussie Pagan magazines sadly).\u00a0 When your Facebook or RSS feed is inundated with ideas and tips for how to celebrate the northern Sabbat, it\u2019s much easier to follow along with that date.<\/p>\n Mainstream Holidays<\/strong>.\u00a0 Some of the Sabbats are closely aligned with the more mainstream holidays like Easter, Christmas and Halloween, and these mainstream holidays follow the northern dates in every country that observes them \u2013 including Australia.\u00a0 Celebrating Yule at Christmas time, though it\u2019s summer, is a great way to not stand out or celebrate with non-Pagan family.<\/p>\n D\u00e9cor<\/strong>.\u00a0 Funny how this is both a pro and con, but because of the mainstream festivals it is easy to get Yule decorations from the shop when it\u2019s summer time, because Christmas decorations are everywhere.\u00a0 Same goes for Samhain in spring, with Halloween and Ostara in autumn with Easter.\u00a0 Easter is the big one, because chocolate doesn\u2019t keep very well (at least not in this house where I will eat it all).<\/p>\n But why celebrate the northern way when it is so out of sync with the natural world we live in?\u00a0 You can see some of the reasons in the list of Pros actually.<\/p>\n To fit in with the mainstream festivals is usually the main reason.\u00a0 When you have immediate or extended family who are non-Pagan and celebrate the normal holidays, it makes sense to simply stick with those out of season dates for the Sabbats as well.<\/p>\n And of course for those who are in the closet, this is a great way to make you seem relatively normal and assimilating, while still celebrating those festivals that mean something to you.<\/p>\n I know of at least one person who has what I see as a compelling\u00a0reason for keeping with the traditional dates.\u00a0 Her son has autism and he finds the idea of the southern dates to be distressing because the northern dates are so much more famous and normal to him.<\/p>\n And of course there are those who weren\u2019t born Australia or the southern hemisphere.\u00a0 For those who have moved from a northern country to live down under, the adjustment of the seasons and the Sabbats on top of that can be quite difficult.<\/p>\n Now we can look at the southern dates and why we might use those instead of the northern dates.\u00a0 For those who are not sure, the southern dates are adjusted by 6 months.\u00a0 When it\u2019s Samhain in the north, it\u2019s Beltane here down south.\u00a0 Because when it is autumn up there, it is spring down here.<\/p>\n Mainstream Confusion<\/strong>.\u00a0 What is a pro for the northern dates, is indeed a con for the southern dates.\u00a0 Celebrating what looks like Halloween in April?\u00a0 Uh, weird.\u00a0 Celebrating what looks like Christmas in June?\u00a0 Even weirder, what is wrong with you?\u00a0 And don\u2019t even try to go trick or treating in April, because you\u2019ll probably get put in a mental hospital!<\/p>\n D\u00e9cor and food<\/strong>.\u00a0 Of course, there are no chocolate eggs sold near to Ostara for us here in the down under.\u00a0 A sad state of affairs, but it is what it is.\u00a0 No Halloween stuff in April, no Yule stuff in June (although there might be a little in July, for that weird Christmas in July tradition of some people).<\/p>\n Stand Out<\/strong>.\u00a0 You will stand out if you decorate to the Sabbat that has a mainstream version.\u00a0 You will stand out if you wish someone a happy Yule in June.\u00a0 There is no in the closet for you.\u00a0 Sorry.<\/p>\n Family<\/strong>.\u00a0 If you have non-Pagan family, the chances of them wanting to celebrate your festival with you is, often, quite slim.\u00a0 And if you refuse to celebrate the mainstream holidays, then you miss out on that time with such family as well.\u00a0 This can be a difficult thing.<\/p>\n Food!<\/strong>\u00a0 Spring fruits are in season and thus cheaper or growing in your garden.\u00a0 Easy to get and easy to make.\u00a0 And of course it just feels better to eat summer foods in summer, and nice hearty soups and stews in autumn and winter.<\/p>\n D\u00e9cor<\/strong>.\u00a0 Yep, again it\u2019s a pro and a con.\u00a0 The pro here is two ways actually.\u00a0 The natural world will provide a bounty of natural decorations with flowers, leaves, feathers, seeds and the like.\u00a0 And, while we can\u2019t buy Halloween stuff in our shops in April, we can buy them in November for very cheap prices with the after holiday specials.\u00a0 Which is always great!<\/p>\n Ideas<\/strong>.\u00a0 While the blogs and websites are churning out crafts, arts, recipes, rituals and other tips for Halloween in October, that means you actually have a whole 6 months to use those tips whereas those using traditional dates only get that month to use them (or an entire year, by which time they will probably forget).\u00a0 This middle ground is a bit nice to be in actually.<\/p>\n Natural<\/strong>.\u00a0 Obviously, it is just more natural, in the nature way.\u00a0 Celebrating the growing light when the light is actually growing is just more natural than doing it when the nights are getting longer.<\/p>\n Feels Better<\/strong>.\u00a0 It\u2019s just my personal observation, but I personally think it feels better to celebrate with the season and opposite the mainstream and northern dates.\u00a0 It\u2019s nothing more than a feeling, but feelings matter too.<\/p>\n Now to look at why we might celebrate the southern dates instead of the northern.\u00a0 Again you can certainly look at the pros list (and the northern cons list) as to why we would.<\/p>\n It fits with nature, is of course the main reason.\u00a0 The weather, the foods, the symbols, the flowers, the animals \u2013 all of it happen in their proper seasons and it is more natural feeling to celebrate those things as they happen, rather than 6 months later.<\/p>\n Solstices and Equinoxes are not arbitrary dates.\u00a0 The summer solstice happens on the literal longest day and shortest night of the year, there is no equivocation here.\u00a0 It\u2019s similar for the winter solstice and both equinoxes.\u00a0 These are literal astronomical moments.\u00a0 When you celebrate the solstice you are celebrating these astronomical moments, these solar moments.\u00a0 You can\u2019t pretend they are opposite to what is actually happening in reality.<\/p>\n One of the reasons that people often don\u2019t mention, but I think is actually worth pointing out \u2013 even if we don\u2019t think about it much \u2013 is that when we celebrate the Sabbats in their proper seasons in Australia, there is no mistaking your celebration for a mainstream one.\u00a0 For those out of the closet and don\u2019t care if people know you\u2019re Pagan, this is actually a good thing.\u00a0 You don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re just doing Christmas with another name \u2013 because you are doing it in June, when no one else is doing it.\u00a0 You don\u2019t feel like your Samhain is a game, because you are not being distracted by the Halloween props.\u00a0 For some of us, this is actually the most helpful thing about having the opposite dates.\u00a0 There is no confusion for us, or for those observing us.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t say what the most common choice is, but I think it is the same one that those in the north make.\u00a0 Do it both ways.\u00a0 Celebrate the mainstream festivals and the Pagan ones.\u00a0 The difference for us is, we can celebrate Yule in June and Yule again plus Christmas in December, or Samhain in April and Samhain plus Halloween in October and so on.\u00a0 You can, and many do, have it both ways and get the best of both worlds.<\/p>\n It can be confusing to do, especially when first starting out.\u00a0 But, celebrating Beltane while also celebrating Halloween, as I have said before, is actually a fun idea<\/a>.\u00a0 Dressing up in costume for Beltane actually sounds like a fun thing to do.\u00a0 In Australia we have already adapted many things for Christmas \u2013 this is why we have Santa in shorts and singlet, his sleigh pulled by kangaroos (this in cartoons and stuff, we don\u2019t do that with real kangaroos).\u00a0 Plenty of people use gum leaves and nuts as decorations for Christmas, I think it\u2019s fantastic actually.<\/p>\n You can also choose to ignore the Sabbats and\/or the mainstream holidays completely.\u00a0 I know many Pagans in Aus end up following this path at some point, where they just can\u2019t stand the wrongness of the four seasons anymore and begin the process of discovering their specific regions seasons \u2013 or look into the Aboriginal seasons.<\/p>\n And even that isn\u2019t an either\/or choice \u2013 you can still do the Sabbats whilst developing your own seasonal festivals.\u00a0 Hey, the more parties the more fun right? And the more rituals you do, the more involved you are in your religion which is also a great thing, and probably more important than the party thing.<\/p>\n The only choice you can make in this area that is wrong is to choose based on what someone has told you are the rules*.\u00a0 Just because some Pagan tells you that you must celebrate to the southern dates, or must follow the northern dates, or must stay completely away from the mainstream holidays \u2013 doesn\u2019t mean you should do what they say.\u00a0 And just because I have some slightly nicer things to say about the southern dates, doesn\u2019t mean you have to agree with me!<\/p>\n I said above, for example, that the solstices and equinoxes are not arbitrary dates, but there is a caveat to that. Not everyone really cares about the astronomical part.\u00a0 To some people the solstices and equinoxes are similar to the cross quarters, they aren\u2019t about what the sun is literally doing (or what the earth is doing in relation to the sun).\u00a0 Perhaps it is about tradition, perhaps it is about the religion in a more in depth manner \u2013 eg. The Goddess and God throughout the year, do They follow the northern or southern dates? \u00a0Perhaps it is about something else.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter why you choose the way you choose, so long as it is your choice (or in an above example your childs choice, that you feel is more important).\u00a0 So long as you choose for yourself, there is no wrong choice here.\u00a0 There is no wrong way to celebrate these festivals, to celebrate the seasons and the world around you.\u00a0 Well, other than burning down a forest of course. \u00a0I suggest not doing that.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n *There is a caveat for that too though.\u00a0 If you are part of a coven or other group that celebrates certain festivals on certain dates, then obviously do that.\u00a0 But they also shouldn\u2019t be stopping you from having personal or family celebrations at any other time that you desire.\u00a0 If they are stopping you, you might be in one of those bad cults and should consider running away.<\/em><\/p>\n Looking for more posts about the seasons and Sabbats, especially comparing north to south, or from an Aussie perspective?<\/p>\n We have a choice here, we can celebrate the traditional northern dates or we can celebrate with the adjusted 180 switch dates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2764,"featured_media":945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,136,13,62],"tags":[63,53,51,18,33,52,20,32,25,58,48,64],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-calendar-events-festivals","category-paganism101","category-ritual","tag-australian-paganism","tag-calendar","tag-comparing-hemispheres","tag-debates","tag-festivals","tag-north-vs-south","tag-opinion","tag-paganism","tag-religion","tag-sabbats","tag-seasons","tag-southern-hemisphere"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Pros<\/h3>\n
The Reasons<\/h3>\n
Go Southern<\/h2>\n
Cons<\/h3>\n
Pros<\/h3>\n
Reasons<\/h3>\n
There Are More Choices<\/h2>\n
There is Only One Wrong Choice<\/h2>\n
\n\n