My Favorite Solar-Earth Event and Why…

Here at Patheos we were asked a Summer Series Question, this time “What’s your favorite sabbat/holiday, and why?” Now the summer season is my favorite – particularly late summer just when the nights start to get cooler, the days more noticeably shorter which is perfect for star gazing and roaring fires, there are much much fewer biting insects to pester you, but the days are still hot, the waters are warmer to swim in but still cold enough to cool those hot days off, and the summer fruits are there for the picking on your walks. This may have people think Midsummer/Lammas/Lughnassadh/Transequinox is my favorite holiday, but if I’m honest, I don’t set aside any particular day to have a celebration for this time of year – I just take advantage of good weather and do all the things I’d like to do. So its kind of more like a long holiday if anything.

For the Solar-Earth events I celebrate most its Nox / Winter Solstice / ‘The Long Night’ and that is what makes it my favorite holiday. We have a family tradition of making food ornaments to hang on a nearby tree for our nocturnal, winter neigbours, don’t use electrical devices or lights that night, and when we can, a campfire in the forest (not always the night of – but during the winter holidays, weather and scheduling with loved ones permitting). For me, its the most notable Solar-Earth Event as every other one for me tends to drift by as any other day with not much more than a “Happy (insert Solar-Earth Event)”. So much is going on that its hard to make time for them – especially as I don’t follow the conventional Pagan Year Wheel celebrations of Sabbats nor the traditional way they are celebrated, being in the process of making newer traditions as a Naturalistic Saegoah, but not so much for Nox, ‘The Long Night’.

I have been making plans to do more for the different Solar-Earth Holidays (See that section on my Pinterest Page) and a lot of that involves scheduling to make it work – decorating, food, and activities. Not having a community to organize with makes it that much more of a burden to do, but I figure that a little bit of work each year will have things come together more for the following years, and maybe then I’ll really get to compare which holidays I really prefer instead of having just the one that I actually do to choose from.