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THE FOUR FIRE FESTIVALS — A COSMIC WHEEL OF TIME
THE FOUR FIRE FESTIVALS — A COSMIC WHEEL OF TIME
In the old Irish cosmology, time was not a straight line—it was a wheel. The year turned on four sacred fire festivals: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltaine, and Lughnasadh. These were more than seasonal milestones—they were liminal gateways between worlds. Crom was the still axis of this cycle, and each festival traced the balance of light and dark, life and death, veiling and unveiling.
The Sacred Wheel: Cyclical vs. Linear Time
The Sacred Wheel: Cyclical vs. Linear Time
Unlike Christian eschatology, which sees time as linear, the Celtic view was cyclical. Each fire festival marked a hinge-point, a spiritual pivot where boundaries between worlds thinned. Together, these four points created a sacred geometry—the solar cross—and defined the structure of the agricultural and ritual year. Crom was honored year-round but especially at Samhain, when his domain—liminal darkness—was fully in power.
Samhain (October 31 – November 1): End and Beginning
Samhain (October 31 – November 1): End and Beginning
Samhain (say it SOW-win) marked the Celtic New Year and the beginning of the dark half of the year. It was believed the veil between worlds thinned, allowing ancestors and spirits to walk among the living. Rituals included bonfires, offerings to the dead, and the extinguishing and rekindling of hearth fires to be lit by a common communal bonfire, as well as sweeping homes from back to front. Crom was central to this festival as the chthonic force governing the seasonal dead. It was now that Lugh's light was locked into the Celtic Otherworld and Crom propitiated for a good spring and summer.
Imbolc (February 1): Quickening of Light
Imbolc (February 1): Quickening of Light
Imbolc (say it IM-bolk) associated with the goddess Brigid, celebrated the first signs of spring—milk, lambing, thawing water, and light. As Brigid later became Saint Brigid, the traditions of purification, fire, and healing endured. Imbolc rituals included lighting candles, crafting Brigid’s crosses, and visiting holy wells. It was a time of renewal, fertility, and preparation.
Beltaine (May 1): Igniting the Wild
Beltaine (May 1): Igniting the Wild
Beltaine (say it BYAL-tin-eh like meh) marked the beginning of summer and was a fire festival of fertility, passion, and protection. People drove cattle between twin bonfires for protection. May bushes and flowers were gathered, and hearth fires were extinguished and relit from a communal flame. Like Samhain, Beltaine was a veil-point, when spirits might pass between worlds again. It was now if Crom was satisfied with Samhain offerings that he'd release Lugh's light, guaranteeing a good harvest in the fall.
Lughnasadh (August 1): First Fruits and Sun Sacrifice
Lughnasadh (August 1): First Fruits and Sun Sacrifice
Lughnasadh (say it LOO-nah-suh), named for the god Lugh, celebrated the first harvest and honored his foster mother, Tailtiu (say it TALL-choo), who died clearing land for agriculture. Festivities included games, marriages, feasts, and trade. It was a time of gratitude, abundance, and awareness of seasonal transition. Note Lugh's actual mother, Eithne (say it EN-ya or sometimes ETH-neh), due to a prophecy that she'd kill Balor (in Irish myth), is locked away by Balor. In the modern surviving tradition infected by Catholic Christian tradition of Crom Dubh, Crom kidnaps Eithne, not Lugh, and returns in the spring with her on his back if he was properly sated in the fall.
The Fire Cross: A Sacred Geometry
The Fire Cross: A Sacred Geometry
Together, these four festivals form a solar cross—a wheel of time. Samhain and Beltaine represent the veil-points, while Imbolc and Lughnasadh mark thresholds of growth and fruition. Crom, as god of the hinge, presides from the center. He is not just a figure of death or darkness, but the still point around which the fire festivals revolve—a god of turning.
Modern pagans (people who believes in or follow a religion with many gods or nature spirits, not the big world religions like Christianity, Islam, or Judaism) celebrate several holidays, but the Celts celebrated only the four mentioned here as fire festivals.
The Celts celebrated only the four mentioned here as fire festivals. But as you see here, the calendar of the Celts broke the year into the dark half (Samhain to Beltane, counterclockwise) and the light half (Beltane to Samhain, counterclockwise).
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