Wicca 101: The Sabbats Trivia Quiz

Answer: 8

The eight solar Sabbats represent the turning of the Wheel of the Year, and each honors a stage in the eternal life cycle of the goddess and god.

Answer: sabbatu

Since performing an act of magick is work, it is customary that no magickal working be done on a Sabbat, but rather on the evening prior.

Answer: Samhain

Samhain is popularly known today as Halloween, a contraction of the words "Hallowed Evening," and it retains much of the original form and meaning it had long ago in Celtic lands, despite the efforts of the Church to turn it into an observance of feasting and prayer for their vast pantheon of saints.

The Church began by calling it Michaelmas, the feast day of St. Michael, but the old Samhain holiday proved to be too potent a drawing card for one lone saint to combat. So it was renamed the Eve of All Saints, or All Hallows Eve, which precedes All Saint's Day and is still one of the holiest days in Catholicism.

Answer: Yule

Yule, also called the Winter Solstice, is a time of mixed emotions for pagans. All around us we see evidence of the Christmas celebration, a religious holiday not a part of our traditions, but one which we know takes it form and meaning from ancient pagan practices. Virgin births, decorated trees, festive lights, feasting, wreaths, bells, and fragrant fires, were - and still are - at the heart of pagan Midwinter observances.

Answer: Imbolg

Imbolg is also known as Candlemas, a name which was derived from the practice of ritually lighting fires to lure back the slowly waxing sun.

Answer: Ostara

Ostara was the name of the Virgin Goddess of Spring in ancient Germany. It is for her that this Sabbat is named. Ostara was a Sabbat of great importance in Greece, Rome, and in Nordic and Germanic lands, and it is from these traditions that the vast majority of our current Ostara customs come.

Many of the equinox myths from these cultures concern trips by deities into the underworld, and their struggle to return from the Land of the Dead to earth. When they eventually do return to the world of the living, they have a new life, both literally and figuratively, and this idea of life renewed plays heavily in the symbolism of the holiday.

Some of these resurrected deities include Odin, Attis, Osiris, Dagda, Mithras, Orpheus, Hera, and Persephone.

Answer: Bealtaine

Bealtaine falls on May 1st. It is a time for feasting, rejoicing, frivolity, and celebration. No solemnity is permitted. It is a time to look outward and forward, a yearly re-enactment of the primal joy all creatures and plants of the earth feel at spring, after a long cold winter's rest.

Answer: Midsummer

Midsummer falls on June 22nd. Most cultures of the northern hemisphere acknowledge Midsummer in some ritualized manner. In pagan India, Midsummer was the principal festival of the entire year. The holiday has been called by many names, including Litha or Vestalia in ancient Rome, Gathering Day in Wales, Feill-Sheathain in Scotland, Alban Heflin in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, All Couple's Day in Greece, and the Feast of Epona in ancient Gaul.

In Scandinavia it is celebrated at a later date and is called Thing-Tide, a day when communities gather in a sort of town meeting, as they have since ancient times, to conduct business before celebration and feasting.

Answer: Lughnasadh

Other names for this Sabbat are First Harvest, August Eve, and Lammas, the Sabbat's most commonly used name. It honors the Celtic Sun God, Lugh (Loo), but it is principally a grain festival sometimes called the Sabbat of First Fruits. After Lughnasadh the sun is noticeably lower in the sky each evening.

In some northern regions there is already a nip of fall in the air as we move toward the second harvest.

Answer: Mabon

Mabon is not only a time when night and day are equal, but all things are in balance for one brief moment. The goddess and the god are thought to have equal power on this night, as well as the forces of good and evil. Mabon marks the end of the second harvest, a time when the majority of crops are gathered.

The information I have gathered here is from The Sabbats, by Edain McCoy (Llewelyn Publishing).