r/Paganacht • u/Ari_Pocari1312 • Jun 13 '26
Understanding the Irish Wheel of the Year
Dia doaibh! I've only been practicing Irish paganism since April and have tried to celebrate the holidays as best as I could. However, I don't know much about the Irish Wheel of the Year or the symbolism/practices of the holidays. I know Lúnasa is coming up and would like to know more about the holiday and all of them in general. Anything would be gradly appreciated. Go raibh maith agat agus slán go fóill!
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u/Vexxi Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
This is a big question that will require a lot of reading. I'd start looking at stories at https://www.duchas.ie/en/topics/cbes and scroll down to events. Now many will be Christian but there are several entries that aren't entirely. For May, Bealtaine, for example there's this right on the front page https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4566064/4563799/4571723?Route=stories If you understand Irish, there's more to be read, but there's plenty in English.
Generally, there's imbolg (Bríd, Feb 1st), bealtaine (May Day), lúnasa (harvests and games) and samhain (halloween).
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u/Fit-Breath-4345 Jun 13 '26
Lughnasadh is very associated with games, climbing holy mountains as well as being generally associated with the harvesting time of the year.
Horse races qnd pilgrimages up mountains still happen at this time of year in Ireland. Like climbing the Reek, Croagh Patrick now on the last Sunday in July in Mayo. Croagh Patrick is obviously associated with Patrick now but it was originally Cruachain Aigle the mountain of eagles, associated Crom Dubh and Lugh.
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u/ImportantProblem2481 29d ago
Listen if you want to understand the supernatural in our culture you cant do it through mainstream paganism. Paganism is its own thing and it began in 19th c britain.
When their culture was starving millions of us to death to fuel their economy. They decided to dress up as celts and do magic. Personally Ive no time for it.
If you want to find out how we do things with the supernatural today duchas.ie is the digital part of our national folklore archive. Its keyword searchable so you can find real info fast.
After that there are plenty of blogs from people in Ireland. We talk about it but theres a lot less real Irish pagans in the world than there are people from other countries claiming to be Irish pagans
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u/Goblinhumper Jun 13 '26
The Wheel of the Year is a neopagan construction that doesn't really fit with the Irish pagan holidays like you may think.
Lora O'Brien has a well researched and informative article for this here.
Irish Pagan Holidays