Modern Pagan

Where: Britain first, then North America and beyond
When: from the 1930s to the present
What survives: Datable published books, correspondence and organisational records. The founding figures are named and their dates are known.

12 entries

Every entry here carries an evidence grade, because the distance between the evidence and the subject is the first thing to know about this material.

BeltaneFestivalEvidence grade C of five, A strongest, E weakest: Insider writing from after a break in transmission
The opening of summer in medieval Ireland, the one described rite among the four quarter-days, and why the maypole belongs to a different tradition.
Cross-Quarter DaysConceptEvidence grade C of five, A strongest, E weakest: Insider writing from after a break in transmission
Three defensible answers to when a cross-quarter day falls: the fixed calendar date, the solar-longitude midpoint, and the temporal midpoint of the season.
ImbolcFestivalEvidence grade C of five, A strongest, E weakest: Insider writing from after a break in transmission
The thinnest attested of the four Gaelic quarter-days: a name, a season, ewes coming into milk, and no described rite anywhere in the early sources.
Kupala and KoliadaFestivalEvidence grade D of five, A strongest, E weakest: Later collection at a substantial remove
Two well-recorded Slavic folk observances, their Christian calendar hosts, and why the eightfold Slavic wheels circulating online are recent compositions.
LughnasadhFestivalEvidence grade C of five, A strongest, E weakest: Insider writing from after a break in transmission
The opening of harvest, the assembly at Tailtiu, and the one festival in Britain and Ireland with a serious documented case for long-term continuity.
MabonFestivalEvidence grade E of five, A strongest, E weakest: Modern reconstruction or coinage
The autumn equinox station of the modern eightfold year, named in 1974 after a Welsh literary figure who has no calendrical association of any kind.
Midsummer and St John's EveFestivalEvidence grade D of five, A strongest, E weakest: Later collection at a substantial remove
The best-documented seasonal fire custom in Europe is medieval and Christian, attached to 23 June, and it drifts against the solstice it is named for.
OstaraFestivalEvidence grade E of five, A strongest, E weakest: Modern reconstruction or coinage
A spring-equinox festival named in 1974 after a goddess inferred in 1835 from a month name recorded in 725. The three steps come apart cleanly.
SamhainFestivalEvidence grade C of five, A strongest, E weakest: Insider writing from after a break in transmission
The opening of winter in medieval Ireland, the royal assembly that met at it, and why the usual Halloween and All Saints story gets the chronology backwards.
The maypolePracticeEvidence grade D of five, A strongest, E weakest: Later collection at a substantial remove
An English and Germanic custom with several centuries of records, routinely filed under an Irish festival it has no attested connection to.
The Wheel of the YearFestivalEvidence grade E of five, A strongest, E weakest: Modern reconstruction or coinage
The eight-festival cycle has three separate provenances, no historical community kept all eight, and it was assembled in Hertfordshire around 1958.
YuleFestivalEvidence grade B of five, A strongest, E weakest: Near-contemporary outsider report
A midwinter season rather than a solstice-day festival, and the reason the Christmas and Sol Invictus story is weaker than it is usually told.