A Question for The Southern Hemesphere/Holidays

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 12 Sep 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Violet Gargoyle	12 Sep 2002
I believe that this would be more for those who celebrate the pagan based Holidays, but I would be interested in anyone's answer: I just started to decorate for Halloween, see, and I got to remembering that Halloween/Samhain would be in the spring for those in the southern hemesphere and fall in the Northern. So my question is, do you celebrate Samhain in October, or do you celebrate Beltaine? In other words do you do the rituals in syncronicity with the northern hemesphere or in reverse to it? (IE Samhain celebrations in May instead of October) Just one of those curiousity things.....

MystiqueMoonlight	13 Sep 2002
The way I see it, the sabbats are seasonal events. I cannot understand how someone in the southern hemisphere could possibly honor the ritual of Samhain at the same time as the northern hemisphere for example. These sabbats are pertinent to the change of the seasons not a calender event like the Christmas. Does that help any???

Aquahectate	16 Sep 2002
hey, yep you are right. In the southern hemisphere we follow the seasons, so when its shamain in the northern hemisphere it is our beltane. Also when casting a circle, like you, we follow the sun so for us it is anti clockwise. Also our elemants for north and south quarter swaps over too. Its can be hard figuring all this out when most books are made in the northern hemisphere and alot of the time don't talk about the differences in the southern. The past couple of years i have bought a moon diary at the begining of the year which is printed in the southern hempishere and tells of the holidays and moon phases and times, again this is different in the southern hemisphere. I myself am originally from England so swapping over to all this really played havoc. Hope this helped Om shanti Gisele

angela	17 Sep 2002
I am Pagan, but not Wiccan, and believe it or not, I do celebrate Samhain at this time of year despite being in the Southern Hemisphere. My belief system is strongly linked to astrology and so I can't possibly celebrate Samhain at any time other than during Scorpio, which is ruled by Pluto. I also celebrate Beltane in May during Taurus, ruled by Venus. I do however, celebrate the winter solstice in June, and Summer solstice in Summer etc. It's very confusing and to be honest I find it really difficult living on this side of the planet. Fortunately though, in Brisbane the seasons are far less obvious and so it doesn't seem too weird. I can certainly understand why people reverse them here though, it does make more sense. I think I'm just a wee bit odd.... angela

Alex	18 Sep 2002
what you are talking about. In Brazil we don't have anything like Halloween. There is no Fall to speak of and harvest is all year. We have carnival which is in February/March. This is the only Pagan hollyday I know of, back there.

The A Question for The Southern Hemesphere/Holidays thread was originally posted on 12 Sep 2002 in the Spirituality board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Spirituality, or read more archived threads.