(Above is the general timeline of the Pagan Calendar)
The Pagan Calendar, or The Wheel of the Year, marks many of the seasonal festivals celebrated by pagans around the world. The calendar also tracks the lunar cycle, paying particular interest to the year’s full moons. The original sources for the calendar are largely eclectic, drawing from folk traditions, druidism, British paganism, and Wicca. The modern pagan calendar was adopted by Gerald Gardner and Ross Nichols in the 1950’s in order to celebrate and codify as many pagan holidays as possible. Gardner and Nichols divided the year into eight seasonal events, corresponding to solstices, equinoxes, and the beginnings of seasons: Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh, Mabon, and Samhain. The cyclical pattern of this calendar and its ties to natural phenomena, are meant to represent pagan ideas about rebirth and the various cycles of the Universe.
Below is the 2020 Pagan Calendar containing all of the most relevant holidays and astronomical events pertaining to paganism. Differences in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres are noted in parenthesis.
If you are interested in Tarot, check out our Wheel of the Year Tarot Deck here or our Mini Pagan Tarot Deck here.
For more information about the Pagan Calendar, check out Joshua Mark's article here.
If you want the exact time for each Full and New Moon in 2020, check out this lunar website here.
January
- 1: New Year's Day
- 10: Full Moon – Wolf Moon and a penumbral lunar eclipse
- 24: New Moon
February
- 1: Lammas (Southern Hemisphere)
- 1: Lughnasadh (Southern Hemisphere)
- 1: Imbolc
- 9: Full Moon – Snow Moon
- 23: New Moon
March
- 1: Matronalia, the Festival of Women
- 9: Full Moon – Worm Moon (supermoon)
- 18: Ireland’s Sheelah's Day
- 19: Ostara or Spring Equinox
- 20: Mabon (Southern Hemisphere)
- 24: New Moon
April
- 7: Full Moon – Pink Moon (supermoon)
- 12: Easter
- 22: Earth Day
- 22: New Moon
- 23: Anniversary of Wiccan pentacle being officially added to the list of VA-approved emblems for gravestones
May
- 1: Beltane
- 1: Samhain – The Witches' New Year (Southern Hemisphere)
- 5: Cinco de Mayo
- 7: Full Moon – Flower Moon (supermoon)
- 22: New Moon
June
- 1: Anniversary of England's 1563 Witchcraft Act
- 5: Full Moon – Strawberry Moon and a penumbral lunar eclipse
- 20: Litha or Summer Solstice
- 21: Yule (Southern Hemisphere)
- 21: New Moon
- 21: England’s Day of Cerridwen
- 22: England's last Witchcraft Law is repealed in 1951
July
- 4: Independence Day (United States)
- 4: Full Moon – Buck Moon and a penumbral lunar eclipse
- 20: New Moon
August
- 1: Lammas
- 1: Lughnasadh
- 1: Imbolc (Southern Hemisphere)
- 3: Full Moon – Sturgeon Moon
- 18: New Moon
September
- 2: Full Moon – Corn Moon
- 17: New Moon
- 21: International Day of Peace
- 23: Mabon or Fall Equinox
- 23: Ostara (Southern Hemisphere)
October
- 1: Full Moon – Harvest Moon
- 16: New Moon
- 31: Samhain
- 31: Beltane (Southern Hemisphere)
- 31: Celtic Feast of the Dead
- 31: Full Moon – Hunter’s Moon and a Blue Moon
- 31: All Saints' Eve
November
- 1: All Saints' Day
- 1: Mexico's Day of the Little Angels (Día de los Angelitos)
- 1: Celtic Reign of the Old Woman Calileach, or Festival of the Dead
- 1: Ireland’s Day of Banshees
- 2: Mexico's Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos)
- 2: All Souls' Day
- 14: New Moon
- 26: Thanksgiving Day (United States)
- 30: Full Moon – Beaver Moon and a penumbral lunar eclipse
December
- 14: New Moon
- 21: Yule or Winter Solstice
- 21: Litha (Southern Hemisphere)
- 25: Christmas Day
- 29: Full Moon – Cold Moon
- 31: Scotland’s Hogmanay
- 31: Mexico’s Wishing Night
- 31: New Year's Eve
About the author: John Taylor is a content writer and freelancer through the company Upwork.com. You may view his freelancing profile here. He has a B. A. in English, with a specialty in technical writing, from Texas A&M University and a M. A. in English from the University of Glasgow. You may view his previous articles about Tarot here and his LinkedIn profile here.
