The Four Seasonal Festivals
Four thresholds in the traditional Irish year: Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lúnasa and Samhain.
A year measured by work, weather, animals, gatherings and memory.
The four quarter days are often presented today as a neat “Celtic wheel of the year.” The historical picture is more complicated—and more interesting. Medieval texts preserve festival names and mythic associations, while later folklore records household customs, fairs, holy wells, food, fire, weather lore and seasonal protections. These pages follow the evidence across those layers rather than pretending every custom survived unchanged from prehistory.
Imbolc · February 1
Winter begins to loosen. Brigid, household protection, milk, lambing and the first signs of returning light gather around the opening of February.
Bealtaine · May 1
Summer opens with flowers, May bushes, fire, cattle and an intense concern with luck. May Eve and May Day were among the year’s most charged thresholds.
Lúnasa · August 1
Harvest begins with gatherings, high places, fairs, courtship, bilberries and first fruits. Lúnasa is social, agricultural and deeply tied to landscape.
Samhain · November 1
Winter begins. The harvest closes, darkness lengthens, divination and disguise appear in later tradition, and the long historical road toward Halloween comes into view.
Begin with Irish collections.
The National Museum of Ireland and the National Folklore Collection preserve material that lets us see how seasonal customs actually varied across place and time.