Shadowfest/Samhain - This holiday is about honoring our dead, we usually incorporate a seance into our ritual to communicate with our dearly departed.
Winter Solstice/Yule - This holiday is about the birth of our new son God, Lupercus, we light a small white candle (signifying the new baby) in the Cauldron, and then "birth" it out of the cauldron.
Lupercus - Imbolg Feb 2nd - this is a ritual for rejuvenation, rebirth, getting ready for spring after the long winter spent in introspection, here we are "purified" with a lashing from the God (a small lash, lightly lashing the backs of the hands, symbolic only). I think this is meant to purge us of whatever we feel "guilt" for over the past year, and make us new and ready to great the Spring pure and full of good thoughts, and good visualizations for our future. It's a good way of breaking free of anything old that haunts us, and this is also a time of initation, in the Strega path, we initiate any new members to our coven.
Spring Equinox - Ostara - At this joyful ritual, welcoming the coming of the Goddes in all her splendour, we write down what we want to occur in the coming year, and burn it, the ash from these "wishes" we incorporate into earth, which we put into an earthenware pot, we plant rue seeds, and as they grow into fruition, so to do our "wishes".
Beltane/Diana's Day - We welcome Diana back in all her glory, this is a ritual more of praise, but we recite the Charge of Aradia and remember her as well on this day. Apple snacks for ritual feasting on this day, since they are sacred to her.
Summer Fest - Litha/Summer Solstice - We celebrate Diana and Dianus as a couple, and the bounty of the earth also, the struggle between the forces of dark and light is observed with a mock battle, and we always end with a fairy meditation.
Cornucopia/Lugh's day - Here we celebrate the harvest, and contemplate our lives and where they are going, it is time again to take stock, we write our requests/wishes on parchment paper, and burn them in a ritual fire, along with some appropriate incense. It is a time for meditation on that which you sow you must reap.
Autumn Equinox/Mabon - Here we thank Dianus who is slain in the harvest, he goes now to the underworld, we ritualistically sacrifice a loaf of wheat bread, and each partake of it, we also honor the watchers or Grigori at this time, and make offerings again to them at each quarter with a piece of the loaf, and as our lord went into the earth, so do three quarters of our bread, these we bury in the garden.
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