Lunar Calendars

With Chinese New Year upon us, this may be a good time for a word on lunar calendars.  Many pagans, timing rituals as they do by the Full and New Moons, are apt to mark time using a lunar calendar.  The specifics of the calendar can take several different forms.  The Chinese lunar calendar, for example, begins with the New Moon closest to their equivalent of Imbolc, which means it can occur in either January or February.

English author Robert Graves virtually invented the so-called Celtic tree-calendar in his landmark 1948 book, The White Goddess.  Beginning with the winter solstice, Graves divided the year into thirteen months of 28 days each, plus one intercalary day (two on leap years). While this calendar has the benefit of fixed dates, I personally don’t see it as “lunar”, as it’s independent of the lunar phases.  Still, this system has been popularized by Llewellyn Books through their calendars, so many solitary pagans use it to mark time.

An interesting variation on this is the calendar presented by Canadian hedgewitch  Jean Kozocari.  In her 1994 Book of Days, Kozocari and others proposed a fixed 13-month calendar beginning at Samhain, the pagan New Year.  Graves’ tree-months (Birch, Rowan, Ash, etc.) were still kept, but shifted to the revised New Year, with Birch beginning in November.   This still doesn’t work for me, though it may for some.

My personal preference, which I’ve been using in my Almanack since I began using it in the mid-nineties, is a lunar calendar beginning with the New Moon closest to the Winter Solstice.  Over the course of the year this works out to be about 12-1/2 lunar months, so the last (Ruis/Elder) lunar month of one year is often the same as the first (Beth/Birch) of the new.  A number of published calendars use this system. 

Beginning this month, I’ll list both the Graves’ tree month dates and the Winter Solstice “lunar month” dates, both as an exercise and for those of you who prefer the system of Graves and Llewellyn.

February Events:

Note these events are listed for information purposes only. Dates and locations may be subject to change; see the source for details. If I’ve missed anyone and you’d like to add to this listing, please contact me. All times MST.

Feb 1-2:  Traditional Imbolc.

Feb 2, 7:00 am:  Groundhog Day Pancake Breakfast at Blue Grass Nursery and Garden Centre, south of Crossiron Mills. Balzac Billy prognosticates at 8:10 am.

Feb 4, 7:30 pm:  COGCOA Coffee Cauldron. http://www.cogcoa.ab.ca

Feb 7:  Birthday of Margarian Bridger (1957-2016), founder of Evergreen Tradition.

Feb 10, 5:23 pm:  Full (Snow or Quickening) Moon. Penumbral lunar eclipse.

Feb 11, 10:00 am:  Calgary New Age Craft Market at Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Hall.

Feb 14: Valentine’s Day.

Feb 18:  Luis/Rowan tree month begins, according to Robert Graves.

Feb 19:  Dances with Witches. Info: Calgary Pagan Network on Facebook.

Feb 20:  Family Day (Alberta).

Feb 25, 7:00 pm: Heathen Meet and Greet. Info: Calgary Heathens on Facebook.

Feb 26, 7:58 am:  New Moon. Nion/Ash lunar month begins.