The neopagan Wheel of the Year™ was literally invented in the 1950s by two guys: Gerald Gardner and Ross Nichols.
At the time, revival druidry (of which they were both part) was celebrating 4 annual festival, at the solstices and equinoxes.
Also, there was a popular (if incorrect) notion that much British and European folklore represented continuous pre-Christian traditions, including the 4 Irish festivals (incorrectly categorised as pan-Celtic 'fire' festivals*) of Beltane, Lammas, Samhain, and Imbolc.
* Check out Ronald Hutton's Stations of the Sun (1996) for an in-depth history of the British ritual year, including all 4 of these festivals, and popular perceptions of them.
They decided to combine the two to create the 8-spoked 'wheel of the year'. (And Aidan Kelly came along in the 1970s and added the more romantic Wiccan names to the solstices and equinoxes)
The 8-spoked 'Wheel of the Year' festival structure is part of Wicca (founded by Gerald Gardner) and OBOD (the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, a revival druid order founded by Ross Nichols).
If you're not a member of OBOD or any formal Wiccan tradition? You have absolutely zero requirement or obligation to follow/observe/celebrate the Wheel of the Year™.
You can observe all of them. Observe some but not others. Rename them. Adapt them. Cannibalise it and turn it into something new.
(Personally, I like the structure, so I kept that and built my own whole thing on top of it.)
You also don't need to as much as acknowledge it in your practice if you don't want to.
It's not some Ancient, Universal, Correct thing. It was literally just made up by two guys.
You can follow seasonal events based on your location, your culture, your folklore, your history. You can make things up just because you want to. Or you can not observe any seasonal festivals.
What you do in your practice is 100% up to you 💜
gummygunk
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
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dailybridgerton
