Ok, so we've all seen the Wheel of the Year dates (depending on whether we live north or south of the equator) and there's a fairly well accepted calendar for that, give a day or two for the equinoxes and so on. But the debate about exact dates has many facets and for some Wiccans this poses a source of some fierce debate. There's debate about whether you should celebrate some Sabbats on the day or in the case of Samhain, on the night before when the year changes during the passage of darkness. For me I prefer to celebrate Samhain on the night of April 30th (or October 31st for those folk on top of the world) rather than on May 1st. But wait, there's more...

Just because the calendar says you celebrate a festival on that specific date, do you HAVE to do it on that date? I think not if circumstances dictate otherwise. For example, sometimes for our coven, it's easier and more successful to celebrate a festival on the closest weekend because we can all get there and don't have to worry about getting up early for work the next day.

In addition, the festivals were originally tied to what was happening locally with the crop and animal cycles so if the traditional calendar says your final harvest festival has to occur on the 31st October but in fact your local crops aren't harvested till a month later, then why not celebrate that festival to coincide with the harvest? After all, that's what it was originally all about!

I guess the most contentious issue though is where different traditions choose to modify the calendar to meet their own interpretation of the cycle. So for instance, we celebrate Samhain on April 30th and celebrate Beltaine on October 31st but we choose to celebrate the solstices on the 22nd of June and December. None of this is wrong and is the modification of a foundational system to meet our own needs. Wicca is a faith system that demands the practitioner connect with the local environment and if that means celebrating your festivals on dates other than those provided by the traditional calendar, then so be it.