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How do Wiccans celebrate their holidays and on what dates?

I'm studying Wicca; I'm not dedicated. But from each site and resource I go to, the Wiccan Holidays change from date to date and I can never find a clear source on how they celebrate their holidays. Clear, through answers are much appreciated.

Public Comments

1. The solstices for one...err four
2. The dates vary with traditions depending on different things. For one thing, someone who lives in a very southern climate might not be celebrating Imbolc as a Winter festival, it might be their spring planting time. For another, someone who considers themselves a Celtic or Norse Wiccan might have different celebrations from someone who practices Etruscan/Roman Wicca. The Wheel of the Year is a model that can be adapted for your own needs. When it comes down to it, the reason for celebrating is more important than the date you choose to celebrate on. How you celebrate is really up to you... just like any other holiday for any other religion, people have their own traditions and customs they incorporate. For example, in my family, because we have young children, we always include a lot of crafts and stories and songs for the day, and our rituals are fairly light and child-friendly, usually including seasonal enactments (little skits the kids make up). We almost always go to the beach for a BBQ on Midsummer, go camping for a few days for Beltane, we bake bread on Lughnasadh, and we have a 3 night festival for Samhain. These are just how our own personal traditions that developed over the decades. This is my take on the Wheel of the Year, hope it helps: www.squidoo.com/wheeloftheyear
3. I agree with MSB - the reasons for celebrating the festivals are far more important that the actual dates which, with the exception of the Quarter Days, change every year with the lunar cycle. Because I'm a solitary (a Hearth Witch), I'm free to celebrate as I choose, which due to my calling, usually involves lots of yummy food and wine - my husband doesn't believe as I do but he certainly enjoys the benefits of being married to a Hearth Witch. In fact, he's getting a bit too portly! :) As a Hearth Witch, my main focuses are on the home and garden, sanctifying the home and making it a safe and happy place. My favourite festivals are Yule and Beltane. We always invite friends around for Yule and it's such a happy festival. I break out all the preserved summer fruits and bake festival bread and we have a wonderful meal and light the candles to encourage the sun to return in the spring. We sing songs and tell stories and generally have a great time. For Beltane, I spend the day ritually cleansing the house and garden and filling the house with pots of spring flowers. It's such a lovely time of year, you can feel everything growing and you get a rising surge of excitement at the thought of the summer to come. I ask for the Lady's blessings on all the vegetable seeds and seedlings to give us food for the next year. Then, in the evening, I light a fire at the bottom of the garden and burn the corn dollies I made the autumn before, thanking the Lady for bringing us safely through another winter and offering Her a portion of our food and wine. I'll then spend an hour or so communing with Her before going back into the house which is now all bright and clean and smelling of flowers to eat our Beltane meal.
4. The Solstices and Equinoxes are astronomical events, they don't occur on the same day every year. The remaining holidays traditionally fall on the Eve of a solar month, and are called February Eve, May Eve, August Eve and November Eve. Some people use Celtic and Germanic names for these holidays because that's what they were taught, others because they think the "exotic" names are teh kewl. (sigh) Because these holidays are celebrated from sundown on the eve to sundown on the following day, people often are confused about the actual date of the days. Technically, each of these days is celebrated, for example, August Eve, from the end of Sunset TONIGHT to the beginning of sunset TOMORROW. The only day I've seen outside of this pattern, ever, are people who say that February Eve, Imbolc or Candlemas (why they use the Christian term I'll never know) is on February 2nd... Those people are either off their nut themselves or following calendars derived by people who are.
5. Thumbs up to Labgrrl for her description of the dates. In addition, some people alter their celebrations to fit the local climate. Since, after all, one of the points of these celebrations is to help us be more in tune with the natural cycles. As to how they are celebrated, that varies tremendously, which is why you're finding conflicting information. Wicca is not big on "On day X, you must do actions Y and Z." Celebrations generally reflect the meaning you ascribe to those holidays. Some people focus on the lifecycle of god and goddess. Some focus on what's going on in the natural world. Some are more influenced by historical celebrations on those days. Many follow a mixture of all above. Whatever the meaning, celebrations still vary. Think of Christians and Christmas. They all agree what the day celebrates, yet for many its about gift-giving, others celebrate with large meals with family, some observe rituals at church, and so on. There isn't one way of celebrating Christmas, and there's one way of celebrating Wiccan holidays either.
6. Different ways but allmost all use symbols of that time of year and holiday. Lammas- Aug 1 Mabon- Sept 21 Samhain-31st Yule- dec 21 Come have a special ritual Those are the next 4 out of the 8
7. Different Traditions different ways. Some prefer to have their Solstices on set Annual Calender dates. Others prefer to take the Astrological Guidelines. The Summer/Winter Solstices are the points where the Sun has reached it's furtherest North/South point so are the longest/shortest days of the year (depending on North/South Hemisphere). The Equinox are when the days/nights are equal. (The Minors ones are between these four Sabbaths) None of these annually correspond to the same Calender date. As some prefer to have "set" dates, they become an approximate. As always it's personal taste. .