Paganism celebrates what is natural. Birth, life and death are a pattern of which all are a part. Just as great empires rise and fall, just as Spring gives way to Summer, so men and women are born then die. So the wheel turns, a dance of light and dark and of God and Goddess throughout the wheel of the seasons. Pagans celebrate the cycles of sowing and reaping, the passage from Winter to Spring then to Summer and Autumn.
Pagans learn to accept that there are times of growth, but also times of old age and death.
The seasonal festivals are mysteries, yet they are so simple a child might understand. They are times when Pagans remember the cycle of life of which they are a part and touch a simple Pagan truth that humanity and the world are one - part of a whole bound in love. The Wheel of the Year is celebrated in a myriad of forms in the different Pagan traditions. Most Pagans celebrate eight seasonal festivals each year, but there are variations between traditions and between geographical regions with different climatic conditions. It is not possible to look at all these variations, but some idea of the underlying themes celebrated during seasonal rites can be described.