Pagan and ancient traditions
Pagan and ancient traditions cover the old religions of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Near East, and their modern revivals: Norse Yule and Midsummer, Celtic Samhain and Beltane, Greek and Roman festivals such as Saturnalia, Egyptian rites, Slavic Kupala and the Baltic Joninės.
Pagan and ancient traditions cover the old religions of Europe, the Mediterranean and the Near East, and their modern revivals: Norse Yule and Midsummer, Celtic Samhain and Beltane, Greek and Roman festivals such as Saturnalia, Egyptian rites, Slavic Kupala and the Baltic Joninės. Many survive in folk custom, in the Christian calendar and in carnival, and some are now followed by modern Pagans, Heathens and Druids. These pages describe both the historical festivals and the living customs, taking care to separate evidence from legend.
Old festivals, new forms
The Wheel of the Year, with solstices, equinoxes and the cross-quarter days of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain, gives the shape of many Pagan calendars, though it is a modern synthesis. Older customs, such as bonfires at midsummer, wreaths of herbs, the maypole and the wassail, are recorded in village life across Europe and are still kept, often without any link to religion.
Evidence and revival
Historians draw on texts, archaeology and folklore, and are cautious about claims of continuity from ancient times. Modern Pagan groups have revived rites in new forms, adapted to the present, and the resulting traditions are sincere and living. Public festivals at Stonehenge, Glastonbury and Uppsala bring crowds, and EveryParampara records what is known about each, and where scholars disagree. Visitors are asked to be respectful of those for whom the occasion is sacred.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Pagan and ancient (faith). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇱🇻 LatviaDaina
Short, traditional Latvian folk songs and verses sung across the human life cyclePerformance
🇺🇸 United States and 5 moreRite of passage
A ceremony that marks leaving one group and entering another, with a new statusRite of passage
🇮🇪 Ireland and 1 moreHandfastingceangal na lámh (Irish); pòsadh-bliadhna (Scottish Gaelic)
A couple's promise made with joined or bound hands, kept from betrothal to weddingRite of passage
🇺🇸 United States and 3 moreJumping the broom
A wedding ritual where newlyweds leap over a broom to mark their unionRite of passage
🇺🇦 Ukraine and 4 moreKorovaiкоровай (Ukrainian), каравай (Russian)
A round wedding bread of Eastern Europe, baked with songs and shared by all the guestsTable custom · Feasts and festival meals
🇧🇬 Bulgaria and 4 moreBabindenБабинден
A Bulgarian feast honoring midwives and new mothers with rituals of bathing, feasting, and blessing.Festival · Feasts and festival meals
🇪🇬 Thebes, EgyptAncient Egyptian funerary practices
Rites for the dead in ancient Egypt: preserving the body, spells and grave goodsRite of passage
🇪🇬 Egypt and 5 moreLibation
The ceremonial gift of drink given to deities, ancestors, and the earthSpiritual · Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies
🇬🇷 Olympia, GreeceHeraean Games
An ancient Greek festival of running races for unmarried young women at OlympiaGame
🇪🇬 EgyptOpening of the mouth ceremony
An ancient Egyptian rite to awaken a spirit's senses for the afterlifeRite of passage · Feasts and festival meals
🇬🇷 Greece and 1 moreLustratio
An ancient Greek and Roman cleansing rite using processions and animal sacrifice.Spiritual
🇮🇹 Italy and 4 moreRosalia
An ancient Roman festival of decorating graves, statues, and standards with fresh flowersSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇬🇷 Athens, GreeceAmphidromiaτὰ Ἀμφιδρόμια
An ancient Athenian family ritual welcoming a newborn around the household hearthRite of passage · Feasts and festival meals
🇮🇷 Susa, IranSusa weddings
A mass royal wedding held in 324 BCE to unite Macedonian and Persian nobilityCeremony
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Rite of passage: Rogier van der Weyden, Public domain, source
- Jumping the broom: credited only as "Hipstamatic shots, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Handfasting: Sander van der Wel, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Daina: Savannah Rivka, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Korovai: Olli Niemitalo, CC0, source
- Babinden: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Ancient Egyptian funerary practices: Hunefer, Public domain, source
- Libation: Arkady Zarubin ( Аркадий Зарубин ), CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Opening of the mouth ceremony: Hunefer, Public domain, source
- Heraean Games: Ingo Mehling, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Lustratio: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Rosalia: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Public domain, source
- Susa weddings: Unknown author, Public domain, source