Dark Festivals

Here is a list of what is considered to be Dark Festivals:

Month of January - historically relavant to Amon - Festival and Feast of Amon.

January 31st - Imbolc Celebration of Indulgence and Fertility - Festival to Anat/Inanna

February 5 - Birthday of Apep (Apophis/Typhon)

February 15 - Lupercalia dedicated to Pan. Also sacred to Inuus, god of fertility and sexual intercourse - Feast of Mendes

March 1st - The Feast of Mars Ultor

March 15th Birthday of HP Lovecraft - The Feast of Cthulhu
Recommended ritual- Ceremony of The Nine Angles

March 16-17th The Festival and Feast of Dionysus (Bacchus)- a celebration of lechery, intoxication, lewd abandon, extravagance, and debauchery

March 21st - Spring Equinox, dedicated to Leviathan, water elemental. - Ritual to the Lords of R'yleh, of the Watery Abyss

April 4th-6th - Festival of Akitu, dedicated to the Babylonian god Marduk- One of the oldest recorded festivals. Celebrated on the first New Moon after the Spring Equinox - Feast of Marduk

April 10th - Birthday of Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey - Founder of The Church of Satan -
Festival of the Trapezoid

April 30th - Walpurgisnacht - High Satanic Sabbat
Eve of Beltane. Propitious for pacts, initiations and high satanic magick.
For the Temple of Baphomet initiation/dedication ritual format click here.
For a solitary version of La Messe Noire or the Black Mass click here.
Founding date of Church of Satan.

Historically Walpurgisnacht (or Hexennacht, meaning Witches' Night) is derived from Pagan spring customs, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night. Traditionally the date of the sabbat is the evening of April 30 running to the morning of May 1st, or Beltane and is when witches would hold a large sabbat on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring.

Brocken is the highest of the Harz Mountains of north central Germany. It is noted for the phenomenon of the 'Brocken spectre' and for witches' revels or sabbats which reputedly took place there on Walpurgis night.

An interesting phenomenon of note is 'The Brocken Spectre' which is a magnified shadow of an observer, typically surrounded by rainbow-like bands, thrown onto a bank of cloud in high mountain areas when the sun is low. The phenomenon was first reported on the Brocken.

May 1st - Beltane Fire Festival

The old Celtic name for May Day is Beltane, in its most popular neo-pagan form, which is derived from the Irish Gaelic Bealtaine or the Scottish Gaelic Bealtuinn, meaning ?Bel-fire?, the fire of the Celtic God Bel.
He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern God Ba'al.

The truth is that from Baal and Bel is derived the English word "Bull".
The Beltane Festival is the Bull Festival.
Ba'al as a possible focus of this ritual or festival could be suggested.
Fire is still the most important element of most Beltane celebrations and there are many traditions associated with it. It is seen to have purifying qualities which cleanse and revitalise. People leap over the Beltane fire to bring good fortune, fertility and happiness through the coming year.

Beltane is the most overtly sexual pagan festival. The tradition of dancing round the maypole contains sexual imagary and is still very popular with modern Pagans.

June 21st - Summer Solstice - dedicated to Lucifer, air elemental.
Propitious for air elemental rituals - Feast of Lucifer Rising

July 4-5 - Feast of Anubis (Anpu)

July 15-16 - Birthday of Horus and Set

July 31st - Lughnassad - Dedicated to Lugh, the Celtic God of War.

August 13 - The Festival of Hecate (Rome) propitious for revenge/protection rituals.

August 23 - Day of Nemesis (Greece) - propitious for revenge rituals.

August 24 - Fundus Mundi (Rome) - Day of the Underworld

Sept 12 - Feast of Belphegor or Ba'al Peor

Sept. 21st - Autumn Equinox - Dedicated to Belial, earth elemental - The Feast of Beelzebub

6th and 13th of October - The Yezidi Feast of Jam
One of the most important Yezidi festivals is the seven-day-long feast of Jam, when the bird icon of Anzal is presented. It is held at Lalish, north of Mosul, the burial site of Sheikh Adi. It coincides with the great ancient Aryan feast of Mithrakan, held customarily around the middle of October.

Ancient Mithrakan celebrated the act of world creation by the sun god Mithras, who killing the bull of heaven, used its dismembered body to create the material world. On the occasion of the feast at Lalish, riding men pretend to capture a bull, with which they then circumambulate the Lalish shrine of Shams al-Din, before sacrificing the bull and distributing its flesh to the pilgrims.

Recommended ritual from The Satanic Rituals: The Statement of Shaitan

October 31st - Samhain Fire Festival - The month of October is dedicated to Lord Satan, Melek T'aus and Baphomet

December 21st - Winter Solstice - Dedicated to Azazel as fire elemental - Feast of Baphomet
Recommended ritual: Pillars of Azazel commend