My original reasons for taking up the study of Proto-Indo-European religion had nothing to do with religion. I just had a few tiny questions related to gardening, such as what time of year to plant spelt, and which Goddess would be suitable as a garden ornament, since I was thinking of getting a statue to use as a focal point. And finally, I wondered why I didn’t know a single traditional harvest song, because I always feel like singing in the garden.

To my amazement, I was unable to find out this basic information. Local garden centers did not have any advice on when to plant spelt, a traditional grain that people don’t normally grow in their gardens. I tried looking up the traditional time of fall grain planting in the Mediterranean climates, which should be incorporated into the Pagan festival calendars of Greece and Rome, but I couldn’t even find calendars of the traditional Pagan festivals for these countries. I found this absurd.

I knew from my college studies that the Proto-Indo-European deities had been reconstructed based on linguistic analysis, but when I tried to find a list of the Goddesses so that I could pick one for my garden, all the standard linguistic sources that I checked reported that no Indo-European Goddesses could be reconstructed. I knew that wasn’t true, since I have the relevant linguistic training, so I sat down to figure them out myself.

And finally, I have worked my way through the entire music library at the local university and there are indeed many beautiful Pagan and secular songs to celebrate the seasons of the year, but sad to say, many have never been recorded. Nevertheless, I am putting together lists of music on particular themes: a Goddess, a festival, a time of year or an aspect of nature. I hope that everyone can use these lists to put together a CD or even better learn the songs so that you can sing them yourself.

So this page will link to a few of the Pagan festivals that I have been able to find so far, organized by month. Whenever possible, I will provide a list of the beautiful music that I have found, in hopes that you will also enjoy celebrating life in song. And here also will be information about pre-industrial traditions especially suitable for small-scale farming and gardening, including recipes for traditional foods and fun things to do.

Festival Calendar for the Indo-Europeans

January
Date	Festivals for Goddess	Stories and Songs	Farming and Food
Jan. 7th	Charming the Plow and Blessing the Seed Ceres, a Roman Goddess	Plow Songs	sorting seed and planting
12/21 to 1/17 day or evening	Wassailing the Apple Trees	Apple Tree Wassails	welcome the return of the Sun
February
March
Spring Equinox	Eostra or Ostara, and Easter Eggs	.	Nov Ruz (Persian New Year) Gahambar Traditions
April
Date	Festivals for Goddess	Stories and Songs	Farming and Food
April 31	(begins April 31), May Day for the Goddess Freya
May
May 1		May Day Revels, Part 1 May Day Songs and May Day Revels, Part 2	.
June
June 9-15	Vestalia for Vesta		.
July
Date	Festivals for Goddess	Stories and Songs	Farming and Food
July 5-7	Bouphonia Festival and Poplifugia and the Festival of Romulus	Creation Myth of the Indo-Europeans	Menu from the biography of Alexander Pushkin; traditional Russian recipes
August
8/1 to 8/15	Lammas, Lughnasadh and Harvest Festivals for the Grain Goddesses	Songs to Celebrate the Harvest	harvesting wheat and making bread
September
Sept. 23-25	Jumis and Apjumibas festival		.
October
Date	Festivals for Goddess	Stories and Songs	Farming and Food
Oct 31-Nov 1	Samhain (Celtic) and Halloween (Germanic)	Stories and Songs for Halloween and Samhain	in northern countries, the time of slaughter of livestock
November
December
12/21 Winter Solstice	Yule	Yule Songs	keeping warm by the fire and feasting with friends
12/22, or the day after the Winter Solstice	Hunting the Wren	Wren Songs and Burying the Wren and How Lleu Llaw Gyffes Got His Name	.

© 2009, last updated 4/13/2012, piereligion.org/festivals.html