The first of our four Midquarter Holidays
the Wheel of the Year is an ancient way of dividing the year by the seasons: Solstices, Equinoxes and their midpoints. Currently, the Gregorian Calendar is used by Neopagan groups, so the Wheel of the Year is fixed around the observed Solstices & Equinoxes, and midpoints on fixed dates: Feb 1, May 1, Aug 1, Nov 1.
With theAbysmal Calendar, the observed Solstices and Equinoxes are part of the Lunisolar Calendar , whereas theAbysmal Wheel of the Year is about using the 7 days of the week to help us better imagine the year, and better anticipate what’s to come.
Firstly, theAbysmal divides the year into 52 weeks plus 1 day. The one day falls on Dec 21 and marks the New Year. The remaining 52 weeks of the year are divided into 4 quarters of 13 weeks each, or 91 days. this means that the first day of the quarter falls on the same Weekday.
For example, in 2020-2021, Dec 22 fell on Tue, so Mar 23, Jun 22, and Sep 21 all fall on Tue. If Tue begins the week, then the midweek day falls on Fri.
The four midquarter days fall in the middle day (Fri in 2021) of the middle week of the quarter. Each midquarter day falls precisely 45 days after the start of the quarter, and 45 days before the end of the quarter.
This level of precision is not a feature of the Gregorian Calendar.
Begin at bottom at the Winter Solstice, and proceed clockwise.
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this marks about the time we celebrate Imbolc and Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day in particular is interesting symbolically speaking. In the illustration above, Feb 5 falls midway between Dec 22 and Mar 22. It is the middle of 13 weeks, which means 6 full weeks have elapsed and there’s 6 more to go. Imagine the Groundhog emerging after the Winter: either they look toward Spring, that is, toward the Sun, in which case they don’t see their shadow, or they look toward Winter, away from the Sun, when they see their shadow.
Our relatives in the Southern Hemisphere don’t get enough consideration when it comes to how we talk about the Seasons globally. The Northern and Southern Hemispheres experience the complementary season to each other: Northern Winter coincides with Southern Summer.
Begin at top at the Summer Solstice and proceed counter-clockwise
in the Southern Hemisphere, this would be the equivalent of Lughnasadh at the end of Summer and turning to the shortening days of Autumn.
Equalnights
Despite its name, the Equinox is not the date when day and night are the same. These Equalnights vary depending on the line of latitude where you live.
see: Equalnights Table
from this Midquarter day to the end of the quarter Equalnights take place from the Equator to the North Pole. From the start of the quarter until the next Midquarter day (May 7), Equalnights take place from the South Pole to the Equator.
Rethinking Time 