Wheel of the Year 2027 Dates: Solstices, Equinoxes and Cross-Quarter Days
Updated November 14, 2026
The Wheel of the Year is a modern calendar of eight seasonal festivals, or sabbats, used in Wicca and other contemporary pagan traditions. Four of them are astronomical: the two solstices and two equinoxes. The other four, Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain, fall roughly halfway between those, and are usually celebrated on fixed dates. This page gives all eight for 2027 in UTC, and lists the year's full moons beside them. We describe the calendar and the sky, not a belief system or a set of practices.
The eight dates in 2027
The four solstice and equinox dates are the instants the Sun's ecliptic longitude reaches 270°, 0°, 90° and 180°. For the four cross-quarter days the table shows two dates: the traditional one, and the astronomical midpoint, which is the instant the Sun reaches 315°, 45°, 135° or 225°, halfway between a solstice and an equinox. All times are UTC. The last column is the full moon nearest to each date, and how many days before or after the sabbat it falls.
| Sabbat | Marks | Date and time (UTC) | Traditional date | Nearest full moon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imbolc | Midpoint, Sun at 315° | Thu, Feb 4, 01:46 | Feb 1 | Wolf Moon, Jan 22 (12.6 days before) |
| Ostara | Spring equinox | Sat, Mar 20, 20:25 | same as the astronomical date | Worm Moon, Mar 22 (1.6 days after) |
| Beltane | Midpoint, Sun at 45° | Wed, May 5, 17:25 | May 1 | Flower Moon, May 20 (14.7 days after) |
| Litha | Summer solstice | Mon, Jun 21, 14:11 | same as the astronomical date | Strawberry Moon, Jun 19 (2.6 days before) |
| Lughnasadh | Midpoint, Sun at 135° | Sat, Aug 7, 17:27 | Aug 1 | Sturgeon Moon, Aug 17 (9.6 days after) |
| Mabon | Autumn equinox | Thu, Sep 23, 06:02 | same as the astronomical date | Harvest Moon, Sep 15 (7.3 days before) |
| Samhain | Midpoint, Sun at 225° | Sun, Nov 7, 15:39 | Oct 31 | Beaver Moon, Nov 14 (6.5 days after) |
| Yule | Winter solstice | Wed, Dec 22, 02:42 | same as the astronomical date | Cold Moon, Dec 13 (8.4 days before) |
The astronomical midpoints fall a few days after the traditional dates: Feb 4 against Feb 1, May 5 against May 1, Aug 7 against Aug 1, Nov 7 against Oct 31. Neither is wrong. The traditional dates are calendar conventions; the midpoints are where the Sun actually is. Many people use the traditional date and some use the midpoint, so we show both. Samhain is often observed from the evening before its date.
In the Japanese calendar the same four Sun positions have names of their own. Risshun, the start of spring, is the Imbolc midpoint (Feb 4, 2027, in Japan's date), and Rikka, Risshū and Rittō match Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. See the 72 Japanese micro seasons for 2027 for the full list.
Northern and southern hemisphere
The dates in the table are the same everywhere in the world, because they are positions of the Sun. The labels, though, are written for the northern hemisphere: Yule is the winter solstice there, in December. Many people in the southern hemisphere move each festival by six months so it matches their local season, which means Yule is celebrated around the June solstice (Jun 21, 14:11 UTC). When you use this table, decide which season you want each date to mark.
Every full moon in 2027
The full moon names are folk names from North American almanacs, given to the full moon of each calendar month (UTC).
| Full moon (UTC) | Name used for it |
|---|---|
| Fri, Jan 22, 12:17 | Wolf Moon |
| Sat, Feb 20, 23:24 | Snow Moon |
| Mon, Mar 22, 10:44 | Worm Moon |
| Tue, Apr 20, 22:27 | Pink Moon |
| Thu, May 20, 10:59 | Flower Moon |
| Sat, Jun 19, 00:44 | Strawberry Moon |
| Sun, Jul 18, 15:45 | Buck Moon |
| Tue, Aug 17, 07:29 | Sturgeon Moon |
| Wed, Sep 15, 23:04 | Harvest Moon |
| Fri, Oct 15, 13:47 | Hunter's Moon |
| Sun, Nov 14, 03:26 | Beaver Moon |
| Mon, Dec 13, 16:09 | Cold Moon |
Several of the nearest full moons are some days away from the sabbat. In 2027, the Ostara equinox (Mar 20) and the Worm Moon (Mar 22) are the closest pair, only 1.6 days apart. To find full moons and new moons for any month, with the quarter phases, see the 2027 moon phase calendar.
The Wheel of the Year 2027 as a one-page calendar
We make a Wheel of the Year and Moon calendar for 2027: every day's moon phase for the year, a circular diagram of the eight dates, and the dates and times of each sabbat in UTC. If you only want the moon phases, the 2027 moon phase calendar has the same daily moon shapes without the wheel. Both are PDF files for printing or viewing on a screen, and both use the values on this page.
To see the sky on a single date, such as a birthday or an anniversary, use the free night sky on the day you were born preview.
Questions
Which date should I use for Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain?
Either. The traditional dates are Feb 1, May 1, Aug 1 and Oct 31. The astronomical midpoints for 2027 are in the table. This page doesn't tell you which to prefer.
Are the dates in my time zone?
The table is in UTC. Convert by adding your offset from UTC. An instant late in the evening in UTC may be the next day in Asia or Australia, or the previous day in the Americas.
Do the solstice and equinox dates change from year to year?
Yes, slightly. The calendar year is not exactly the length of the Earth's orbit, so the equinox and solstice instants move by hours from year to year, and they can fall on neighboring dates.
Does the Wheel of the Year predict anything?
No. This is a calendar of the Sun's position and the Moon's phase. It makes no predictions.
About this article
Each date is the moment the apparent ecliptic longitude of the Sun reaches the stated angle, calculated with Swiss Ephemeris, a widely used library for computing the positions of the Sun and Moon, and rounded to the minute. We checked each of the eight instants against a separate calculation of the Sun's longitude. Full moon times are the instants the Moon and Sun are 180° apart. The Wheel of the Year is a modern framework and its names and dates vary between groups; the traditional dates shown are the common ones.
The English text of this article was written with AI assistance. The dates, times and counts in the tables and examples are calculated by our software, not generated by AI.