RE WILD
The Journey Home
Lunisolar Pagan Calendar 2026
This is a contemporary Northern European lunisolar calendar for the year 2026–2027.
It is historically well informed but not a strict reconstruction of any single pre-Christian system.
This calendar is for:
• Neo-pagans who want a Northern European seasonal structure
• Spiritual practitioners who value astronomical precision
• People exploring ancestral European cosmology
• Those who want to reconnect with seasonal rhythms
It is not intended as academic reconstruction, even though it is heavily based on it.
It is a living ritual tool, a working cosmology.
Pre-Christian Europe was not isolated. Trade routes existed. Cultural ideas traveled. Calendrical systems influenced each other.
The idea that there were sealed, pure, isolated systems is largely modern romanticism.
So building a calendar that honors Norse structure, Celtic seasonal logic, and modern astronomical knowledge
is actually more historically plausible than pretending cultures were sealed bubbles.
We live in 2026.
Our ancestors observed the sky with the tools they had.
We do the same, with the knowledge available to us.
This calendar is an offering to that continuity.
How did I build this Calendar?
I started by drawing a cycle and dividing it into 365 equal pie parts. Onto this I projected the actual astronomically correct dates of the solstices, the equinoxes, and the cross-quarter days (which have a Celtic name on my drawing for the sake of clarity and recognition for most audiences). I expanded the projection by adding the exact dates of the full and new moons of 2026. In this way, the relative distance between all elements on the drawing is representative of the actual cosmic picture.
In the old calendar, months started on the new moon, thus being around 29.5 days in length. This way we can observe that we are around 11 days "short" of filling the solar year. It can thus be observed that the same months are occurring earlier and earlier each year. This is corrected by inserting a 13th month every fourth year or so.
How do we determine if a given year has 12 or 13 months? If the new moon of the second Yule month took place less than 11 days after the winter solstice, the additional 13th month was added to the following summer, making sure that the new moon month would not occur before the winter solstice in the following year. In the present case, the new moon of the second Yule month takes place on the 18th of January 2026 (not visible on my drawing because it belongs to the previous cycle). The 18th of January lies 28 days after the 21st of December, thus concluding that we have a year with a "normal" 12 months.
Thus we have our starting structure and also the location of the 2nd Yule month, in addition to the date of the Jólablót.
This was my starting point for drawing in the other 11 months. The names are English interpretations of Old Norse month names, which are heavily descriptive of the agricultural year, thus giving a good grounding and understanding of the phase of the earth.
In the same way that the Jólablót is celebrated on the full moon, one full lunar phase after the Winter Solstice, we can calculate the other three main blóts of the year. The first day of summer, or Sumarmál, lies one lunar phase after the Spring Equinox. In the same way we calculate the full moon dates for Midsummer, or Miðsumar, and Winter Nights, or Vetrarnætr.
Other important dates are Álfablót, which lies on the full moon after Winter Nights (although that placement is debated), and Dísablót, which lies on the full moon after Yule (even though the date placement is even more debated, it feels intuitively correct in my practice and that of many others).
The new, or "dark," moons between Winter Nights and the Winter Solstice are of significance as well. Especially Lussinatten, which is seen as the darkest night of the year (both the moon and the sun are dark at the same time), a "feast" that was later appropriated by the Christian church as "Santa Lucia" and fixed onto the Gregorian calendar on the 13th of December.
Lastly, it can be observed that there are many more "feasts" in the winter half year than in the summer half year. It is argued by some that this could potentially be because everyone was "home" during the winter, whereas the summer was more fitted for travelling. At the same time, summer is very busy agronomically, and everyone at home was occupied in the fields. Winters were dark, cold, and slow, giving fitting time for people to find things to do and to keep the spirits up while waiting for the light to return.
How did I choose the staring point?
I have put the start of the cycle at the first new moon after Jólablót, the offering / feast of Yule. Thus, the new moon of 17 February represents the start of the lunar year. New moons represent new beginnings, whereas full moons represent completion or heights of cycles. Starting the year at a new moon feels very intuitively correct.
However, there are many good arguments for different starting points, meaning that you are free to choose any beginning of your liking. The old calendar clearly observes a winter and a summer half year. Many traditions start the year at the beginning of the winter half year. At the same time, we can see that the solar cycle, in particular the winter solstice, functions as a governing or re-setting point on which the calculations for the coming year are based. It is the winter solstice and its accompanying lunar phase that determines whether there are 12 or 13 months in the coming cycle and also where to position the full-moon feast of Yule. Taking the following new moon after this feels like a very good starting point of the new cycle. This is affirmed by the lunar new year in Eastern traditions and the closeness of the cross-quarter day of Imbolc, which in many traditions marks the first stirrings of spring.
Interpret it however feels right for you.
Would you like to have this Calendar?
I sell it as a digital download, so you can use it digitally or you can have it printed.
Included in the download is:
1| Image - PNG - A2 (594x420mm)
2| Professional print file with bleed and trim marks - PDF - A2 (420x297mm)
3| Image - PNG - A3 (420x297mm)
4| Professional print file with bleed and trim marks - PDF - A3 (420x297mm)
© Ellen Wild 2026. All rights reserved. This product is for personal use only.
No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, distributed, or resold without written permission.
Sources
This calendar draws primarily on:
• Rood, Joshua. A Survey of the Annual Festival Cycle and Its Relation to the Heathen Lunisolar Calendar.
• Nordberg, Andreas. Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning: Kalendrar och kalendariska riter i det förkristna Norden. Stockholm University, 2006.
• “The Norse Calendar.” Valkyrja.com. Accessed 2026. https://valkyrja.com/norsecalendar.html
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Astronomical data for 2026–2027 are based on astronomical tables for Norway.
The placement of Yule in relation to the winter solstice and the first full moon after it follows interpretations discussed in Nordberg’s work.
Astrological cross-quarter days (midpoints between the solstices and equinoxes) are given a Celtic/Gaelic name. The only reason behind this choice is that those names are widely recognized and known, thus making the calendar easier in use than should I have written "cross-quarter-day" instead.
This calendar does not claim to reproduce a single historical model.
It presents a structured modern application of historical and astronomical principles.
Spiritual Interpretation
To me, the paths of the earth, sun, and moon are like a cosmic clockwork. It is like looking into the very core of its mechanics.
This clock is mirrored in us, and its influence is all around in our lives and in our society.
Because the cycle of the moon and sun does not line up perfectly, there is a relation between the arrows of this clock. And because we are on earth, circling around the sun while the moon circles around us, this relation is key to understanding the path of our lives as we move through the spiral of time.
The 2025 cycle ended with Jólablót, the offering / feast of Yule, on the 1st of February. This is almost as late as is possible using the old calculation (Jól falls between the 5th of January and the 2nd of February). As a consequence, the lunar cycle for 2026 is "late." So late that it almost presses onto the solar cycle. See how close the 1st of February falls to the astronomical cross-quarter day (Imbolc) on the 3rd of February. This trend is visible throughout the whole cycle.
You could almost say that the "build-up" of the previous cycles is pushing onto the solar anchor of this cycle, and all that pressure is ready to "shoot through" and create an enormous momentum and speed in this cycle. That speed is not falling out of thin air; it is created by all the work that you did and all the pressure that has been building up in your life during the previous years.
That is why this year can potentially be a "breakthrough" year for you, where things finally start working out. At the same time, it can also be a potential "great new start," where you finally see the bigger picture of the last cycles and decide what is clearly not working and where direction has to change.
