Moon phases and the New Year

[Wiccita]

Is the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new year a very important observance,
Or are the moon phases always more significant than Old Year/New Year?

[Siona]

Depends a lot on your personal preference, or the structure of your tradition, if you follow a specific one. In some pagan paths new year is quite important, though usually not the calendar new year we use today... for example, Egyptian new year is sometime in July/August these days, and is very significant. In other traditions, not so much. The Athenian Greeks didn't put much emphasis on their new year (sometime in July usually), and their monthly cycle, linked to the moon, took precedence. So it's really up to you - does it feel important to you? If you draw from any traditions or cultures, was it significant to them?

[SpiritTalker]

For me the emphasis is dark half vs light half of the year, decay vs renewal, so solstices mark the endings of one and beginnings of the next annual cycle for me. I just function on that timing. The modern calendar is an artificial time keeper but based on Earth's movement around the sun.

Older cultures have kept time by the revolutions of the moon around the earth - 12 in a year. That's not what's meant by "moon phase" - how much of the moon is showing equals amount of power that's available. Moon phases change weekly. Spells can be timed in the short-term by moon phase or in the long-term themed by seasonal tides.

Which is more significant - the Sun or the Moon? We need both for different reasons.

Happy new year on the calendar hanging on the wall is a sun-thing.

[Wiccita]

Thanks guys! I’m more or less oriented to the “traditional” (ie European-based) 365 days a year/New year starts Jan. 1st tradition, so I guess any type of spells, meditations, etc that I might do would be based on that.

However, SpiritTalker as you point out, I do feel that the Solstice carries a lot more weight than the changing of our Sun year to 2019 (which I did celebrate and observe in a way). But the “New Year’s Resolution” seems so prevalent, I feel like I should do something of spiritual or possibly magical significance tonight.