Sabbat is a term for the eight seasonal festivals of the
Wiccan year.
The sabbats comprise what
Witches/Wiccans call the
Wheel of the Year. This wheel is based largely upon the ancient solar rites of pre-Christian European tradition. Because the Old Religion was a fertility cult, in ancient times the traditional rituals of Wicca were designed to incorporate the
waxing and waning periods of Nature. These periods are marked by each
solstice and
equinox and the cross-quarters that fall between each one.