A Sabbat Dinner

Planning a Sabbat Celebration

Hello, friends,

It’s been a while since I’ve written a practice based blog post and this one felt kind of perfect as I am coming off the high of my most recent dinner party that I decided to host for the Ostara Sabbat (which is typically celebrated on the Spring Equinox).

While some may say that Ostara is the original Easter, this could not be farther from the truth.

First of all, Easter follows a lunar calendar. It is always after the Spring Equinox/Ostara around the time of the first full moon – which is why it shifts every year.

Second, while they hold similarities, you need to remember that the Church (Catholic) pulled in pieces of holidays that were practiced by those of the times. While pieces might have been co-opted, the holiday itself has not been stolen which is something I have been working on understanding more on.

So there’s your tiny history lesson.

Today’s post is going to walk through the method of my madness as the way I plan my parties is not the most orthodox in some ways.

Your Guest List

Now some people may tell you to start with your menu, but I am not one of those.

Due to my friend group being vast with varying dietary restrictions – either by allergies or by choice -, I start with my guest list. For the most part I have a dedicated list of people that I love to invite over, but I also like to sprinkle in some newcomers to the table. And by newcomer, I mean that I have different levels of friends and I slowly like to sprinkle everyone together based on how I feel about the gathering.

When I have a list of people I want to invite I pick a couple dates and send those out to my friends. I let them know to just let me know what date works for them. Once there is a general consensus on the date, then comes the fun part.

The Menu

Once the guest list is semi-solidified, I start to really dive in on the menu. Sometimes I will mock up a couple before I get the guest list done, but usually those go through a million iterations before I settle on the final menu.

Remember those friends with dietary restrictions?

This is why I wait to make the menu because I want to know what I’m working with when I’m looking up recipes. Typically we’re having dinners surrounding the Witch Sabbats so that means I try to have our dinner reflect that, but even I will only go so far with that. For instance, I’m personally not a huge fan of the way rabbit or goat tastes depending on how it is cooked. I am also not used to preparing it so I chose to leave both off the menu for our Ostara dinner.

I did managed to find a cocktail and a mocktail for us to have at the party. This is always part of the menu because yet again, not all of my friends partake in drinking alcohol which is fine! I like to have something for everyone and not have anyone feel left out.

Tablescaping

This might be my favorite part of the process because I enjoy making things memorable.

For my Ostara planning, I knew I wanted everything to be floral. The first thing I started with was getting the invitation and menu in a design. As you can see in the design, the menu checks that box. The invitation was also like this with the florals around the center of the page.

I also picked out place cards that matched the invitation to print out to put everyone’s names on. Going past that, I also like to have table cloths and glassware that can be used throughout the seasons. The tablecloth and glassware I found are perfect for this and definitely go with my Cottagecore themed kitchen as well.

The charger plate and linen napkins were also a must have as I try to cut down on things that can’t be reused for future parties.

The Future of These Dinners

You might be wondering what I’m going to do with these dinners when I’m ready to have more people around for these. Also you might not, but I don’t care.

My goal and plans for the future is to eventually have these dinners turn into potluck styles where not only my friends are invited but their partners as well. I want this to be a celebration of community with people who are absolutely amazing to be with when we gather and can have conversations about what we want in our lives. The beauty of being a practitioner of Magick is that it all comes from within you. You are the Magick that makes the difference in the world around you. Having a community who is only working to lift you up helps make that even more magickal when it happens because they also help it happen.

And that’s what I want to create with these dinners, a beautiful and magickal community gathering.

It is going to take me some time to get that point but it is something I am working to manifest for myself.

It is also going to take me some time to get the Notion Template created for you all to begin using, but once it is done it will be sent out with the newsletter that comes out around the time it is finished. That means that if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, you need to get signed up for it but going here. Click that link and you can subscribe to the Coven Update where you’ll get the Monthly Rewinds of what you might have missed as well as all updates on my Twitch streams which I am working to get back to.

I hope you all have a blessed Spring!

All my love,