Biodynamic festival calendar
In the biodynamic year, festivals such as Michaelmas and St John’s Day serve as tried date markers — for spreading horn manure in autumn, say, or harvesting horsetail around midsummer.
What is the biodynamic festival calendar?
In biodynamic growing, the festivals of the year serve as practical date markers. They are not rigid rules but tried points of orientation on which recurring farm and preparation work can be hung. The course of the year gives biodynamic work a living rhythm of sowing, growth, ripening and rest — and the festivals mark its turning points.
The main markers in the year
Michaelmas (29 September) marks the autumn start of preparation work. Around this time the cow pats for horn manure are collected and the filled horns buried; in autumn horn manure is spread on the soil, when in the biodynamic picture the forces draw into the earth. For many, Michaelmas is the central mood of the biodynamic autumn.
St John’s Day (24 June), around the summer solstice, is the height of plant growth. What matters in practice: horsetail is harvested as shortly before St John’s as possible, and many preparation plants (yarrow, chamomile) are gathered at this time of full strength.
Alongside these, the equinoxes (spring and autumn), the solstices (summer and winter) and the Twelve Nights (the twelve nights around the turn of the year) divide the biodynamic year. Other festivals handed down — Candlemas, Walpurgis, Lammas, Martinmas, All Saints, Epiphany — also serve as calendar orientation.
Relation to preparation work
In practice the festival calendar is useful above all as a grid for remembering: Michaelmas opens the autumn preparation work (collecting and spreading horn manure), the spring around Easter brings the lifting of the preparations buried over winter, St John’s the summer gathering season. In this way the course of the year connects with the concrete working calendar of a biodynamic farm.
Where it stands
The festivals carry Christian and older, pre-Christian names, but in biodynamic practice they serve as calendar orientation for sowing, harvest and preparation work, not as religious rule. Actual work always follows the weather, the region and the stage of development; the festivals are reference points, not fixed dates.
Frequently asked questions about the biodynamic year
Why does Michaelmas matter in biodynamics?
Around Michaelmas (end of September) the autumn preparation work begins: horns are filled with manure and buried, and horn manure is spread.
What has St John’s Day to do with growing?
Around St John’s (24 June) plant growth is at its height — harvest time for horsetail and many preparation plants.
What are the Twelve Nights?
The twelve nights around the turn of the year. In the course of the year they count as a particular time and serve as a point of orientation between the winter solstice and Epiphany.
Are the festivals religious rules?
No. In biodynamic growing they serve as date markers in the course of the year, not as religious commandments.