Pagan Holidays in March 2026

This calendar of pagan holidays in March includes Roman, Greek (Hellenic), Egyptian (Kemetic), Heathen, and modern pagan observances, alongside lunar events many witches work with today.

For much of the world, March means spring and the waking up of the earth. So, not surprisingly, many of the holidays on this calendar — like Ostara — are festivals that center around the themes of spring: fertility, rebirth, and the renewal of the natural world.

From events like the Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries (tied to Persephone‘s return from the Underworld) to the Roman festivals like Liberalia and Hilaria and Greek celebrations such as the Anthesteria and Great Dionysia, you’ll find a mix of ancient pagan holidays and modern observances connected to the arrival of spring

For a full guide to all the pagan festivals of the year, here is our pagan holiday calendar for 2026. For a look back at February, you can find the pagan observances for February here.

Pagan Holidays in March 2026

Date	Holiday / Event	Tradition
March 1	Matronalia	Roman
March 1	Baba Marta	Balkan
March 1-3	Anthesteria	Hellenic
March 2-4	Dísablót / Disting	Heathen
March 3	Full Moon (Worm Moon) in Virgo / Total Lunar Eclipse	Astrological
March 6-7	The Festival of Bastet and The Day of Chewing Onions (Kemetic)	Kemetic
March 10-16	Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries	Hellenic
March 13	Diasia	Hellenic
March 14	Equirria	Roman
March 15	Anna Perenna	Roman
March 17	Liberalia	Roman
March 19-24	Quinquatria	Roman
March 20	Spring Equinox / Ostara / Alban Eilir	Modern Pagan / Wiccan / Modern Druidry
March 25	Hilaria	Roman
March 27	Asklepia	Hellenic
March 27	Feast of Renenutet	Kemetic
March 29	Great Dionysia	Hellenic

March 1: Matronalia (Roman)

Matronalia was a Roman festival honoring Juno Lucina, the aspect of Juno associated with childbirth and the protection of women. It was celebrated on March 1, at the beginning of the Roman calendar year. Women would visit the sacred grove of Juno Lucina on the Esquiline Hill in Rome to pray for the health of their families. When worshiping the goddess, women would loosen their hair and make sure nothing was knotted on their person. This symbolized nothing hindering safe childbirth.

The day also centered on honoring women within the household. Husbands would give gifts to their wives, and household celebrations were held in their honor. In Ancient Rome it was a day of feasting, gambling, music, dancing, and overall revelry.

March 1: Kalends of March (Roman)

The Kalends occurs on the 1st of each month, but the Kalends of March was originally the beginning of the Roman year. This made the day a natural point for offerings and the resetting of civic and religious life. March was closely associated with Mars, the Roman god of war and agriculture (it’s where we get the month’s name).

March 1: Baba Marta (Balkans)

The Baba Marta (“Grandmother March”) is a beloved Balkan folk tradition honoring the arrival of spring. In Balkan folklore, Baba Marta is an elderly woman whose shifting moods control the unpredictable weather of early March. When she is cheerful the sun shines, but when she is angry the cold winds return.

To welcome the new season, people exchange martenitsi, which are small charms made from intertwined red and white threads. The red represents life and vitality and the white represents purity or the last snow of winter. These are worn until the first clear sign of spring appears and then tied to a branch as an offering for a good year.

March 1-3: Anthesteria (Hellenic)

The Anthesteria was a three-day Athenian festival honoring Dionysus and the renewal that came with Spring. Ancient sources also connect the Anthesteria with the temporary presence of the dead, who were believed to move among the living during the festival.

The first day of the festival was known as the Pithoigia (“Jar Opening”). On this day, they would open the jars of the new wine for the year and welcome and Dionysus back to the city of Athens.

The second day of the Anthesteria was called Khoes (“Pitchers”) and included a distinctive drinking ritual. Participants drank wine from individual jugs in a silent competition. Another important rite was the symbolic sacred marriage between Dionysus and the Basilinna, the wife of the Archon Basileus. This represented the god’s union with the city and order.

Khutroi (“Pots”) was the third and final of the Anthesteria, and was dedicated to the spirits of the dead. Households made panspermia, a mixed-grain stew, and offered it to Hermes Psychopompos, guide of souls.

March 2-4: Dísablót / Disting (Norse/Heathen)

Dísablót was a late winter festival honoring the dísir, the female ancestral and protective spirits associated with fertility, protection, and the wellbeing of families. Medieval sources connect the ritual to the great Disting assembly and market held at Gamla Uppsala.

The exact date varied in historical sources, but it was generally held toward the end of winter. In modern Heathen practice, some groups observe Dísablót around the late winter full moon following Midwinter, which can fall in what is now late February or early March. Rituals focus on honoring female ancestors, household guardians, and the dísir.

March 3: Full Moon in Virgo (6:38 AM EST) – Worm Moon and Total Lunar Eclipse

The March Full Moon, often called the Worm Moon, is traditionally associated with the first visible signs of spring. When the Full Moon is in Virgo, that layers on themes of making sure your daily habits align with your long-term growth. You’ll find rituals, journal prompts, and correspondences in our March Full Moon guide.

In 2026, the Worm Moon is also a total lunar eclipse, also called a Blood Moon. Eclipses tend to amplify the emotional and transformative energy of a Full Moon, often bringing moments of release or realization around what is no longer sustainable. If you want to work with its energy, here is our guide to eclipse magic.

March 6-7: The Festival of Bastet and The Day of Chewing Onions (Kemetic)

This joyous festival honored Bastet, the cat goddess associated with protection, joy, music, and domestic wellbeing. Festivals dedicated to Bastet often included music, dancing, and offerings to the goddess. A unique folk custom associated with this day is the “Chewing of Onions.” Onions were prized for their protective and medicinal qualities and were sometimes used in rituals to guard against illness or harmful influences.

March 10-16: Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries (Hellenic)

The Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries were preliminary rites connected to the famous Eleusinian Mysteries, the initiation cult of Demeter and Persephone. Participants underwent purification rituals and sacrifices that prepared them for the deeper initiation of the Greater Mysteries held later in the year at Eleusis.

March 13: Diasia (Hellenic)

Diasia was a major Athenian festival honoring Zeus Meilichios (the “Kindly” or “Mild One”), an aspect of Zeus associated with protection, purification, and agricultural prosperity. The celebration took place outside the city walls. Families would gather to make offerings and sacrifices seeking the god’s favor for the household and the coming agricultural season.

March 14: Equirria (Roman)

Equirria was a horse racing festival dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war and agriculture and follows the first Equirria held on February 27. Legend has it that Romulus established the festival in the earliest days of Rome. The horse races were held in the Campus Martius, a large open area outside the early city walls associated with military training and the worship of Mars. The festival helped signified the reopening of the martial season after winter and the renewed activity of both warfare and agriculture. In the modern times, attending a horse racing event would be appropriate.

March 15: Anna Perenna (Roman)

The festival of Anna Perenna honored the goddess of the returning year. The boisterous “people’s festival” was celebrated on the Ides of March, when Romans would gather on the banks of the Tiber River to drink, eat, sing, and frolic. One custom would be people would drink as many cups of wine as the number of years they hoped to live.

March 17: Liberalia (Roman)

Liberalia was a festival focused on winemaking and coming of age rites for males. It honored the Italian god Liber Pater (the “Free Father”) and, in lesser ways, his companion Libera, and Ceres. Together, the three were known as as the “Aventine Triad” and were sometimes considered the Roman counterparts to the Greek gods Dionysus, Persephone, and Demeter.

In Rome, elderly priestesses of Liber wore ivy wreaths and sold small honey cakes called liba, which they would sacrifice to the god for the passersby. But, most importantly, the Liberalia was the traditional day for Roman boys came of age and transitioned to adulthood. The boys would exchange their childhood garments for the toga virilis, signifying their formal entry into adult civic life. Unlike a bar / bat mitzvah or a quinceañera, there was no fixed age for this. The father or male guardian decided when a boy assumed the toga virilis, but it was usually when the boy was between the ages of 14 and 17.

March 19-24: Quinquatria (Roman)

Quinquatria was a major festival honoring Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, strategy, craft, and the arts. The festival was especially important for teachers, students, artisans, and anyone who practiced a trade under Minerva’s protection. Though it was originally a one-day festival to cleanse the sacred shields and focused on the skilled arts, over time the celebration expanded into a five-day festival that included public competitions and performances honoring Minerva’s domains.

March 20: Spring Equinox / Ostara / Alban Eilir (Modern Pagan / Wiccan / Druidry)

The Spring Equinox is the first time of the year when day and night are roughly equal in length. It is the first Day of Spring and in modern pagan traditions this festival is sometimes called Ostara. The themes of the Spring Equinox are balance, fertility, and the earth coming back to life. Which is why it is connected with the symbols of eggs, seeds, flowers, and rabbits.

In Wicca, Ostara is also the point on the Wheel of the Year that the light strengthens. The Goddess is associated with youthful or maiden energy at this time, and the God continues to grow in power as the year moves toward Beltane and Litha.

In modern Druidry, the equinox is commonly called Alban Eilir. It is also a festival of balance and awakening that may include blessing seeds before planting, making offerings to the land, honoring trees or groves, and using divination to look ahead to the coming season.

If you’d like to explore the Spring Equinox more deeply, these guides and ritual ideas may be helpful:

• Ostara Guide
• Ostara Rituals and Activities
• How to Set Up Your Ostara Altar
• Ostara Recipes for Your Spring Equinox Gathering
• How to Work with Persephone (she is said to return from the Underworld at this time)

March 20: Spring Equinox Blót / Summer-Finding (Modern Heathen)

Some modern Heathens mark the spring equinox with seasonal blóts welcoming the return of warmth and the beginning of the growing seaon. As the Troth mentions, these rites are sometimes described as Summer-Finding, when people recognized the arrival of spring through natural signs such as the first flowers or returning birds.

Sometimes, offerings are made to deities connected with fertility and prosperity such as Freyr. In some forms of Continental Germanic Heathen practice, the equinox may also be associated with the goddess Sandraudiga (She Who Makes the Sands Red or the Lady of the Red Sand).

March 25: Hilaria (Roman)

Hilaria was a joyful festival for Cybele and her companion Attis. It came at the end of several intense days of mourning following the death of Attis at a pine tree. The Hilaria is the celebration of Attis coming back to life or waking up again. Ancient writers describe it as a day of public joy, laughter, and celebration, when people dressed in costumes.

March 27: Asklepia (Hellenic)

The Asklepia was a festival honoring Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine. Central to the festival were prayers for health and the ritual of incubation, where those who were ill slept within the temple’s sacred precinct in hopes of receiving a healing dream or a divine prescription from the god.

March 27: Feast of Renenutet (Kemetic)

This festival held during Ancient Egypt’s growing season honors Renenutet, the Ancient Egyptian cobra goddess associated with nourishment, grain, and the protection of the harvest. Often called the Lady of the Granary, she was believed to guard stored food and ensure the prosperity of the agricultural cycle.

March 29 – April 5: Great Dionysia (Hellenic)

The Great Dionysia was one of the most important festivals in ancient Athens. It honored Dionysus in his aspect as Dionysus Eleuthereus and featured dramatic competitions, processions, and public celebrations of civic identity. Playwrights presented tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays before large audiences, and many works by figures such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes were first performed during it.

Monthly Observances

Several observances recur monthly because of the civic or lunar calendar. These are listed below and are explained more fully in our pagan holidays guide. Also, if you are following Hellenic calendars, it’s important to know their observances began the night before the listed date.

• Nones (March 7) and Ides (March 15): Roman civic dates sacred to Jupiter that were used to structure public, legal, and religious life throughout the month. The “Ides of March” is well known because it was the day Caesar was murdered by the Senators in the Theatre of Pompey in 44 BCE.
• Pesdjentiu (March 18): Kemetic New Moon observance
• Deipnon of Hekate (March 19): An Ancient Greek and Hellenic monthly purification rite held on the dark moon to honor Hekate (also spelled Hecate), the goddess of magic and the crossroads.
• Noumenia (March 20): For the Ancient Greeks and Hellenists, Noumenia is the first day of the month and a time for honoring household gods such as Hestia. This month it is first day of the month Elaphēboliṓn.
• Agathos Daimon (March 21): A monthly Hellenic observance honoring the protective household spirit associated with prosperity and health.
• Athena’s Sacred Day (Marhc 22): A monthly Hellenic observance honoring Athena, the goddess of wisdom, strategy, crafts, and civic order.
• Aphrodite, Herakles, Hermes, and Eros’s Sacred Day (March 23): A monthly Hellenic observance honoring deities connected to love, strength, communication, and desire.
• Artemis’s Sacred Day (March 25): A monthly Hellenic observance honoring Artemis, the goddess of nature, childbirth, and independence.
• Apollo’s Sacred Day (March 26): A monthly Hellenic observance honoring Apollo, god of healing, music, and prophecy.
• Poseidon and Theseus’s Sacred Day (March 27): A day when Hellenists and Ancient Greeks honored Poseidon, god of the sea, and Theseus, a hero associated with civic identity and protection.
• Helios, the Muses, and Rhea’s Sacred Day (March 28): A monthly Hellenic observance honoring the gods and the muses.

Sources and Further Reading

Ovid’s Fasti
Calendar of the Roman Republic by Agnes Kirsopp Michels
The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic by William Warde Fowler
Hellenion
Numachi
The Troth
Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson
Ronpet: Ancient Egyptian Festival Calendar