Translations:Observances, Festivals, and Holy Months/1/en

Modern pagans use the Wheel of the Year with four solar holidays including the equinoxes and solstices and ancient Arabs may have done the same according to Nonnosus "Most of the Saracens … consider as sacred a spot dedicated to one of the gods, gathering there twice each year. The first of these assemblies extends over a whole month and takes place about the middle of the spring, when the sun passes through the sign of Aries. The most common observance was the pilgrimage. One inscription says: "By ʾgrd son of Fdy and he returned to permanent water at the time of pilgrimage." Since the return to permanent water usually occurred in the period of ṣyf (late spring) or the beginning of qyẓ (intense heat) it is possible that the change of seasons was celebrated with a pilgrimage to a shrine. In another inscription: "By Dʾy son of Nśl and he washed when the sun was in Virgo in order to perform a pilgrimage." The sun leaves Virgo on the Fall Equinox so the author was washing in order to enter a state of ritual purity before the equinox pilgrimage. We can't really be sure whether the author was referring to the dawn or evening rising of the stars but its dawn rising would have occurred in late August before the arrival of the seasonal rains. In this case the pilgrimage was connected to rain making rituals but if the two inscriptions are about the same period then it would be the evening setting of the stars. Although we also see a mention of washing during Sagittarius.