The word Sabbath has caused much speculation by non-Pagans. Thinking that witches work on the same day each week is supposedly based on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, a day kept Holy by the Jews. It takes its name from Shabbathai, Saturn the Planet, which rules the 7th day of the week.

Christians use Sunday, ruled by the Sun & the 1st day for their day of rest & incorrectly use the word Sabbath for Sunday. However the word Sabbat has associations which are far older than Christianity, & there is no reason what so ever to connect the 8 Festivals of the witches with the Jewish Shabbathai or sabbath.

Sabadius or Sabazius was a title of the Orgiastic God Dionysus, the God of Ecstasy, who was worshipped with wild dances & revelry. The celebrants of His mysteries raised the cry of Sabai! Evoi! Sabai ! This seems the most likely derivation of the word Sabbat. We find centuries later, accounts of witches dancing, in which this word is used as a cry, " Har, har, hou, hou, dansi ici, danse la, joue ici, jou la Sabbat, Sabbat! This old chant is given by the French Demonologist Bodin & Margret Murray in her book " The God of the Witches." Hou is the name of the God, who appears in British Myth as Hu Gardarn, Hu the Mighty Horned One. Other old names for the Sabbat are the Basque Akhelarre, the French Lanne de Bouc, & the Spanish Prado del Ca bron, all of which mean the same thing "The Field of the Goat", another Spanish name is La Treguenda associated with the Greek God Pan & the Roman God Janus.

A more modern Sabbat chant is,

"Haste! Haste! No time to wait or waste!
We're off to the Sabbat, so don't be late!
To the Sabbat! the Sabbat, the Sabbat!
Merry Meet! Merry Meet! Merry Meet!
Horned One & Merry Moon, the Sabbat, the Sabbat!"

BLESSED BE