Special Events

Beltane Community Gathering
Sunday, May 5th, Petaluma

We are approaching the initiation point of summer! Join us for an all-ages Beltane Celebration on Sunday, May 5th at 2:00pm. Beltane is a traditional celebration of the fertility of the earth. Join us at a local park in Petaluma to make flower crowns, share in song and ritual, and picnic together. This event will be around an hour and is open to all. Invite your friends!

Please register below. Suggested donation is $10/adult; kids are free. Full location details will be emailed after registration is complete. Payment for all special events free for Patrons of Wild Church.

Past Events

Winter Solstice Lantern Walk
Friday, December 22nd, Petaluma

An all-ages gathering and to mark Yule, the Winter Solstice, the shortest day, and the longest night of the year. With our lanterns we celebrate the shining of light in the midst of the darkness, the spark of light that leads to the birth of the new year. At this family-oriented event, we share songs, hot cider, and a lantern walk procession.

Family Samhain Gathering
Sunday, October 30th, Petaluma
6:00pm - 7:00pm

Join us for an all-ages gathering and ritual to mark Samhain (pronounced Sow-in), a time on the Celtic Wheel of the Year when the veil between the worlds is most thin. Samhain is the Celtic “death of the year” and is the gateway to the darkest months of winter. It marks the end of the third and final harvest, and is a day to commune with and honor and remember the dead. It is a celebration of the eternal cycle of rebirth.

The origins of “All Hallows Eve” or Halloween are found in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead are blurred. On the evening of October 31st, the people wore costumes to hide themselves from the roaming spirits, carved faces into turnips and root vegetables, and gave out treats to appease the ancestors. We will gather at this time to honor the spirits who have have passed through before us and to ground ourselves in this season of transition into winter.

Costumes are welcome. Attendees will be invited to contribute to our Ancestors altar but nothing is required.
All are welcome. Payment for special events free for Patrons of Wild Church.

Autumnal Equinox Sunrise Hike
Thursday, September 22nd
Helen Putnam Regional Park, Petaluma
6:30am - 7:30am

Join Wild Church Petaluma for a hike to greet the sun on the Fall Equinox, Thursday, September 22nd. We will walk together to the eastern point of the park and do a simple ritual together to mark this time where we shift into the dark half of the year. The hike will be 1.8 miles total.

Circumambulation of Helen Putnam Regional Park
Sunday, August 14th, 2022, 10:00am - 11:30am

Circumambulation, an intentional, ceremonial circling of a sacred object, is an ancient ritual with roots in many world cultures. In 1965, Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, and Philip Whalen, poets and students of Buddhism set out on a ritualized walking meditation, or circumambulation, of Mt. Tamalpais. Hiking clockwise as tradition dictated, they selected notable natural features along the way and assigned rituals to perform at each: Buddhist and Hindu chants, spells, sutras, and vows. You can read more here.

For our Wild Church Petaluma community, what does this practice mean? Should we hike 14 miles around a mountain in Marin? Or, can we honor what is sacred to us, closer to home? We will be doing a community circumambulation of Helen Putnam Regional Park. The hike will be 2.8 miles, with 500 ft elevation gain. We will stop at each of the four directions to honor the land and acknowledge the sacred in that place.