Translations:Observances, Festivals, and Holy Months/3/en

Now what about the solstices? Inscription KnGQ 4 says "he returned to permanent water at the time of pilgrimage" and pastoralists would return to permanent water and dry fodder during the summer/dry season while inscription C 4443 mentions washing during Sagittarius which ends on the Winter Solstice. So I have reason to believe the quarter points of the Wheel of the Year, the solstices and equinoxes, were observed. The solstices were the transition between the wet and dry seasons, going to temporary water and fresh herbage and then returning to permanent water and dry fodder. The equinoxes were the midpoints between them. Nonnosus tells us about a second pilgrimage period which "lasts two months; this they celebrate after the Summer Solstice." This would be a time of complete peace, and one could infer that the same was done after the Winter Solstice as well. The South Arabians also practiced pilgrimages. The Sabaeans and their allies went to the temple of Almaqah annually at the time of the summer rains. The god Ta’lab was also an object of pilgrimage at Jabal Riyam in north Sana'a. As long as these ceremonies lasted pilgrims were obliged to abstain from war and sex and they would wear ritual clothes or adornments.