Wicca observes two distinct kinds of ritual gathering. The eight sabbats, already catalogued in this atlas, are solar, fixed to the turning points of the agricultural year, and number eight. Esbats are lunar, keyed to the moon rather than the sun, and in traditions that keep one every month, occur roughly thirteen times a year, far more often than the sabbats. Scott Cunningham's guide for solitary practitioners describes a typical Esbat structure: casting the circle, invoking the Goddess, often through a rite called Drawing Down the Moon, undertaking whatever specific working or spellcraft the gathering was called for, sharing cakes and ale, and closing the circle.
Coven Esbats also often serve a practical function sabbats do not carry to the same degree, handling group business and teaching alongside the ritual working itself. Specific ritual wording used at any given coven's Esbat remains that coven's own practice and is not reproduced here; this entry records the holiday's documented existence, timing and general published shape.
Some traditions further distinguish an Esbat held specifically for teaching or initiation work from one held purely for celebration or magical working, though this distinction is not universal and many solitary practitioners keep no such formal separation, treating each full moon simply as an occasion for whatever working feels called for at the time.