Happy birthday Speakout
There is a lot of unpick from my post and your question so forgive me in that this is likely to be long.
In terms of the timings etc I was thinking the more regional differences even within the UK where the planting is done much closer to Christmas than Easter, but also the differences that occur between nations. Canada it just wouldn't feel the same in the timing (you can't plant a field when it is under 6ft of snow) and yet they still use the same wheel, ditto re Australia where the issue is do you celebrate according to date because that is what a good chunk of the work is doing or do you celebrate with your stage of season.
I have a complicated history with holidays and high days. And not a fan of them. Despite having grown up in the Christian traditions where all 4 advent sundays were marked, and palm sunday, and easter. These days for compliance and compromise with other people only Christmas and Easter are marked. I need at some point to find my own way with holidays and high days. I have not celebrated that Sabbats because of that complicated history, and because doing so would lead to an additional level of complication here. So i guess that is why I give the matter great thought.
The fact that the wheel turns is not something that I will deny, i just don't relate to the way that the wicca wheel that is most commonly used celebrations wise falls. It just seems a little out of sync, a little not quite to my inner connection. I do have a strong Norse connection so that might be a little that plays into it and is something I am in the process of researching. But it does require some deep deep research to get to the old traditions and it has very much been westernised in it holiday traditions. Easter in Norway was a different beast to the UK but that might be the difference btwn methodist/baptist vs lutherin.
There are a lot of folk traditions around the UK that you would not know if you were not local, or it didn't happen to be on the News. I caught the cheese rolling the year when they had an unfortunate severe injury that made the news. Molly dancing because they were at an event with many other types of dancers (like morris). Well dressings because they were something we were taken to. England has a very very rich cultural background if you know to look for it. And a lot of it is very fascinating.
The theme of water comes up in so many traditions in so many ways that it is something that is also on my at some point to look into list. The blessing of the well for good health etc it is a fascinating concept, especially if you know the History of the plague village Eyam where food was left by wells/springs where the villages left payment in the water so it was cleansed from contamination by the time it was collected.
I do note the equinoxes and the solstices but don't really celebrate them, if that makes sense. Knowing they exist and appreciating the fact that they do is very different to celebrating. In my mind, the celebrating would require a deliberate step of acknowledging their existance more that being grateful that the days were now getting lighter, or that now the harvest is coming and i should be ready to undertake preservation work.
So i do a lot of thinking. My wheel of the year will probably not end up looking like the traditional wicca one with the 8 shabbats. But that is ok. However, i do need to work out what it will take the form of. And it is on that matter that I am doing a lot of thinking. Seasons change, but how we mark them can be so different based on locality, traditions, religions, and connectivity. I know what each season means to me. I know that in the autumn I will probably gain a collection of conkers (and if i can find them acorns), in the winter I will walk and take solice in the winter weather, in the spring I will enjoy the new life, and in the summer I will work to provide abundance later in season. But I think there is also more to that, just what that is something I am figuring out.
Sorry that is a bit rambling. Hopefully there is some sense in there.