The Mabon or Autumn Equinox is a holiday that takes place from the 21st of September to the 24th of the same month.
⛤The autumn equinox divides day and night equally - here we should all take a moment to pay homage to the impending darkness.
We also thank the sunset light, as we store this year's crop of crops.
The Druids call this celebration, Mea'n Fo'mhair, and honor the Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to the trees.
On this holiday it is appropriate to dress in elegant clothes and dine and celebrate in luxurious surroundings.
It is time to finish the old jobs and prepare for a period of rest, relaxation and reflection.
⛤ Pagans celebrate the aging Goddess as she passes from Mother to Crone, and her consort, the Lord, as she prepares for death and rebirth.
⛤The feast of the autumn equinox is also known by other names: Feast of the second harvest, Feast of Wine, Feast of Avalon, Autumn Equinox, or Cornucopia.
The Teutonic name, Winter Finding, spans a period of time between Mabon and October 15, which is the New Year in Old Norse.
The Romans celebrated a festival dedicated to Pomona, the goddess of fruit and growing things.
However, the most famous ancient myth comes from Greece. The autumn equinox marks Persephone's return to the underworld:
⛤In ancient Greek mythology, the beginning of the fall is closely linked to the story of the abduction of Persephone, also called Kore or Cora. Daughter of Demeter, goddess of earth and fertility, she was kidnapped and taken to the underworld to become the wife of Hades, the god-king of the underworld. After a period of mourning and struggle, Demeter eventually brought her daughter back from Hades to the light, but only for six months of the year. Each fall, Persephone must return to the underworld to spend six months with Hades. During these months, Nature withdraws.
⛤Mabon is a relatively modern neo-pagan celebration, which takes place around the September equinox.
⛤In the 1970s, the American author Aidan Kelley gave new names to the six pagan holidays rooted in the ancient Celtic tradition and added two new celebrations proper to the September and March equinox.
These holidays are celebrations based on the cycles of the sun.
⛤Inspired by a proper name derived from the Welsh word mab / map, meaning "son" or "boy", Kelly chose Mabon as the name for the autumn equinox celebration, and founded the ceremony he had composed for the festival in the Greek myth of Persephone.
⛤Mabon celebrates the second harvest and the start of winter preparations, and it's time to respect the impending darkness while giving thanks in the sunlight.
⛤Druids and pagans also flock to Stonehenge, the famous 5,000-year-old site in Wiltshire, and Castlerigg, another megalithic stone circle near Keswick, Cumbria, to watch the equinox dawn.
⛤The Christian church replaced many pagan celebrations with Christian observances. The most famous is Christmas, which replaced the ancient Yule festival around the December solstice.
⛤The closest Christian celebration to the September equinox is Michaelmas, also known as the feast of St. Michael and all angels, on September 29th. In this period, the feast of St. Michael is mainly observed in the Catholic church.
⛤Centuries ago in England, the time around the feast of St. Michael also had a commercial side: servants were paid wages after the harvest and workers looked for new jobs at job fairs that also became a place for celebrations.
⛤Mabon is a time full of magic, all connected to the changing seasons of the earth, this is the Second Harvest, the Fruit Harvest and the Great Thanksgiving.
⛤The Goddess is radiant and the God eventually dies with her gift of pure love with the cutting of the last grain. As the grain is harvested in abundance during Lammas and reaches completion, we enjoy the abundance of fruits and vegetables at this time.
⛤It is time to thank the waning sun for the richness of the harvest that has been bestowed on us.
⛤Sometimes it seems like every Holiday calls for thanks, and it really is: every spin of the Wheel brings both inner and outer gifts and insights, so Mabon is a celebration and also a period of rest after harvest work.
⛤In terms of your life path, it is time to reap what you have sown, time to look at the hopes and aspirations of Imbolc and Ostara and reflect on how they have manifested.
⛤It is time to complete projects, to clear out and leave what is no longer wanted or needed as we prepare for the descent, so that winter can offer a time for reflection and peace.
⛤And it's time to plant seeds of new ideas and hopes that lie dormant but nurtured in the dark, until spring returns.
I'll be posting more Mabon related content during the week so stay tuned for spells, rituals, prayers, history and affirmations!
Hopefully, you'll have a great Celebration this year too!
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