If you love all things autumn – “leaf peeping” the fall foliage, selecting apples, decking out your entrance stoop with gourds and corn stalks – then you may want so as to add another holiday to the calendar. When he couldn’t find an acceptable Gaelic or Germanic name for the fall equinox, Kelly selected Mabon, because the Welsh god’s story has some elements in common with Greek goddess Demeter, whose ancient cult has associations to the fall equinox. Mabon celebrates the bounty of late September, and Samhain marks the final harvest of late October. Mabon, also referred to as “pagan Thanksgiving,” is a harvest celebration that falls across the autumnal equinox in late September. Get misplaced in a corn maze. There is a medieval Welsh text called the Mabinogion that features among the earliest tales of Arthur and his Knights of the Spherical Table. Or on a clear night time, soak within the glow of the Harvest Moon, the last full moon earlier than the fall equinox. Fashion a fall wreath out of autumn leaves and dried flowers. One of Fox’s favorite Mabon traditions is to fill a cornucopia with the bounty of the season. The hero of one of many tales is a handsome younger god named Mabon ap Modron (“Son of the Mother”) who was held hostage in the underworld as a child. The Neolithic architects of Stonehenge initially aligned a few of the great stones to frame the sunrise and sunset during midsummer and midwinter, however consultants say that there’s no evidence that Stonehenge marks the fall and spring equinoxes. The festival name “Mabon” comes the the son, a Welsh god, of the Earth Mom Goddess. The primary harvest, Lughnasadh, takes place in early August. Whether or not you name it Mabon, fall equinox or Pagan Thanksgiving, Fox says the title of the holiday is not as important because the traditions and which means behind it. What is the Autumnal Equinox? On the Pagan calendar, Mabon is the second harvest festival (there are three in all). Read on to study more concerning the history of Mabon and how one can celebrate it. In contemporary Paganism, people who could determine as Neopagans, Wiccans, druids, hedonists, witches, animists, nature worshippers or plain old Pagans have revived and reinterpreted historical harvest traditions. Or better yet, says Fox, go out into nature itself. Place a basket of recent crimson and yellow apples. As Kelly wrote on Patheos, he went in search of Gaelic or Germanic names for a Pagan calendar based mostly on the solstices, equinoxes and other dates that will develop into the eight sabbats. Modern astronomers will not be the one ones who’ve rigorously calculated and tracked the fall and spring equinoxes, as nicely because the summer time and winter solstice when the daylight hours are longest and shortest. What’s the Autumnal Equinox? Examples include the Pyramid of Kukulkan on the ancient Mayan site of Chichen Itza in Mexico. Fox first organized the Welcome Fall Festival at Circle Sanctuary in 1974, not long after Paganism was reborn as a contemporary religious movement. As farmers and gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere know, late September is the height of the harvest season when every little thing in the field is ripe and prepared to pick: corn, squash, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, apples, pears and grapes. The very best-known sabbats are Yule, which commemorates the winter solstice and Samhain, the late harvest festival related to Halloween. The cornucopia could possibly be the centerpiece for a potluck Mabon picnic, where your visitors carry a homemade dish featuring the fruits of the fall. If you want to make it extra of a Pagan Thanksgiving, ask everybody to mirror on the previous yr and share something they’re thankful for. Since the dawn of agriculture, many cultures world wide have initiated and celebrated the harvest season with historic rituals of feasting and thanksgiving for the abundance of the earth. When contemporary Paganism was emerging within the 1960s and 1970s, an academic and poet named Aiden Kelly was trying to create a vocabulary for this new/previous religion. Take an early night walk within the brisk fall air. Yearly on the fall and spring equinoxes, the interplay of gentle and shadow makes it seem like a large serpent is descending the temple’s stone steps. Although lesser-recognized, the fall equinox festival Mabon is “a really powerful time,” says Selena Fox, senior minister and excessive priestess of Circle Sanctuary, a nature spirituality heart in Wisconsin. He referred to the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac which is read at Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish holiday that additionally occurs in late September. If you live within the Southern Hemisphere, that same September date is your spring equinox, also recognized as the vernal equinox. Probably the best approach to have fun is by bringing the colors of fall into the home with a Mabon altar. Mabon is one in all eight “sabbats,” contemporary Pagan festivals that mark the changing of the seasons on the Pagan calendar identified as the Wheel of the 12 months. You too can set aside time to meditate on the concept of “stability,” Fox says, for the reason that fall equinox is when the light and dark are in stability. If you reside in the Northern Hemisphere, the autumnal equinox is the date in late September when the number of daylight hours and darkness are nearly precisely equal (12 hours every).