Today is the first day of fall. I started the day for some inexplicable reason with cleaning out and rearranging the kitchen cabinets. I then spent time in the garden. It was a truly glorious and a wonderful day to be in the garden. The weather was fantastic.
This is not only the first day of fall, it is the autumnal equinox. This is also the pagan holiday of Mabon. Relax. Mabon is a harvest festival. Mostly. (Any Outlander fans out there? It was Outlander that made me go looking for what the autumnal equinox is called.)
Actually, Huffington Post had an article today about Mabon and they said:
The autumnal equinox falls on September 23 in 2014, marking the official first day of fall as well as the pagan holiday, Mabon, in the northern hemisphere.
Mabon is a harvest festival, the second of three, that encourages pagans to “reap what they sow,” both literally and figuratively. It is the time when night and day stand equal in duration; thus is it a time to express gratitude, complete projects and honor a moment of balance….The holiday is named after the Welsh God, Mabon, son of Earth Mother goddess Modron.
Next comes the Gaelic festival of Samhain, which to us encompasses October 31st to I think November 2nd – it covers Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls. And yes, I am still quite Catholic. It’s just that some of the traditions and old ways that came together to form our modern holidays and harvest festivals and so on are fascinating to learn about.
These historical pagan traditions celebrate different equinoxes and solstices which tie to various seasonal and agricultural things of significance. There are eight of these traditions: Yule (December/Christmas), Imbolc (almost spring/February), Vernal Equinox (Ostara/March), Beltane (May/May Day/old beginning of Summer), Midsummer (Summer Solstice/Litha/end of June), Lammas (August/Lughnasadh/first harvest festival), Mabon (autumnal equinox/end of September/first day of fall/second harvest festival), Samhain (Halloween/All Saints/All Souls/last harvest festival).
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the first day of fall!
Thanks for stopping by!
