Pagan circle at Autumn Equinox.
Photo by Chris John Beckett (CC)

The holiday is also known as “Harvest Home” or “Mabon” by Wiccans and Witches, “Mid-Harvest” and “Alban Elfed” by some Druidic and Celtic-oriented groups, and “Winter Finding” by modern-day Asatru. Most modern Pagans simply call it the Autumn Equinox. Here are some media quotes and excerpts from modern Pagans on the holiday.

“It’s the twilight of the changing seasons, that gray area in between summer and fall where anything goes as far as weather is concerned. It’s a sort of purgatory. Nothing is for certain. The verdict is out; nature is in the midst of deliberating.” - Tom Ragan, The Christian Science Monitor

“Mabon has become a time of celebration of reflection, grace, and balance. We may hold a seasonal rite at our “beautiful corners,” giving thanks for home and finance, school and knowledge, careers and accomplishment, and balance and relationships.” – Terry Smith, Alexandria Town Talk

“…celebrating Harvest Festival in church is a relatively recent practice. It was originally a pagan festival celebrated by those who had enough food and spare time to have a knees-up when the full moon – the Harvest Moon – was nearest the autumnal equinox. It was only in 1843 that the Rev Robert Hawker, from Cornwall, started the trend of holding a service, offering communion bread made from the first cut of corn.” – Charlie Brooks, The Telegraph

“It is sometimes called Mabon (in most Wiccan traditions) but I always think of the Autumnal Equinox as Harvest Home. It’s the middle harvest–the harvest of apples, eggplant, the young and tender fall kale. It’s the time to get some canning done–like you haven’t been doing that all summer long.” – Byron Ballard, The Village Witch, Asheville Citizen-Times

“In the rhythm of the year, Harvest Home marks a time of rest after hard work. The crops are gathered in, and winter is still a month and a half away! Although the nights are getting cooler, the days are still warm, and there is something magical in the sunlight, for it seems silvery and indirect. As we pursue our gentle hobbies of making corn dollies (those tiny vegetation spirits) and wheat weaving, our attention is suddenly arrested by the sound of baying from the skies (the “Hounds of Annwn” passing?), as lines of geese cut silhouettes across a harvest moon. And we move closer to the hearth, the longer evening hours giving us time to catch up on our reading, munching on popcorn balls and caramel apples and sipping home-brewed mead or ale. What a wonderful time Harvest Home is!” – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

May you all enjoy the fruits of your harvest this season.

Pagan circle at Autumn Equinox.
Photo by Chris John Beckett (CC)

“We’ve had a fun summer, but it’s almost time to bid farewell to the warm weather and welcome the fall. The autumnal equinox will occur on Monday, September 22, 2008 at 11:44:18 a.m. EDT, causing weather geeks, neo-pagans, and people who simply enjoy the change of seasons to break out the sweaters or druid’s cloaks and have a little party. Variously known as Mabon, Alban Elfed, Night of the Hunter, Wine Harvest, and Witch’s Thanksgiving, the fall equinox holiday doesn’t quite enjoy the the popularity of the summer solstice, but it’s a good enough excuse to get outside and groove on nature, if that’s your thing.” – Victor Ozols, Jaunted

“We pagans consider this holiday as a reminder of the harvest of our efforts this year, and the bounty it is, weighted against our life’s experience. These past experiences take seed, regenerate into wisdom, which is reborn within. It is also a time to ponder the necessity for fallow periods, for it is the fallow periods which allow us to assimilate, regenerate, and incorporate that which we have progressed through the year. Just as fields need to lay fallow to better support new growth, so do we!” – Terry Smith, Alexandria Town Talk

“Mabon is the second of three harvest festivals on the Pagan calendar, with the third and largest being Samhain, at the Celtic new year. It celebrates the bounty of the harvest, but it also calls for celebrants to be thankful for other blessings in their lives, including family and friends. Among the traditional symbols of Mabon are wine, gourds, pine cones, acorns, grains, corn, apples, pomegranates, vines such as ivy, dried seeds and horns of plenty. Traditional foods include breads, nuts, apples, pomegranates and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots and onions.” – Leslie Boyd, Asheville Citizen-Times

“At Mabon, we acknowledge the riches of the harvest while the fields are still bringing forth produce. This lets us interact, if we choose, with the living Earth even as She is busy making our apples and cabbages and corn and beans and potatoes get fat and ready for the picking. Whether we go to the local farmer’s market, go picking in a local orchard, or grow our own in a garden plot, the sensual connection with nature is strong at this time because the season of harvest is rich with color, fragrance and texture.” – Peg Aloi, The Witches’ Voice

“Harvest Home is the pleasantest of holidays. Admittedly, it does involve the concept of sacrifice, but one that is symbolic only. The sacrifice is that of the spirit of vegetation, John Barleycorn. Occurring one quarter of the year after Midsummer, Harvest Home represents midautumn, autumn’s height. It is also the autumnal equinox, one of the quarter days of the year, a Lesser Sabbat and a Low Holiday in modern Witchcraft.” – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

May you all enjoy the fruits of your harvest this season.
]]> http://wildhunt.org/blog/2008/09/happy-autumnal-equinox.html/feed 2 http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/09/happy-autumnal-equinox.html http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/09/happy-autumnal-equinox.html#comments Sun, 23 Sep 2007 10:00:00 +0000 Jason http://wildhunt.org/blog/2007/09/happy-autumnal-equinox-2.html Today is the Autumnal Equinox (09:51 UT) and signals the beginning of Fall in the northern hemisphere. On this day there will be an equal amount of light and darkness, and after this day the nights grow longer and we head towards Winter. In many modern Pagan traditions this is the second of three harvest festivals (the first being Lughnasadh, the third being Samhain).

“Mabon” photo by Nyx(CC)

“An equinox in astronomy is the event when the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth’s equator, occurring around March 20 and September 22 each year. As a general rule, it is thought to be on the 21st of every quarter that the equinox changes. On these dates, night and day are nearly of the same length and the Sun crosses the celestial equator. In a wider sense, the equinoxes are the two days each year when the centre of the Sun spends an equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on Earth.” – Pretoria News

“Cultures throughout time have used the cycles of the sun to mark important events. The equinox itself holds less meaning in our modern society, and truly the change that comes to the season happens by degrees over time. But the notion of a balance between light and dark falling on a moment in time is a powerful, and useful, idea to dwell on long after the equinox has given way to the slow march of winter.” – The Daily Green

“Although the specific date of the Autumn Equinox was not marked by any ritual in Celtic tradition, there is evidence that, at some point roughly halfway between Lughnasadh and Samhain, communities would involve themselves with a ceremony that reflected the processes then at work in the Year. This was usually a conclusion to ritual themes invoked at Lughnasadh, and focused on the end of the main harvest activities (i.e., the grain harvest), although it did not imply the end of the entire Harvest season, which continued until Samhain” – Alexei Kondratiev, The Apple Branch

“In the rhythm of the year, Harvest Home marks a time of rest after hard work. The crops are gathered in, and winter is still a month and a half away! Although the nights are getting cooler, the days are still warm, and there is something magical in the sunlight, for it seems silvery and indirect. As we pursue our gentle hobbies of making corn dollies (those tiny vegetation spirits) and wheat weaving, our attention is suddenly arrested by the sound of baying from the skies (the ‘Hounds of Annwn’ passing?), as lines of geese cut silhouettes across a harvest moon. And we move closer to the hearth, the longer evening hours giving us time to catch up on our reading, munching on popcorn balls and caramel apples and sipping home-brewed mead or ale. What a wonderful time Harvest Home is! And how lucky we are to live in a part of the country where the season’s changes are so dramatic and majestic!” – Mike Nichols, “Harvest Home”

“Autumn Equinox (also known as Mabon or Harvest Home) is celebrated when day and night are of equal duration before the descent into increasing darkness and is the final festival of the season of harvest. In nature, the activity of the summer months slows down to the hibernation for the winter. For many Pagans, now is time to reflect on the past season. It is also a time to recoginse that the balance of the year has changed, the wheel has turned and summer is now over.” – BBC, Religion and Ethics

“However you celebrate this festival, I urge you all to get outside and enjoy the sensual delights of late summer as it gives way to early autumn. Visit a local farm. It is important to support small farms as often as possible; farming is a dying way of life in this country and your health (not to mention your local economy) will benefit when you buy local and eat fresh. Farmer’s markets are abundant this time of year; find one near you. Go apple picking. Support your local orchards! There is no substitute for fruit freshly picked from the tree; bring your children or make a day of it with friends. Have a harvest dinner made with fresh local vegetables or locally-raised poultry or meat. Make a pie or tart from apples or peaches. Buy wine or beer from a local winery or brewery. Remember your ancestors, who lived close by one another, who worked the fields together, who shared food and drink and fellowship together. Celebrate your own harvests: acknowledge your work, goals or other accomplishments.” – Peg Aloi, The Witches’ Voice

May you all enjoy the fruits of your harvest this season.
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