An equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator. The latitudes +L and -L north and south of the equator experience nights of equal length and the celestial equator has intersected the ecliptic in the axial precession.
This year’s autumnal equinox, when the light and dark are equal – but moving towards dark – arrives at 8:54pm Central Time on Saturday, September 22.
But seasonal celebrations should not be bound by dates and times and such. In fact, it is a good idea to pre-celebrate Equinox so that you do not miss that last fleeting moment when light and dark have equal time. So …
Let the Fall Celebrations Begin !!
While we can still enjoy the outdoors, we should stop and take time to play. Simply put, sharing nature with our animal friends is important for them and for us …
‘…I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight hours in the open air.’
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
(Hover* over images for more seasonal quotes)
Ahhh! Don’t you feel more balanced already?
The autumnal equinox or Mabon is one of the eight pagan festivals or “sabbats” from the Wheel of the Year . It is a “quarter day” along with the Solstices and the Vernal Equinox. Also known as the Feast of the Ingathering, it is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them in order to secure the blessings of the goddess during the winter months.
To my pagan friends and non-pagan friends alike, “Have a blessed and fruitful Mabon!”. Each season has its purpose: use the darkness to quietly reflect and remember that the light will return.
In ancient times, we were forced into the darkness because our light was mainly from the sun. Now we have artificial light but we still have a need for the dark and the quiet … and it is much harder to find. Seek it out and use it to heal and refresh your spirit.
‘Autumn is the perfect time to take account of what we’ve done, what we didn’t do, and what we’d like to do next year.’ ~ Author Unknown
‘Autumn is the hush before winter.’ ~ French Proverb
(Fine Print: Remember, the entire year is actually one big pagan holiday broken into “days”. Enjoy each and every one because life is fleeting.)
(Fall (autumn!) and leaf, quiet hover quotes courtesy of GoodReads.com and Quotegarden.com)
*Hover quotes for tablet and phone users
Solar system “+L -L … oh, what the L! It looks like this!”
Row 1 left “‘The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.’ ~ E.E. Cummings”
Row 1 right “‘I love that quiet time when nobody’s up and the animals are all happy to see me.’ ~ Olivia Newton-John ”
Row 2 left “‘Usually, when the distractions of daily life deplete our energy, the first thing we eliminate is the thing we eliminate is the thing we need the most: quiet, reflective time. Time to dream, time to contemplate what’s working and what’s not, so that we can make changes for the better.’ ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach”
Row 2 right “‘But you can’t plead with autumn. No. The midnight wind stalked through the woods, hooted to frighten you, swept everything away for the approaching winter, whirled the leaves.’ ~ Evgeniĭ Ivanovich Zami͡a︡tin/Yevgeny Zamyatin”
Row 3 left “‘Two sounds of autumn are unmistakable…the hurrying rustle of crisp leaves blown along the street…by a gusty wind, and the gabble of a flock of migrating geese.’ ~ Hal Borland”
Row 3 right “‘The quieter you become, the more you can hear.’ ~ Baba Ram Das”
Row 4 left “‘Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.’ ~ Samuel Butler”
Row 4 right “‘The world is quiet here.’ ~Lemony Snicket”
Row 5 left “‘Autumn flings her fiery cloak over the sumac, beech and oak.’ ~ Susan Lendroth”
Row 5 right “‘[A]utumn… is mature, reasonable and serious, it glows moderately and not frivolously….’ ~ Valentin”
(Crossposted from Views from North Central Blogistan)
Blessed Mabon!
How lovely, Jan! Thanks for this post and for the music. Greatly enjoyed reading this tribute to one of my favorite seasons. Well, heck, they’re all my favorites!
Yes, I really feel the approach of autumn, more so than ever as I’m in the autumn of my own life.
I was re-reading the words of the Lisa Thiel song this morning and the “old woman” leading us through the darkness refers, of course, to the Crone – the goddess aspect that I embrace as my own. It weighs heavily on me that our society does not respect the work that we crones are doing, quietly – and sometimes not so quietly! – keeping the candles burning, nurturing our country while things are falling into chaos around us. I hear of people like the man running against Dianne Feinstein in California telling us we should step aside for youth. I respect that the future ultimately belongs to the young but until young people vote at the same rate as my cohort, I reserve the right to help choose who should be in charge of things.
Fall is my favorite season because of the colors and the coolness (I do not do heat very well). But what I love most is having seasons – I could never live where there was only one or two.
I love the Autumn – maybe because I was born in October but I doubt it since I was born in Houston where there isn’t one. One of my reasons for moving to NW AR was seasons.
For me Mabon is not so much the quiet time as the busy harvesting and putting by time. The last of the tree fruits – apples and pears – are ripe. Depending on where you are, the last of the grains, the last round of haying, the last of everything to get the community safely through the winter. Maybe the pumpkins will be later, maybe not. Maybe cold enough for hunting, maybe not quite yet. Definitely time to get that last “just in case” rick of firewood. Mabon to me is a marker of the quiet time to come while busily preparing for it – and rejoicing in Mother Nature’s bounty that makes preparation even possible. For this we give thanks. Blessed Be.