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 3:02pm Central Time on Friday, 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 Celebration 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!
Please enjoy an autumn song from Lisa Thiel – Mabon (Autumnal Equinox)
Thank you for the Mabon celebration – I know it was a lot of work for you. I was brought up in a household that had a few celebratory traditions (birthdays and the “commercial” holidays of halloween, christmas, and easter) but no ritual. Even as a child i missed that and tried to come up with something to fill that need but was never satisfied with what i came up with. I spent 10 years as a catholic – roman and anglican – which did a good job on the ritual side – well, rites which are rituals dipped in cement – but after a while i couldn’t deal with the christianity of it, i was unable to ignore the words any longer and have been back to trying, most unsatisfactorily, to fill that need for ritual on my own. Your holy day diaries help. Blessed Be.
Thank you Jan. I so love listening to Lisa Thiel singing as we share the changing seasons.
Thank you, JanF for this special diary and thanks, bfitz, for linking it to me. I am off to walk and enjoy the cooler air and the falling leaves (although not too many yet in Cali).
Thank you, Jan! The pictures and hovers are most satisfying. (Can’t play the song yet, half the household is still asleep.) That quotation about being quiet in the early morning really speaks to me: life has been so much better since I stopped listening to the morning talk shows.
This is one of the times I love most. Remember the sonnet of Shakespeare’s that begins:
and this one of Keats’:
Too bad I had to miss this post yesterday. I can never get the Moose on my iPad, which was all I had at the house where I spent the day.
Thank you for rebuilding this Mabon post, Jan, and I enjoyed reading the comments. Too bad it’s not like autumn here where I live! It’s been more like searing summer.