Happy Autumn Equinox everyone! Time for cooler weather and warm jumpers and scuffing through the autumn leaves.
September Pagan Challenge # 21 • Mabon
I call the festival Autumn Equinox, not Mabon. Mabon is a Welsh god who has nothing to do with Mabon. The name was only applied to the festival in 1974 and doesn’t fit it.
I like the suggestion of calling it Haligmonað, after the Old English month.
Anyway whatever you call it, blessings of the season!
It’s a time of balance between darkness and light, but with darkness gaining the upper hand.
Darkness is necessary for rest, sleep, and regeneration. Cold is a necessary part of the cycle too.
Autumn Equinox is the second of three harvests. Lammas is the grain harvest; Autumn Equinox is the fruit harvest; Samhain is the meat harvest.
If you enjoyed this post, you might like my books.
Dowsing for Divinity 
If find there’s a lot of puckishness about this one: the “official” name doesn’t quite fit, there’s uncertainty over whether it’s today or tomorrow, all the food mysteriously disappears from Una Cat’s bowl (maybe that last one is just in our household).
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s astonishing how few people know that it was named Mabon in 1974, or how to pronounce it (if I had a dollar for all the times I’ve heard people call it “May-bon”… aarrrggghhh…). Also astonishing how many people think it’s the ancient Celtic name of the festival. Uhhmmm nope, the ancient Celts didn’t even celebrate it.
(I know YOU know all this, of course, Dave.)
As to the date: depends if you are celebrating the sidereal or the solar version, iirc.
Disappearing cat food: do you have another cat, by any chance?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, I refuse to call it Mabon too. The mornings and nights are getting cool now, but the days are still about 20 degrees Celsius…. At least for now.
‘Appy Autumn!
LikeLiked by 1 person