The Autumn Equinox

Aah, the Autumn/Fall Equinox. As I write this, it is the Eve and perhaps you will be reading it on the day of what to me is one of the most anticipated events of the year. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere you know it is the shoulder season between summer and winter when, depending where you are, on this Equinox, the amount of daylight and dark are nearly equal.

Let’s consider rituals celebrated around the world on this Equinox. As you may know, the Fall Equinox, also known as Mabon or the Mid-Harvest Festival, is the second of three fall harvest sabbats. The first is Lughnasadh or Lammas and the third is Samain. It’s tradition to serve locally grown and harvested food, celebrating, giving gratitude and preparing for the long winter ahead during all three.

You may be less familiar with Alban Elfed, a term from ancient Celtic Druid traditions. The name is derived from Old Welsh, Elfred meaning '“white” or “bright” and Elfed referring to harvest. Together they refer to the blance of light and dark, abundance and introspection.

In Japan, the autumnal equinox is observed during the Buddhist festival of Higan when the ancestors are reflected upon and their graves visited.

In China and Vietman, the Mid-Harvest Festival is celebrated at the time of the Harvest Moon when mooncakes are shared. Mooncakes are traditionally filled with lotus paste or red bean. Mooncakes can also be sweet/savory with nuts and ham. Looking at the recipe, making them is an elaborate affair, fiddly because the dough can crack. It ends with placing the little cakes into a mold to create the beautiful designs on top before baking in a low oven. I’ve never tasted one but would like to. If you have, do tell.

North American Native communities celebrate the equinox with ceremonies such as the Hopi Snake Dance and the honoring of the Kachina God while the Cherokee mark the Great New Moon by planting sacred corn at that time.

Michaelmas or the Feast of Michael and All Angels is celebrated around the Autumn Equinox on September 29.

In Mexico, the Serpiente de Luz is celebrated at the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza on both equinoxes. As the sun sets, shadows cast by the pyramid’s steps align with a carved serpent’s head at the base of the steps of the staircase. For about 20 minutes, the shadow seems to slither down the steps creating the illusion of a snake descending the pyramid. That would certainly get my attention.

In the far north, both equinoxes are the peak time for observing the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. I learned something, having thought this event was only around the spring equinox.

And let’s not forget Greek mythology. To the ancient Greeks, the Autumn Equinox marked the time when the goddess Persephone returned to the darkness of the underworld to unite with her husband Hades.

As I look out on this overcast day, the word which comes to mind is ‘golden’. The thicket of vines in the back have many yellow leaves among the green, the mums on the porch are yellow, and the huge river birch in the front yard toward which I cast a side-eye for most of the year because it constantly drops twigs and/or leaves is now shedding yellow leaves which waft slowly downward, joining the growing carpet of gold on the lawn. Goldenrod in profusion is at the base of the woods. Here and there are whole branches of red on maple trees and the staghorn sumac’s leaves are turning a red. By the end of autumn, the birds will delight in the vermillion colored fruit which resembles antlers. In the background is the shrill whistling of a red-tail hawk and every once in a while, a cricket chirps. The autumn/fall show has begun. More staggering beauty is on the way.

What are you noticing today?

And here is Mary Oliver once more:

Fall Song

by Mary Oliver

“Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.”