1.) Calling the September Equinox "MABON" is totally
BOGUS...
Just in case you haven’t already heard, the word / name
"Mabon" has nothing to do with the Autumnal Equinox, or Autumn, or any calendar date whatsoever. It has never, ever, been related to the Autumnal
Equinox or any other Pagan calendar date before a point in the 1970's when it was first
erroneously associated with it by one (one) Wiccan group on the West Coast of the US. Not even one good
mythic or lore-related reason for them pinning the character's name to the date
ever seems to surface. So, for those of us who care about such things, it's just plain stupid, but we're stuck with it. If you've always used it because your old Wiccan high priestess called it that, or because of your early reliance on Llewellyn books, for the sake of ADF's reputation and your own, please consider ditching the usage
and tell your friends.
2.) What IS the primary date of the SEPTEMBER EQUINOX ?
(...Not what you’ll read in Pagan books!)
Well, if you happen to have your cheat sheet (see fig.1,) you are in for some big surprises...
Yes, I don't know if I've found one 'pagan' reference book
yet that lists the correct general date for the September Equinox !!! Even if
they include it in a range of possible dates, rarely does ANY source infer
that the 23rd of
September is the principal date for the Autumnal Equinox
and the other is an occasional variant.
It simply does NOT FALL ON THE 20th,
nor the 21st, or 25th - - those are just plain wrong:
It simply does NOT FALL ON THE 20th,
nor the 21st, or 25th - - those are just plain wrong:
it usually falls on September 23rd and occasionally on the 22nd.
ALSO, OF RELATED INTEREST:
EXHIBIT
1: THE EXISTING WORDING FOUND
IN THE ADF CONSTITUTION:
“ Article 4: Calendar
1.) The High Days of
the ADF calendar are the eight Neopagan High Days which are the solstices,
equinoxes, and points equally between them. For legal purposes, these High Days
occur on:
a. Cross-Quarter = November 1st
b. Solstice = December 21st
c. Cross-Quarter = February 1st
d. Equinox = March 21st
e. Cross-Quarter = May 1st
f. Solstice
= June 21st
g. Cross-Quarter = August 1st
h. Equinox = September 21st
2.) For ceremonial purposes, local
congregations shall celebrate each of the eight High Days within one week prior
to or after the aforementioned dates, or at some other time determined by
Board-established policy.
3.) The ceremonial year of ADF shall begin
on the first day of November and end on the thirty-first day of October in each
civil year. ”
========================================
More September Equinox fun HERE...
REFERENCES:
USNO Website - the US official standard data site for astronomers and calendar makers.
- "Fig.1" which I created for an article in the mid 1990's, was derived from a sample of 22 years' data from both the USNO and the Observers' Handbook from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
- Text and table & images originally are from The Druids Almanac and docs linked to it, (c) Earrach.
It is a Mabonination!
ReplyDeletePerhaps the Son of the Mother is more descriptive of modern western tradition making. Born from the idea of a mythicly encoded seasonal progression of the year acted out in Holiday ritual,
People should be aware of the hazards of speaking for anyone else.
This is true with Our relationships with Gods and Goddesses Our Kindred Spirits and the Sacred Times we celebrate.
To mislead or misrepresent is the opposite of what We aim for.
Thanks for this, Earrich. The more years I see, the more I'm convinced that the Fall Equinox is a hard festival for people to grok because it is so lacking in roots.
ReplyDeleteFor me (as with all the quarter days), the Fall Equinox is the beginning of the descent of Sunne into the 'Underworld' of winter (kind of in the opposite way that the Spring Equinox is about her rise again - the dawning of the light half of the year). It's the twilight of the year, and I offer to the Divine Twins as her protectors in those dark spaces, that they may bring her back again next year.
I want to build a Dokana and ritualistically decorate it - offer before its posts, and I want to do something around sun ship imagery, but that idea is yet to fully take form.
Ah, but the "roots" themselves are substantial in that they are the equinox itself, one of the bones of the Natural Year, like the Summer Solstice, themselves more than reason enough for celebration without mythologizing it. The Greeks had their Eleusinian Mysteries fixed on the AutEqx; our grove many years has commemorated the Eleusinian Mysteries - and we just did a Polish Harvest Home - Polish Harvest Goddess rite; https://www.facebook.com/groups/sassfrasgroveadf/ and the British had their Harvest Home - - The Scottish and Irish had plenty of their own Harvest-Home-like customs but otherwise the problematic motifs here seem to be the the so-called "Celtic" and the Germanic/"Northern-Trad" folks. Is there any more blessed moment of the year than as we stand now, poised, on the threshold of the glory of Autumn's blaze? HAPPY AUTUMN !
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