Autumnal Wedding of Ariadne &
Dionysus, © Toledo Museum of Art
The Autumnal Equinox, in the Northern Hemisphere, is the point at which the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator from north to south. The equinoxes, which lie at the intersections of the celestial equator and the ecliptic, are points moving in a westward direction along the celestial sphere. This is known as the precession of the equinoxes (first noted by Hipparchus around 120 B.C and explained in 1687 by Sir Isaac Newton). It takes 25, 800 years for the equinoxes to pass through all the constellations of the zodiac, meaning this occurs at a rate of 50.27 seconds of arc a year.
Equinox literally means "equal night", day and night are equal in length - as if the scales are perfectly balanced. It is at this time the sun truly rises in the east and sets in the west., and the point at which we can observe the most rapid change in the Sun's apparent motion. It is now that the nights dip into the "below freezing" temperatures, while the days can still be warm and delightful and the trees increasingly change into their fall finest colors. It is, as if at Mabon, the harvest erupts with overwhelming abundance, symbolized by the horn of plenty - the cornucopia brimming with bounty. The full moon closest to the Equinox is know as the Harvest Moon, for the simple reason that the full moon enabled folks to work into the night harvesting by it's gentle light. If the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox is actually in November then the September moon is typically named the Corn Moon.
Autumn Equinox is the second in the trilogy of harvest festivals. Mabon marks the completion of the grain harvest begun during Lughnasadh. Celebrations revolve around the gathering of crops and thanksgiving for the abundances of the harvest, and rituals to insure the success of next year's harvest are characteristic during this harvest time. The making of corn dollies from the last sheaf of corn that is harvested is a typical custom. She is kept until the spring - keeping the spirit of the corn, when she is ploughed back into the field to breath the life of the corn back into the soil.
BLESSED MABON!!
WISHING YOU AND YOURS
A JOYOUS
FALL EQUINOX!
Stop....
Relax....
Remain Balanced!
Music: Bard Dance, Enya - sequencer,
T. Tran
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