- This article is about the Neopagan festival Mabon.
For the Welsh mythological character, see Mabon ap Modron. For the Welsh politician, see William Abraham.
| Mabon | |
|---|---|
| Also called | Harvest Home, The Feast of the Ingathering, Harvest End, Autumnal Equinox |
| Observed by | Neopagans Wiccans |
| Type | Pagan |
| Significance | Marks the Celtic Mid-fall, and the Astronomical beginning of Fall |
| Date | Autumnal Equinox on September 22 or September 23 in the Northern Hemisphere March 20 or 21 in the Southern Hemisphere |
| 2007 date | Sept 23 (North) or March 21 (South) |
| 2008 date | Sept 22 (North) or March 20 (South) |
| 2009 date | Sept 22 (North) or March 20 (South) |
| Celebrations | Thanksgiving for the Fruits of the Earth |
| Related to | The Harvest festival, Equinox, Quarter days, Thanksgiving |
Mabon is the name used by some Wiccans and Neopagans for one of their eight annual primary holidays. It is celebrated on the Autumnal Equinox, which in the northern hemisphere occurs on September 23rd (occasionally the 22nd). Many celebrate on the 21st since most Wiccan and Neopagan reference works misquote the date as the 21st although the Gregorian Calendar, used in the US and Britain since 1753, does not allow the date of the equinox to fall that early. Due to the reversal of the seasons, in the southern hemisphere, the Autumnal Equinox occurs around March 21. Also called Harvest Home, the Feast of the Ingathering, Thanksgiving, or simply Autumn Equinox, this holiday is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months. The name may derive from Mabon ap Modron, a character from Welsh mythology, although the connection is unclear (see below). The festival was celebrated at the end of the harvest season, on the occasion of the harvest of the last sheaf of grain. Typically, the last sheaf would be fashioned into a corn dolly, known variously as the cailleac ("old woman" in Gaelic), the Corn-Mother, or the Harvest Queen. In some areas, the sheaf would be fashioned into a Kern-Baby in the case of an early harvest and a Kern-Mother in the case the harvest was late. The cailleac would be paraded through the village and ultimately drenched with water in a ritual intended to ensure good rains in the next season. At the end of the festival, the cailleac was typically stored until the next planting season, when it would be plowed into the first furrow. In some traditions, the cailleac was given to the farmer with the smallest harvest as a good-luck charm or mark of shame. In others, it was kept by the farmer who harvested it, and fed to his horses or oxen at the start of the planting season. Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas and followed by Samhain.
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Antiquity of Mabon
Mabon was not an authentic ancient festival either in name or date. There is little evidence that the autumnal equinox was celebrated in Celtic countries, while all that is known about Anglo-Saxon customs of that time was that September was known as haleg-monath or 'holy month'. The name Mabon has only been applied to the Neopagan festival of the autumn equinox very recently; the term was invented by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s as part of a religious studies project (the modern use of Litha for the Summer Solstice is also attributed to Kelly). Previously, in Gardnerian Wicca the festival was simply known as the 'Autumnal Equinox', and many Neopagans still refer to it as such, or use alternative titles such as the neo-Druidical Aban Efed, a term invented by Iolo Morgannwg. The name Mabon was chosen to impart a more authentic-sounding "Celtic" feel to the event, since all the other festivals either had names deriving from genuine tradition, or had had names grafted on to them. The Spring Equinox had already been termed 'Ostara', and so only the Autumnal Equinox was left with a technical rather than an evocative title. Accordingly, the name Mabon was given to it, having been drawn from Welsh mythology. The use of the name Mabon is much more prevalent in America than Britain, where many Neopagans are dismissive of it as an unauthentic name with not even a glimmer of connection to any seasonal lore. The increasing number of American Pagan publications sold in Britain by such publishers as Llewellyn has however resulted in some British Pagans adopting the term.
Popular culture
- Mabon is a contemporary Celtic music band, from Bridgend, Wales
- Mabon is an alias of the popular Welsh language MC, Gruff Meredith, who composes under the name of MC Mabon.
- In many of Charles de Lint's Newford books, the character Sophie Etoile visits a city in her dreams called Mabon.
References
- Hutton, Ronald The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, 1996 - ISBN 0-19-285448-8
- Kelly, Aidan (1991) Crafting the Art of Magic Llewellyn.
