* EXTRACT FROM AN ARCHIVED POST *
To devotees of the Pagan Calendar — Mabon or Ostara — are a time of year, not just a singular date - on the Celtic Wheel of the Year. No matter where you’re living on the globe, a cyclical change occurs — the Annual Equinox pairs — one marks the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator, from North to South and vice versa at the time of the opposing.
☼ CELTIC & PAGAN CUSTOMS
The Pagan Wheel of the Year, uses the four cross quarter markers to indicate the midpoint of the season by way of the Solstice and Equinox pairings. These cross quarter points are powerful agricultural calendar points. At the Equinox points, the length of day and night are said to be equal. Traditional Celtic festivals are pivotal points in the Celtic/druid/pagan calendar, marking a time to reflect on the season past and what the future season will hold. It’s an eightfold calendar of Place and Time. The markers represent a time of year - not just a particular date. In fact the origins of the Wheel of the Year calendar are believed to be lunar but appeared to have adopted the solar calendar around the time of Christianity.
The Sept Equinox in the N.H is the season of Autumn which reaches its apogee, marked as Mabon (21/22/23 Sept) a mid-point between Samhain and Lughnasa. While in the Southern Hemisphere, the Spring Equinox also known as Ostara, is celebrated. Both points on the wheel mark equality - of the day and the night. Daylight is on the increase and conquers the dark at Ostara and visa versa in Mabon. This is equally so in the Chinese Calendar as we are at the balance point of Yin and Yang - the height of Yang is the longest day (Summer Solstice) and the height of Yin is the longest night (Winter Solstice), so we are at the midpoint and the points of balance - are the Equinoxes. Mabon is of course the Great Harvest - when birds flock and head to their winter homes. On Equinox Eve it was customary to scattering seeds for birds, so the winged messenger would protect through Winter (Eason).
Festivals then and now, are celebrated with song and dance, although the dances and customary feasts were ritualistic in nature in times past. Whatever seasonal produce was in abundance, it would grace the feast tables and sacred herbs were gathered. Like many festivals, fire purification ceremonies were observed. Since Purification and cleansing is so closely linked to new beginnings and getting ready for the new season, it's an ideal time to spiritually cleanse and space clear your home or perhaps rearrange your furnishings - in accordance with Feng Shui of course.
🙏🏼 VENERATION
In ancient Ireland it was commonplace to pay respect to the dead during midpoint festivals. The Emerald Isle is home to numerous megalithic passage tombs and graves which consist of narrow passages made of large stones and one or multiple burial chambers covered in earth or stone built in the Neolithic Ages. On the mornings around the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes on Carnbane East at Loughcrew, the 5,000 year old Cairn celebrates the rising sun illuminating the passage and chamber of Cairn ‘T’. The sunlight is shaped by the stones of the entrance and sol’s light passes threw descending on the backstone, while moving from left to the right illuminating a series of solar symbols.
Chinese people also worship their ancestors around at such midpoints of year the sweeping ancestors’ tombs takes place at the Vernal Equinox. Before sweeping the tomb, descendants needed to hold a ceremony at their ancestral temple. In Japan too and many other Asian countries, ancestral places of rest are visited on this day.
ROOSTER + MABON
To my Gaeilge (Irish) counterparts, September is called 'Meán Fómhair' meaning 'Middle Harvest or Middle Autumn'. In the Chinese zodiac system the Autumn Equinox falls during the month of the Rooster, which elementally is linked to Metal and the direction of the West, where the sun sets in the evening. This direction in ancient times was believed to be where the sun went to die. In China the Rooster is an emblematic symbol of an Ancient mythological bird called a Fenghuang; a Chinese Phoenix. And the Phoenix in myth does indeed dies, but also resurrects.
Celtic Folklore denotes if a Rooster goes to roost at an usual time this presages a death in the owner’s family! Some say it’s an ill-omened bird with the ‘devil in it’ especially a Black Rooster and such birds are oft put down. It is also an omen of dawn and the morning sun rising and said to be the enemy of ghostly spirits.
The resurrection parables of new life linked to Ostara, then the cycle of what was sown and born has now come to fruition. Grains are harvested, corn dolls are made and produce is stored for winter. Mabon is indeed a time of second harvest and a nod that winter is on the way. The veils are beginning to thin, and Samhain the next marker on the wheel is but a few weeks away.
RABBIT + OSTARA (also read in Sept if you are in Southern Hemisphere)
Once again I’m reminded of the cross cultural celebrations that unite us across millennia and hemispheres as we celebrate astronomical, meteorological or phenological cues.
In Celtic and Chinese circles alike the tradition of bird watching was honoured at the Spring Equinox. On the morning of the Spring Equinox watchers kept an eye out for the return of migrating birds and a feast was marked to celebrate the occasion.
In the Chinese calendar system, the solar terms/nodes* are 15 days long, and they are further sub-divided into three 5-day increments, one of which is the ‘Swallows Arrive’ (xuanniao zhi 玄鳥至) which commences on the Vernal Equinox. The swallow is also a weather omen, if it flies high in the skies, weather will be good while low flying swallows indicate rain is on the way.
In the Chinese zodiac system the Spring Equinox falls during the month of the Rabbit, which elementally is linked to Wood and young growth. In China in the Yangtze valley the rabbit is also seen as a symbol of longevity. In Buddhist legend the rabbit (hare) offered itself as a willing sacrifice, and as a reward it’s soul was delivered to the keeper of the moon for all to see as the hare silhouette of the moon.
OSTARA is all about fertility and the fertility goddess Eostre, who was often depicted with a Hare by her side. Christians have adapted the word to Easter; as the Resurrection parable of new life is also celebrated around this time of year. Iconography of bunny rabbits (hares) and chicks, are now ubiquitously linked to the commercial story of Easter. But the Rabbit/Hare is in fact a traditional symbol of fertility and the chick - the layer of the egg - are both placed as symbolic offerings in veneration rituals to fertility gods. Honouring the egg as a symbol of fertility is customary and an ideal way to honour this festival marker. Anything from painted and naturally dyed eggs, to burying eggs in the earth, are all seen to symbolize fertility and the birthing process. Standing Eggs is also a popular Chinese 4,00 year old tradition - apparently you’re far likelier to succeed in getting an egg to stand on the Vernal Equinox.
Happy Equinox / Mabon / Ostara ◘
Should you seek some Purification and cleansing in your home or workspace, we are here to assist to ready you for the season ahead. It's an ideal time to spiritually cleanse and space clear or perhaps re arrange your furnishings - in accordance with Feng Shui of course. Check out more info on our Sacred Space clearing or Feng shui consult pages.
* The relevance of the ancient Chinese Almanac and the 24 Solar Terms (or seasonal nodes, as they are sometimes referred to), were not only for agricultural purposes; individuals took cues from the Nodes and adopted various seasonal diets and exercise. Calculated via the sun's annual motion, they discern the year's change in season by way of phenology, climate and the tilt of the sun varying shadow length on the ecliptic to decipher a season.
Phenology, is one of three methods used to decipher seasons - it uses the changes in plant and animal behaviour - such as animal migration, types of plants, and changes in colours in the landscape - to determine when the seasons begin. The Chinese seasons commence 1½ months before the comparative seasons in the Western Calendar. The 24 solar terms are used to insert leap (intercalary) months in the Chinese calendar to keep it in sync with seasons.
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