The COG Blog

This year’s fall equinox occurs on September 22nd. Mabon is the second grain harvest, nestled between the first harvest, Lughnasadh, and Samhain. It celebrates a moment of perfect balance – a time when light and dark, night and day are briefly and perfectly equal. Shortly after Mabon, the days become shorter, the nights longer, as the sun begins to wane; the year comes to an end to symbolically represent the waning of our own lives as we approach the death of the winter months.

Mabon is very much like Thanksgiving celebrated in the United States bringing with it an abundant harvest and all of its colors. It is a time when we reap the fruits of our labors, both seen and unseen. I Rich golden colors decorate our homes with symbols of the season. Corn, pumpkins and the cornucopia of the harvest adorn our porches with their brilliant gold, amber, russet and garnet until the winds of Samhain blow them away. The full moon closest to the Autumn Equinox is called the Harvest Moon, and farmers would harvest their corps by this moonlight as part of the Second Harvest celebration.

Mabon is named for a Celtic dying-resurrecting god. Between the times of Lughnasadh and Yule, there is an underlying awareness of approaching death, and the rebirth that most certainly comes with it. It is a time to celebrate the approaching darkness and the transformation it will most assuredly bring.

It is a time for journeys as animals begin their migration to where they will spend their winter. For us, however, it becomes a journey within where we assess and reassess the year’s joys and sorrows as we feel the year winding down just 6 weeks from now. As the Earth begins its death song, we once again begin to appreciate the things that are important to us, the things that truly last – our families, our friendships, our inner wisdom. It is a time of celebration to honor our experiences of the past year and gaze toward a brighter future.

Symbols of Mabon
Dieties: The Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess, Morgan, Mabon, Persephone, Aging Dieties
Food: Corn, Root vegetables, Nuts, Squash, Acorns, Wine and Ale
Colors: Gold, Orange, Brown, Yellow, Burgundy, Russet
Stones: Sapphire, Agate, Carnelian
Plants: Gourds, Pine Cones, Acorns, Pomegranate, Cedar
Herbs: Marigold, Milkweed, Sage, Cedar, Pine