Celebrating Mabon
Contents
‘The reaping is over and the harvest is in, Summer is finished, another cycle begins’
Mabon (pronounced May or Mah – bon) is celebrated on March 21st in the Southern Hemisphere, representing the Autumn Equinox with its balance of light and dark.
Traditionally it was the celebration of the mid-harvest festival as “Harvest Home”, “Wine Harvest” or “Cornucopia”. This became Michaelmas in Christian Calendars and Thanksgiving in America!
It is a great time to start new projects to last you through the colder months and also a time for meditation on new directions in career/education/work.
Mabon is named after the Welsh God Mabon ap Modron yet is traditionally a time to call upon those deities that associate with the ‘dark’ side – crone/matriarch aspects of the Goddess and patriarch aspects of the God.
Deities may include: Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus, Pomona, Green Man, Bachhus and Kali.
Decorate your home with pinecones, winter squash, pumpkins, gourds, apples and other autumn fruit and vegetables. Appropriate candles are gold, orange, red, copper, bronze and maroon.
Feast upon Wine, potatoes, beer/mead and bread.
Oils to burn include: cinnamon, ginger and orange.
Activities to celebrate Mabon
- Initiate a food drive or assist a charity with theirs
- Pick apples in an orchard
- Complete a Gratitude List for your Reflective Journal or begin a God Box
- Turn off the TV and tell stories or better yet, listen to Reflect Radio!
- Complete an Autumn Clean in preparation for Winter
- Make apple candleholders and apple garlands
- Weave a God’s Eye (remember weaving wool around paddle pop sticks?)
- Make a scarecrow for your garden
- Make pickles, jams and preserves
Symbols of Mabon
Wine, gourds, pine cones, acorns, grains, corn, apples, pomegranates, vines such as ivy, dried seeds, and horns of plenty.
Herbs of Mabon
Acorn, benzoin, ferns, grains, honeysuckle, marigold, milkweed, myrrh, passionflower, rose, sage, solomon’s seal, tobacco, thistle, and vegetables.
Foods of Mabon
Breads, nuts, apples, pomegranates, and vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and onions.
Incense of Mabon
Autumn Blend- benzoin, myrrh, and sage.
Crystals of Mabon
Sapphire, lapis lazuli, and yellow agates.