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September 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 29/09/2010 10:59 PM Page 20 20 Time To Reap: Fall Equinox A Time to Reap: Fall Equinox Events Around the World By: Molly Mann Fall is definitely my favorite time of year. When the summer heat breaks and the air becomes crisp, there’s a sense of starting fresh, reflecting on the past season, and looking forward to the future. I can understand why so many cultures celebrate the autumn equinox, which marks the first day of fall, every September. Whether it’s called Mabon or the Autumn Moon Festival, the start of this new season is certainly an auspicious occasion. Autumn in Balance The word “equinox” comes from the Latin æquinoctuium, which itself came from æquus (“equal”) and nox (“night”): “equal night.” It refers to the twenty-four-hour has never been to the event is a bit like trying to variations. According to MoonFestival.org, the period—which occurs twice a year, in spring explain what a particular color looks like to Guangzhou version, which is the type and fall—in which there are twelve hours of someone who is blind.” But Oberon Zell- Westerners know, is a round or square cake, daylight and twelve hours of night, according to Ravenheart, a well-respected member of the filled with sweet lotus paste and salted duck ReligiousTolerance.org. However, the experts at Wiccan community, according to Schure, writes eggs, with a soft, golden-brown exterior. The TimeandDate.com reveal this idea of the day in Creating Circles & Ceremonies that Burning cake is customarily cut into quarters, thus and night being perfectly in balance during the Man has its roots in the European custom of the causing the yolk to resemble a full moon. equinox as a myth: during the autumn equinox, corn dolly, a man-shaped doll fashioned from According to one of many legends, the they write, the lengths of night and day are the last sheaf of harvested grain. Traditionally, moon cake was invented as a way to honor the nearly, but not entirely, equal, because the sun the spirit of the grains resided in the doll, which moon goddess, Chang-Er (sometimes, Chang- takes longer to rise and set in places farther members of the community dressed up in nice E). Because the moon represents yin, the female away from the equator. clothes and addressed by name. They then principle in Chinese philosophy, women take The equinox really refers to the time, burned the doll to release the spirit, amid much center stage during the Moon Festival. twice each year, when the sun crosses the rejoicing. Sometimes the spirit of the grain was celestial equator and moves southward in the released by burning a large wickerwork effigy, To Everything, There Is a Season northern hemisphere. The earth’s axis of much like the eponymous Burning Man ’Tis the season for autumnal equinox rotation is then perpendicular to the line sculpture that’s the focal point of the Burning festivals around the world and across cultures. connecting the centers of the earth and the sun. Man festival each year. Even if you celebrate by catching summer’s last The 2010 fall equinox will occur at exactly 7:09 rays or digging your winter clothes out of p.m. (PST) and 10:09 p.m. (EST) on September A Time to Reflect storage, know that you’re part of an age-old 22. For Japanese Buddhists, the spring and international tradition of welcoming the first fall equinoxes are both six-day celebrations day of fall.[] A Bewitching Celebration (three days before and three days after the Perhaps the best-known tradition equinox itself), called the Higan-e. Higan means surrounding the fall equinox in the United “other shore” in Japanese, and the six days States is that of the neopagans, mostly Wiccans. represent the six perfections—giving, Wicca is loosely based on ancient Celtic beliefs, observance of the precepts, perseverance, effort, symbols, and practices, with the addition of meditation, and wisdom—needed to transition more recent Masonic and ceremonial magic, from samsara (the cycle of death and rebirth in according to ReligiousTolerance.org. Wiccans the material world) to nirvana (a transcendent view time as circular—as opposed to the linear state of perfect happiness). time of monotheistic religions—and the During the six days of each equinox, equinoxes are part of the solar (yearly) cycle. observers of the holiday repent for past sins and The autumn equinox, usually called pray for enlightenment in the next life. They Mabon (after the Welsh god of the harvest), is also take time to remember the dead and to pay the second and main Wiccan harvest festival. visits to family graves. Since the equinoxes are Wiccans may celebrate Mabon the evening supposedly the most temperate times of the before, at sunrise on the day of, or at the exact year, Japanese Buddhists regard them as ideal time of the equinox. As witch and Wicca expert moments to reflect on the meaning of life, Dianne Schure explains, “Modern pagans (and according to ReligiousTolerance.org. I’m using that term as a catchall) are a group with sufficiently varied traditions. Not all of Harvest Moon them would celebrate in the same way.” Outside the United States, the largest fall equinox celebration happens in China: the Corn Dollies and Burning Men Autumn Moon Festival. Within the United Burning Man, in Nevada’s Black Rock States, Chinatowns—like the one in San Desert (also known as the Playa), is a large Francisco, California—explode with annual event that stems from the neopagan celebrations during this ancient holiday to mark equinox tradition (though most “Burners” the beginning of autumn, the bounty of the wouldn’t consider themselves witches). summer harvest, and the full moon. Burning Man’s website warns, “Trying to During the Moon Festival, the Chinese explain what Burning Man is to someone who eat moon cakes, of which there are many