Mabon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the American NeoPagan festival Mabon. For the Welsh mythological character, please see Mabon ap Modron.
Mabon is the name used by some Wiccans and other Neopagans for one of the eight solar holidays or sabbats. It is celebrated on the Autumnal Equinox, which in the northern hemisphere occurs on September 23rd (occasionally the 22nd, although many celebrate on the 21st) and in the southern hemisphere is circa March 21.
Also called Harvest Home, the Feast of the Ingathering, 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, although the connection is unclear.
Among the sabbats, it is the second of the three harvest festivals, preceded by Lammas and followed by Samhain.
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[edit] 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 may have been invented by Aidan Kelly in the 1970s as part of a religious studies project. (The 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. 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.
[edit] Popular culture
- Mabon is the name of 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.
[edit] References
- Kelly, Aidan (1991) Crafting the Art of Magic Llewellyn.
