Mabon

The story behind the day

Mabon is the modern Wiccan and Pagan name for the autumn equinox, around 21 to 23 September, a harvest festival and a day of balance between light and dark. Its name matches that of Mabon son of Modron, a figure of medieval Welsh literature, but no record shows that the Celtic peoples kept an equinox festival, and the name belongs to the twentieth-century wheel of the year. Druids call the equinox Alban Elfed.^[1–6]

Origins

The Wiccan calendar names the equinoxes Ostara in spring and Mabon in autumn. The Pagan Federation lists the autumn equinox as also known as Mabon or Harvest Home. The name Mabon is also that of Mabon son of Modron, a figure of medieval Welsh legend, and a Druid Network writer asks why most Neo-Pagans use it for their equinox. In the medieval Welsh tale of Culhwch and Olwen, Mabon is the son of Modron, taken from his mother when three nights old and held prisoner in a dungeon at Gloucester until King Arthur frees him.^{[1, 3, 8]}

What it marks

Mabon marks the balance of day and night at the autumn equinox and the second of the harvest festivals. A reference entry on the sabbats treats it as the point where the harvest is finished and the Wiccan year ends. For Druids the equinox, Alban Elfed, is the end of the grain harvest and a festival of balance and peace.^{[2, 5]}

How it came to be

The Druid Network notes that the Celts did not much mark this season, so far as any record shows, and the early Irish year divided at four quarter days that fall between the solstices and equinoxes rather than on them. The equinox festival belongs to the eight-festival wheel of the year, which dates only from the mid twentieth century, when Gerald Gardner is said to have adapted eight older festivals into the sabbats of Wicca.^{[4, 6]}

How it is kept

an autumn equinox altar, apples and wheat — An autumn equinox altar, apples and wheatIllustration · AI-generated

Druids keep the equinox as Harvest Home, marking the end of harvest-time and giving thanks for the fruits of the earth.^[5]

Across traditions

Dates and names vary. The Pagan Federation gives the autumn equinox as 21 to 23 September, also known as Mabon or Harvest Home, and the Druid sources give it as 20 to 23 September. In the Southern Hemisphere, Pagans reverse the dates.^{[7, 9]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.