Celebrate the Fall Equinox (or Mabon) with Your Kids

Sometimes it can be hard to find ways to involve your children into your rituals and festivals. The Fall Equinox, or Mabon, is a great holiday to celebrate with little ones. The Fall Equinox is one of the harvest festivals. It's a time of balance between light and dark, but with the balance now starting to tip towards darkness and winter. We start harvesting in preparation for the cold months ahead.

At this time of year, Nature provides us with her bounty. We gather fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. In response to the Goddess and God's generosity, we should give thanks, make offerings, and help others. In fact, the American holiday of Thanksgiving originated with the old Harvest Home customs in Europe, when people celebrated the last sheaf of grain to be harvested. The Goddess at the Fall Equinox manifests as the Crone, the wise old grandmother. She teaches us to rest after we have worked so hard with our summer labors. In the Celtic myths of the British Isles, the Goddess of this time was called Modron. It was Modron's son who was taken away into the Underworld, similar to the Greek myth of Demeter's daughter, Persephone, who spends half the year in Hades. One of the names for this holiday takes its name from Modron's son, Mabon. He was imprisoned in the Underworld until he was rescued by King Arthur's companions. This is the God we celebrate at the Equinox. He is the spirit of the grain that is "rescued" in order to be eaten. He celebrates freedom and is the champion of all those unjustly imprisoned. He protects that which is wild and free.

To prepare your altar for the Fall Equinox, you can include some of the things you've been harvesting (preferably things that will keep for a few weeks. If you live in the city and don't do any harvesting yourself, most of these things can be bought at a grocery store, or at a local farm. You can display squash, dried corn, herbs, and pumpkins. Other good items to include are fall leaves, flowers, or pictures/statues of animals.

As at any of the festivals, you should pay particular attention to what is happening in Nature at this time. Some places experience heavy rains, or leaves changing colors, or even the first snowfall. Celebrate all that is happening in Nature.

You may want to tell the story of Mabon to your children. You can find brief descriptions at these two websites:
http://www.maryjones.us/jce/mabon.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabon_ap_Modron. The myth of Mabon is so ancient that not much remains of it, but you and your children might have fun speculating on the details that are missing.

A ritual celebrating animals is especially fun for children. As the God at this time is the protector of wild animals, it's especially appropriate to do this ritual at the Fall Equinox. Start by placing lots of animal symbols. Feel free to use toys, stuffed animals, and even animal crackers. If you cast a circle, call in the animals associated with each direction and imitate their sounds. For east/air, call birds, for their mastery of flight and superior vision; for south/fire, call lions for their courage and golden color, or the small, fleet-footed animals that hunt and fight; for west/water, call whales, dolphins, seals, and fish; for north/earth, call the largest animals, the bears and elephants, the elk and moose, or those that live in the ground: rabbits, gophers, or ferrets. You may invoke the Goddess as the Lady, Protector of Animals, and the God as Mabon, the powerful Horned One who protects wildness and freedom. Have your children call on the spirits of the animals they care about. Start with pets or animals they know personally, then move to animals that are wild but frequently seen. Then move to wild animals who live in your region, then to all the other animals in the world. Your children can state that they care for these animals, and ask for the God and Goddess to protect them. Raise powerful, protecting energy by imitating these animals in sound and movement. Once the energy has reached it's culmination, ground everyone by quietly asking for a blessing of the earth and all the animals, and all the people who work to protect Nature. Share food and water, and when you're ready, open the circle.

As a traditional Thanksgiving feast is part of many homes in November, it would probably be too much to prepare another one for the Fall Equinox. Instead, prepare one favorite dish for each person in the family. At the table, share what you're thankful for and encourage your children to do the same. If your children don't want to share aloud, have a few moments of silence to think about what they have to be grateful for.

Another way to celebrate the Fall Equinox is by giving back some of the wonderful gifts we have received. You can do something for the environment (pick up trash, volunteer at an animal shelter, or look for conservation events in your area. You can also give back to people - serve meals at a soup kitchen, bake cookies for the residents in a nursing home, or attend a cultural event outside your normal realm of beliefs and traditions.

Create a necklace or altar adornment by stringing corn kernels from your decorative corn (sometimes called Indian corn). Pop the kernels off using a fork or a dime, then soak in water for four to eight hours to soften them. Thread a tapestry needle with embroidery floss (if possible, run the thread through beeswax to strengthen it) and pierce through the bottom. You can create a single strand, or twist several together, or alternate colors to make a pattern.

To honor animals on your altar, make your own animal figures out of applesauce and cinnamon. Start with equal parts applesauce and cinnamon (one cup of each, perhaps) and stir slowly until all the cinnamon is mixed in. Keep adding more cinnamon until the mixture is firm and easy to roll out, but not dry. Use miniature animal-shaped cooking cutters to cut out animals about a quarter of an inch thick. If the weather is dry, you can leave them in the sun, or otherwise put them in the oven at the lowest setting for two hours or so.

Baked apples are a great treat to have on the Fall Equinox. Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Core the apples (using a melon baller or grapefruit knife if you don't have a corer), leaving the bottoms intact. Remove the skin from the top inch of the apples. Put the apples into a shallow pan filled with about a half inch of apple cider. Add a teaspoon of sugar into each apple hole, plus a pinch of cinnamon. Bake for almost an hour, basting the apples with the cider every 15 minutes or so. Serve warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, honey, maple syrup, granola, raisins, or nuts.

All in all, keep things light and fun for your children. If they don't want to participate in a formal ritual, don't force them - that can be saved for after they're in bed. Focus on giving thanks to the Earth and appreciating everything that is happening in Nature at this time of year.