Mabon (also known as the Autumn Equinox) is just around the corner. It’s a Pagan holiday honoring the balance of day and night at harvest time, falling on September 22 or 23. Choose your decorations to match your theme. Plan your feast to take advantage of the season’s abundance. Here are some ideas for you to consider.
Mabon Foods
Traditional Mabon foods include seasonal vegetables and fruits. This holiday is also associated with nuts, pomegranate seeds, grapes, and the roasted meat of sheep and geese. You can find some Mabon recipes online or in cookbooks such as Cooking To The Wheel of the Year
Grains such as wheat, corn, and soybeans are currently being harvested in many areas. They relate to harvest figures such as the Corn King, John Barleycorn, Corn Mother, Ceres, Demeter, and so forth. Breads baked into human shapes are particularly popular.
Fall vegetables include squash, potatoes, and beans. Baked squash stuffed with nuts is a Mabon favorite. Soup made with many types of beans is a symbol of abundance: common numbers include 5, 9, 13, 15, and 19 beans with the maximum being 23. You can often find packages of mixed dried beans at the store.
Fall fruits range from the common apples and pears to less familiar woodland fruits like persimmons. Dual-purpose and cooking apples ripen in the fall, including some that are good for storage. Baked or roasted apples, and apple pies or stuffings, are popular for Mabon. Apple cider is a good beverage (either nonalcoholic or hard cider). Pears poached in wine are particularly appropriate for honoring Bacchus or other deities of the vine. Persimmons must be fully ripe and mushy before they are eaten, or else they are extremely bitter. They appear in cakes and puddings at this time.
Nuts are a characteristic fall food. Walnuts and hazelnuts can be eaten fresh. Acorns require blanching to remove the bitter tannins. Peanuts are usually roasted to improve their flavor. Nuts are often served whole for cracking. However, nut stuffing is another autumn tradition. Consider a salmon stuffed with hazelnuts for a Celtic feast!
Pomegranate is the fruit of Death, which Hades fed to his queen Persephone so that she would return to help him rule the Underworld. Serve this fruit whole so that the seeds may be cut free and eaten, or look for pomegranate juice at the supermarket. Pomegranate sorbet is well worth making for its deep garnet color and bold flavor.
Grapes and wine honor Bacchus, Dionysus, and similar deities of fermentation and revelry. In some areas this is the season for picking the wine grapes and setting up the new wine. Casks of seasoned wine are often broached at this time. Consider obtaining a barrel of decent wine if you are hosting a really huge event. It’s not a cheap presentation but people sure will remember it.
Fresh meat from domestic animals is often served at Mabon, although the main butchering season comes later. Roast mutton or goose are among the most popular choices.
Mabon Decoration Ideas
Your decorations should suit your selected theme for Mabon. A few well-chosen items that harmonize with each other will look better than a jumble of everything you could find. For additional inspiration, browse books such as Mabon: Celebrating the Autumn Equinox
Colors: Mabon’s colors are those of autumn leaves: red, orange, yellow, and brown. The gold, blond, and russet tones of ripe grain comprise another set, as do the burgundy, maroon, and purple of wine and grapes. Mabon greens are forest, olive, and pine shades.
Flowers: For this holiday, autumn flowers are appropriate, especially chrysanthemums and marigolds which bloom in golds and reds. Zinnias, sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, and some wildflowers may still be blooming too.
Leaves: Garlands or wreaths of grape leaves are traditional for this holiday. Oak leaves are also good. Alternatively, use bunches of any leaf already turning color; maple, sweetgum, and saskatoon show beautiful hues. Grapevines, ivy, or other vines may be twined into wreaths — an excellent craft activity.
Incense: Many fragrances of this season evoke the forests including cedar, oakmoss, patchouli, pine, and sandalwood. Sage and sweetgrass bring up the bittersweet smell of an autumn meadow. Benzoin and myrrh are resins relating to age, memory, death, and preservation.
Music: Rattles and drums are popular Mabon instruments, along with horns for hunting. Ideally, choose handheld rattles made from gourds or anklet rattles made from deer toes. Consider seasonal tracks such as “Mabon” or “John Barleycorn (Must Die)
Altar Tools: These primarily relate to harvest. There is the cornucopia, or “horn of plenty,” and the gathering basket. The scythe and bolline are cutting instruments for harvesting grains and herbs.
Grain and Nuts: Characteristic decorations of Mabon include cornstalk tipis and ears of Indian corn. Acorns and pine cones may be hung in bunches or piled in bowls. Gourds come in many colors and shapes, some of them suitable for making birdhouses, rattles, dippers, or other crafts — another fun Mabon activity.
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