Welcome Fall! The kids are back in school. The weather is turning colder. We went to Yankee Peddler. Pumpkin Spice Late is back at Starbucks. All of these things mean that it's fall, but it's not OFFICIALLY fall until the Autumnal Equinox. For those of you that don't know, the Autumnal Equinox is the day in the earth's revolution when my mother and her "friends" dress in black hats and dance around a fire in the forest. Also when the sun is in line with the Earth's equator and the days and nights are equal in length.
If you noticed, a few nights ago we had a beautiful full moon. It was the Harvest Moon, so named because, "Before artificial lighting, farmers took advantage of the full moon's light to harvest their crops. In late summer and early autumn, many crops ripen all at once, making lots of work for farmers who had to stay in the fields after sundown to harvest all the goods. Such moonlight became essential to their harvest, and the Harvest Moon emerged, according to NASA."
I've said before, I love autumn. I'm not sure what it is about the cooler weather and the changing leaves, but it's easily my favorite season. Evan loves it too, but for different reasons. (Football). I love Halloween, of course, but just the whole fall season, hearty soups and stews, winter squash dishes, baked breads and warm cider (cold cider too for that matter!) makes me was to celebrate fall, simply just as a season.
While looking online for the Autumnal Equinox information, I came across a site How to Celebrate the Autumnal Equinox: 11 Steps. Love it! I'm not a Christinan, but I celebrate Christmas and Easter. I'm not Jewish, but we've been know to celebrate Shabbot, Rosh Hashanah, Passover and Purim. Why not throw a little Wiccan in there too, just for good measure? How do you celebrate autumn?
1. Understand the meanings associated with the autumnal equinox. This is the day when both the daytime and nighttime are of the same length, which has been long interpreted to mean that the world is in balance. Once the autumnal equinox passes, the nights begin to get longer and the temperatures will start to fall. Autumn is a time of dual purpose––it is time to gather the main harvests and it is time to determine what is needed for the upcoming winter. This is also about balance and as such, fall is considered the season of balance, a time during which you can restore balance to your own life.
2. Consider staying up during the night to welcome autumn. Many people like to welcome in fall by remaining awake all night, to honor the equal length of day and night. Perhaps tie this in with a celebration with friends, by holding a small dinner party which features autumn flavors, such as squash, pears and apples. If you're not so keen on an all-night vigil, stay up until midnight instead.
3.Build or set up a monument to autumn. If you want to share your joy at the arrival of fall, consider building or placing a monument featuring autumnal items like pumpkins and straw in your yard. Ideas for what to do include a scarecrow or an animal you like, a pattern, or even spelling out words such as "Welcome to fall!". Your monument could also be an expression of your gratitude for the harvest from the Earth.
4.Be creative. For those who love craft, it's a great time to start some fall-inspired craft. There are all sorts of fall crafts you might like to try. A few ideas include: Carve some shrunken apple heads, make leaf prints, craft a fall wreath, frame fall foliage for decorationand use harvested corn to make corn stalk decorations. For those who love food craft, fall is the ideal time to get into making preserves, pickles, bottles of drink, sauces and frozen goodies.
5.Make a list of your inner harvest. An inner harvest refers to all the achievements and experiences that you have had or felt during the past few seasons. This is a way of restoring gratitude into your life, as you realize what you have done and how you have coped with challenges during the past months.
6.Express your fall awe. If you're a photographer, artist or writer, try to capture the essence of fall in photo, artwork or word form. Don't just focus on the changing leaves and bountiful harvests; consider the deeper meanings of the season as they resonate with you. Perhaps this is a time of necessary change for you and expressing this through your creativity is a great way to get started.
7.Contemplate. This is a season when the buzzing activity of summer dies down and the excitement of life outdoors begins to relax into the more evenly paced, more predictable rhythm of fall. Think about the ways you have neglected your inner growth and how this might be remedied.
8.Seek to improve your health. This is as good a time as any to restore healthful balance to your life. There are delicious foods from harvest to help you cleanse and keep to a healthy diet at this time of year, such as apples, grapes, peaches, plums, pears, watermelon, celery, squash, eggplants, tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers and more. All of these healthy foods can be incorporated into a healthful lifestyle diet that keeps you fit and energetic. Where you can, support the growers of organic produce, which helps to sustain healthier soils and wildlife as part of the growing balance.
9.Turn your home into a haven. Fall is the time of the year when people begin to turn from outdoor pursuits and start moving back indoors more often. (Of course, this shouldn't stop you from making the most of the glorious sunny fall days outside!) This is a good time to restore balance in the home, to give it a spruce up before the upcoming fall celebrations such as Halloween and Thanksgiving come and before winter arrives. Add some fall decorations to bring on the festive fall spirit.
10.Get into your garden. After summer and after the harvests, your garden needs some tender loving care to ready it for winter. The autumnal equinox is a good day to jot down a plan for the following weeks of garden care ahead, to keep you organized and enthused about readying it for the colder months. It's also the ideal time to plant some crops that will produce during fall or even into winter, such as cauliflower, lettuce, red beet, radishes and shallots. Plan for when spring bulbs should be planted too, as many must be dug into the ground during fall.
11.Honor your ancestors. In Japan, it is traditional to visit the graves of ancestors around the time of the autumn equinox. This is a thoughtful tradition to build on for your own life, as a way of reconnecting with the past of your family and to remind yourself of your valuable place in the family tree.
I know that I'm not going to do all of these, (I already missed the staying up all night one--Caden would have LOVED to have done that!) but there are a few good things in here that I'd like to try. If you try any of these (I'm super excited to think of something fun for the "Monument to Autumn"!) let me know. Now my mom has more to do on the Equinox than dance around the fire.
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