AI Summary
5 min readMabon is only about 55 years old. The name comes from a Welsh god, Mabon ap Modron, who appears in the medieval Welsh text The Mabinogion as a hero rescued from captivity as a baby. But the ancient Celts and Druids never celebrated an autumnal equinox festival at all—at Stonehenge, nothing special happens on that day. The modern pagan holiday was invented in the 1960s and 70s by a scholar named Aidan Kelly, who was assembling the "wheel of the year" for neo-paganism. He needed a name for the autumnal equinox sabbat and couldn't find a Gaelic or Germanic one, so he borrowed Mabon from Welsh mythology because he saw a parallel with the Greek myth of Persephone being rescued from the underworld—both stories involve a young figure being freed. "He's like, 'I think this is enough of an association to call this Mabon,'" Chuck explains.
The wheel of the year and the three harvests
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:09) **Welcome to Mabon** - Josh and Chuck introduce the autumnal equinox celebration known as Mabon, calling it the "pagan Thanksgiving"
- 2 (02:56) **The Three Harvest Festivals** - Josh outlines the sequence of harvest celebrations from August through October
- 3 (03:56) **The Origin of the Name "Mabon"** - The term is only about 55 years old and comes from a Welsh god
- 4 (04:47) **How Mabon Got on the Wheel of the Year** - Aidan Kelly made a creative connection between Greek mythology and Welsh mythology
- 5 (06:08) **Global Equinox Celebrations** - Other cultures around the world have long marked the autumnal equinox
- 6 (09:18) **How to Celebrate Mabon** - Practical suggestions for observing Mabon, even for non-pagans
- 7 (10:48) **Reflection and Release** - The unique energy of the autumnal equinox encourages letting go
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Show Notes
Mabon is often called the Pagan Thanksgiving but though it seems like it’s as ancient as Halloween, it’s actually only around 50 years old. But, pagan or not, it’s a great chance to really feel the fall and thank Mother Earth.
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