What is the Equinox All About?

An interesting fact is that if we looked once a year, we would see that the stars move retrograde about one degree every seventy years. That means the equinox falls on a different constellation about every 2,000 years. It takes approximately 24,000 (some say 26,000) years for the equinox to move through the 12 constellations. Some researchers say this is what the Aztec calendar is predicting, not the end of the world.

Since the days of electric lights and modern comforts, many people don’t spend much time contemplating the night sky. Ancient people were well aware of the seasons and what it meant to their lives. The solstices and equinoxes were known thousands of years ago. There are many stone markers that line up with sunrise or sunset on these auspicious days.

In the northern hemisphere the night becomes longer than the day. Fall is not just a season of leaves, but is the fall of the sun, or son, to many people. It is a time marked by Christians as Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael, the Archangel, protector against the dark of night.

To many cultures, the fall equinox was a time of reflection and a time to ready for winter. At the North Pole, it signals the season of darkness.

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Parsees consider time to be linear, from a beginning to an end. Other cultures and religions see time as a cycle with no beginning and end.

To the Chumash Indians of southern California it was a tradition in September to ready for the winter and to hold gatherings and discuss the significance of the season. Elders warned that the warm weather would not last and they must prepare for winter.

The Solstice, in Japan is a national holiday called Shunbun-no-hi or Higan No Chu-nichi. It is both a seasonal and a Buddhist celebration. It is a time to visit the graves of their ancestors to clean and leave gifts of incense, flowers and food.

In China, the equinox is a mid-autumn observance called the Moon Festival where an abundant harvest is celebrated. One of the main foods on this occasion is a moon cake filled with dried fruit, a duck egg or sesame seeds.

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Many of the stories are about a god or goddess who is born or reborn in the spring and dies, or vanishes in the fall. The stories of Mabon and Persephone are just two of such tales

In ancient Greece it was a time when the Goddess Persephone returned to the underworld to be with her husband Hades until the spring when she would be reunited with her Earth Mother Demeter. The equinox was a time of reflection and rituals for protection.

To Pagans, it is a time to celebrate Mabon, one of the eight Sabbats. It is the second harvest celebration and time to start winter preparations. Mabon, Son of the Light is stolen from his mother’s side when only 3 days old. There are varying stories about how he is found but one says he was hidden in his mother’s womb, the ultimate underworld and returned at the winter solstice.