The Equinox Has Arrived!

Happy first day of fall!

Or is it?

Meteorological autumn, in fact, began on September 1; September 22 simply marks the autumnal equinox, the second time in the calendar year when the days and nights are of equal length (well, also depending upon which latitude you are situated at!).

Here's more information about what happens on the autumnal equinox, from Space.com.

This day is also the celebration called "Mabon." "Mabon is a pagan holiday, and one of the eight Wiccan sabbats celebrated during the year...[i]t also celebrates the mid-harvest festival (also known as the second harvest)...[t]o celebrate this holiday, pagans might pick apples. Apples are a common symbol of the second harvest." Read more about Mabon from this article from the Boston Public Library and also at The Goddess and the Greenman.

Here at Autumn Hollow we think of autumn as our "social season": first the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain Park, then Taste of Smyrna three miles "up the road." The North Georgia State Fair usually opens around this date, but we don't usually attend because it's still too warm. Following will be the Georgia Apple Festival north of us in Ellijay, the Friends of the Library Book Sale, and then perhaps the little magical convention "Conjuration" at the beginning of November.

This is followed by Veteran's Day, of particular interest to my husband and myself because both our fathers were in the service, and then what's my favorite holiday after Christmas, Thanksgiving.

It's also a time of changing leaves and cooler weather, "the sweater weather" I love best, and autumn foods like fresh-picked apples, cinnamon-flavor things, and warm soups. All hail autumn!