Did You Know Thursday – Autumnal Equinox

Did you know that people have celebrated the Autumnal equinox since ancient times?

I realize that I’m a few days late on the Autumnal Equinox this year, but it was pretty close to a Did You Know Thursday, so I had to take advantage. This year the equinox fell on Monday, September 23, 2019. Ah, the first official day of fall, my (and a lot of other peoples) favorite season!

Did you know that the Autumnal Equinox doesn’t always fall on the same day?

Each year the equinox falls sometime between September 21-24.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the equinox corresponds with the fall harvest, and many ancient harvest celebrations occur around this equinox as well. The reverse is true in the Southern Hemisphere, where the September Equinox marks the start of Spring.

As the Earth orbits the sun, it tilts at a fixed angle. This means that for half of the year, the North Pole is tilted a little more toward the sun. This brings longer days to the Northern Hemisphere and the opposite is true in the Southern Hemisphere, where they experience less sunlight during this time.

The September Equinox marks the time when the North Pole has tilted slightly away from the sun making it so that we in the Northern Hemisphere experience less sunlight. The equinox itself marks the time in the year when this transition occurs. Interestingly, at the time of the equinox neither pole is closest to the sun, the equator is!

Ancient cultures measured time differently than we do today. You see, they didn’t have clocks to calculate minutes of day or night, however, they did measure the sun’s position in the sky geometrically.

As you would imagine, people eventually noticed that the sun’s rising and setting points moved slightly throughout the year. Archeologists believe that quite a few pre-historic sites were used by ancient peoples to track the position of the sun in the sky and predict both equinoxes and solstices. However, keep in mind that equinoxes and Solstices are not the same things. One such site is Stonehenge, and another is Newgrange in the UK. Also, the Majorville Medicine Wheel in Alberta, Canada.

‘The Return of Persephone’ by Frederic Leighton, 1891. Wikimedia.

Greek mythology suggests the September equinox is closely linked to the story of the abduction of Persephone (goddess of underworld, springtime, flowers, and vegitation) . You see, she was abducted from her mother, the harvest goddess, Demeter, and taken to the underworld to be the wife of Hades. After a struggle, Demeter did get Persephone back from Hades but only for 9 months of the year. The Autumnal equinox marked the return of the Goddess Persephone to the darkness of the underworld, where she reunited with her husband, Hades. During the months when Persephone was stuck in the underworld Demeter would refuse to allow anything to grow.

The Romans held a festival dedicated to Pomona, goddess of fruits and growing things.

The Harvest Moon and Fall equinox have been celebrated in China since the Shang Dynasty. The ancient Chinese celebrated the successful harvest of rice and wheat and made offerings to the moon.

Higan is a 6 day celebration by some Japanese Buddhists and takes place twice a year on both the Spring and Fall equinoxes. Higan means “other shores” and signifies the spirits of the dead reaching Nirvana. This is a time when Japanese Buddhists return to their hometowns and pay respect to their ancestors by visiting, cleaning, and decorating graves.

UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2007, Chichen Itza’s El Castillo was named one of the New Seven Wonders. Photo by: Dronepicr

The Mayans built their ancient temples using advanced astronomical calculations and at the precise moment of the equinox, the Sun shines directly on the equator. An enormous snake of sunlight slithers down the stairs of the main pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico. How cool?

Navaratri is a Hindu festival that lasts several days and honors the divine feminine Devi and is celebrated in the first half of the Hindu calendar, which takes place in September and October.

In Britain, there have been celebrations for the Autumnal equinox since pagan times. Festivals to celebrate the fall harvest were traditionally held on the Sunday nearest to the Harvest Moon.

During the French Revolution, the government implemented a new yearly calendar. Each new year began at midnight on the day of the autumn/fall equinox. This was an attempt to get rid of the calendar of religious or royal influence. It was eventually abolished by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806.

Interestingly, English settlers took the harvest festival customs with them when they settled in America. These traditions morphed into our modern-day holiday, Thanksgiving.

Neopagans, or modern pagans, celebrate a feast called Mabon on the Autumnal equinox. This harvest feast is generally a time to celebrate the gifts from the Earth. It is a time to give thanks to the summer and prepare for the darkness of winter. It is also a time to prepare for Samhain (look for a Did You Know Thursday on this late in October). In the UK, followers of Wicca, druids, and pagans gather at Stonehenge.