Autumn Equinox

Happy Autumn Equinox everybody! I know here in Edmonton, and a few places across Canada, have felt like they skipped this season all together and headed straight for Winter... I'm glad to hear that the weather voodooists are forecasting Autumn like weather! Yesterday it was 13ish degrees Celsius, today it's supposed to get to 16... By the weekend, 20 degrees =0)

Until the age of about 13-14, I thought I was an Autumn Baby. After looking at a calendar, then asking what the Autumn Equinox was - I figured out that technically, I was a summer baby... Granted it was always literally the last day or two of summer, but I still had a summer birthday. (Even though I still had to go to school when I was at that age, unlike real summer birthdays!)

I wasn't sure why Summer and Winter had a Solstice where as Spring and Fall had an Equinox... What was the difference? According to http://www.athropolis.com/sunrise/def-sol2.htm, the difference is that in Spring and Fall, day and night are roughly the same length. In the Northern Hemisphere, Summer has more day light than dark night and in Winter, the opposite, there is more dark than daylight.... No kidding, right? So I checked Dictionary.com for their definition. Solstice came back as "Either of the two times a year when the sun is at it's greatest distance from the celestial equator." And Equinox is defined, also by Dictionary.com, as "the time when the sun crosses the plane of the Earth's equator, making night and day of approximatelly equal length all over the world." (In Latin, Equinox literally means "equal light.") So basically, the only difference is the amount of light and dark during the day...

I also wondered if there were any celebrations relating to the Autumn Equinox. I googled it of course and came back with Mabon. On, or around September 21st (My birthday!), Pagans & Wiccans take time to honor the changing season and celebrate the second harvest and give thanks for their crops and other blessings. (Sounds like Thanksgiving to me.) Some Pagan/Wiccans are also drawn to Stonehenge for this festival. It's a place to meditate/reflect, perform an energy cleanse, and to celebrate the equal light and dark prior to the winter when darkness looms.

I really couldn't find anything else out about the Autumn Equinox. To sum things up, this time of year is when the harvesting takes place and day and night are becoming more equal, it's a time to reflect and to give thanks.

Happy Autumn Equinox to all! It's not always about me, and when it comes to Seasonal change - it definatelly not revolving around me!