The Ritual Of Mabon

Art by Dorothy Lathrop, 1930

There was a time when the movement of the planets above us and the earth below us alone marked the passage of time. Before clocks and calendars were invented to explain time, the Ancients walked in step with the world they inhabited, building ritual observations into a foundation stone of their lives.

In Pagan tradition, Mabon celebrations would be held tonight to give thanks for the harvest of the season just past. Crops were stored for the long cold days ahead. The first fire was lit and kept burning until Spring returned. Wine and warming feasts were shared in communities to band them together, fortifying connection to survive the cloistered Winter months ahead. (In the Northern hemisphere this day is Ostara, a tradition rebranded by Christianity as Easter).

For over 3000 years Iranians have marked this day as their New Year, celebrated in the Zoroastrianism tradition as determined by ages old Persian astronomy. No-Ruz celebrations last for 12 days and preparations include cleaning and clearing homes and spaces, dressing in new clothes. Lentils are sprouted in flat dishes days prior, their tender green shoots called Sabzeh reflecting the new beginning.

During both equinoxes in Japan ancestors are honoured in a Buddhist tradition known as Higan, a beautiful word that literally translates as "the other shore". Reverence of those who came before enhances the chain of connection throughout generations and is a sacred nod to the history of any culture which is interwoven into its future.

Every culture and race has traditions and rituals to observe the changes in the natural world and joins their physical, emotional and spiritual lives to them. This is how we are wired and has framed our existence from the earliest times. And weaved within them is a magic that feeds our hungry souls.

The mystery religions were instituted in order to protect the marvels of the commonplace from those who would devalue them.
~ Peter Redgrove


Words c. Kerrie Basha 2016