Autumn Equinox

Autumn Equinox 23rd September by Jane Lyle

You could, if you like, eat a traditional Chinese moon cake filled with lotus today - it's the autumn equinox, when the Sun rises due east, and sets due west creating a night and day of equal length in some parts of the earth.

At numerous neolithic sites the Sun's rays will pierce through the portals of ancient stone circles, marking the calendar date more poetically than your technology of choice. We reach a turning point, a transition. In China, this day was celebrated as a mid-autumn or Moon festival, a tradition dating back thousands of years, and a day celebrated or marked in many cultures. For the ancient Celts, too, this was a mid-season festival redolent with the spirit of autumn which began, in their calendar, in August at the very beginning of the harvest, Lughnasad.

The long dark nights of winter are coming, and in many cultures the spirits of the dead are believed to begin to make their presence more keenly felt. As my dear grandmother used the say, 'the veil is thin', meaning that the boundaries between this world and the next are easy to slip through and the ancestors are keen to have contact with us between now and December.

Over in Japan, the Buddhist festival of Higan is a national holiday at the autumn equinox, a time of honouring the ancestors and their graves. Higan means 'other shore', which is the other shore of the river that divides our world from the lands of the dead. The ancestors get rice balls for their special treat.

We tend to think today is about the beginning of autumn (or spring if you live in the southern hemisphere), but I prefer the ancient Celtic system which is more in tune with nature. It's a time of looking back, and pausing for a while to reflect on what's been achieved and experienced. And an excellent time to set your intentions and goals for the next three months up until the Winter Solstice in December.  Yes, back to school whatever your age. And a great excuse to eat ginger cake.