2004: When I began this seasonal page in 1999, its focus was solely on the autumnal equinox -- many of the page's links still reflect that focus.  But over the past five years I have added so many other autumn harvest festivals (e.g., Greek, Slavic, Japanese, Native American, Thanksgiving, etc) that the page has really become about the season of autumn as a whole.  I hope you'll enjoy the links related to this larger perspective as well as those focused on the equinox. (Note: separate pages still exist for October's Halloween and November's Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.)

"Music of Autumn"
Artist: V. Sinelnikova
Fedoskino (2002)
Courtesy of Tradestone International

Author's Note:
4 & 5 August 2004

As the world knows, there will be a crucial election in the United States this autumn.  As the election nears, I am increasingly haunted by the theme of my essay in 2000 for the first winter solstice of this new millennium  --

...in this first winter season of the new millennium, I look back to Christmas of 1900, and to the cluster of years following that date.  The writers, artists, composers, and thinkers of that era were so significant -- and yet strangely quaint -- as if for all their brilliance they had no idea of the changes that would soon be common knowledge to those born only a few years after the turn of the century, to say nothing of those of us born in the 1940's, and the '50's, '60's, '70's '80's, and '90's.

Those living in 1900 seem so old-fashioned to us now, so protected and encapsulated, so privileged and arrogant.  They lived in dangerous times, but they were too unaware and unawake to know it.  And so we look back at them in their funny top hats, stiff gait, gold buttons, their stuffy archdukes, their women who couldn't vote, their repressed children, and we think how much smarter, more enlightened, we are than they.

But one day, people will look back and think similar things about us.  It's odd to feel so modern, even post-modern, while at the same time recognizing that from the perspective of the future, we're already quaint, out-of-date, cocooned, and clueless about what lies decades, or even a few years, ahead.  To those being born in the 2040's, '50's, and beyond, we're already ancient....

Yet we too live in dangerous times.

May we spend this time wisely so that at least we won't be seen as foolish or reckless.  Those born later in this century may not agree with us, but may they think of us as genial, full of humor, humble, and wise.  We're in a "thin space," as the Celts call it, a portal between the worlds.  Those who stood at that portal in the winter of 1900 brewed, all unknowing, two world wars.  May we brew, if not peace, at least a growing sense of humanity and compassion.  May we have the skill to defuse explosions.  May we be remembered as tolerant and awake.

There is much more I could write for this year's autumn equinox but I have decided instead to share with you a passage I recently came across as I was rereading a favorite novel from the last century, The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge (1958).  Sharing this seems more important to me than adding more of my own words.

The setting is England, beginning in 1642, a time when Oliver Cromwell and his Puritains were at war with Charles I for control of the nation.  A key character, Robert Haslewood, lord of a small manor and its adjoining village, has been swayed by Cromwell's harsh Puritain ideology and has taken up arms against the king.   Shortly before Christmas, Robert writes the local clergyman, elderly, saintly Parson Hawthyn, ordering him to burn the art and "heathen images" in the village's small church, and forbiding him to ring the bells on Christmas Day, to use vestments, or the Book of Common Prayer.  Saddened, Parson Hawthyn faces the fact that he cannot obey and take "another man's path for the sake of expediency or peace" (178).  He understands that some degree of light falls upon all paths -- but for him, that light falls most brightly upon the path he walks in the Church of England and he would lose his own integrity were he to forsake it.

When Robert returns home for Christmas, he discovers a small group of people, including his own twin children, Jenny and Will, happily festooning the church with evergreen boughs, flowers, herbs, a Nativity scene, and small wooden saints and angels carved by the parson.   Furious, Robert rages through the church, ignoring everyone's shock as he strips the little church of its homemade finery.  He drags everything out into the courtyard and sets it afire.  Unfortunately, the flames spread, engulfing Parson Hawthyn's pitiful little parsonage.  Stunned, Robert tries frantically to protect the parsonage, seriously burning his hands in the attempt.  He had never meant to harm the old man, only to eradicate all trace of "idolatry" from the church.

Then it is Christmas Day.  Robert by now is ill with fever, but determined to preach the Lord's Word in the church since he believes the homeless parson has fled from the area.  Suddenly, the distant bells, although forbidden, begin to peel out joyously, delighting the children.  An angry Robert gathers his family and they set off through the beechwood with his older cousin Froniga, a "white witch," part gypsy, part gentry, wise and beautiful.  And here is the passage I want to share with you:

     There was joy in Froniga's heart as she came behind with Jenny and Will, for through the whole of her sensitive being she was aware of blessedness.  It was the same sort of awareness that came to her sometimes on a winter's night in the middle of a storm.  She would go to her window, draw back the curtains and see that the driving clouds had parted as though a hand had drawn them aside like a curtain, and in a pool of tranquil sky she would see a few stars gleaming.  The storm was not over, it would rage on until it had blown itself out, but the depth of mercy beyond had shown itself.  That pool of sky held all the springtimes of the world.  And so it was with the storms that men in their wickedness chose to let loose upon the world.  They must spend themselves.  But now and then, through them and in spite of them, mercy shone, imposing some pattern upon the flux of things.  Froniga knew now, as the children had known for some while, that this was to be a happy Christmas... (230).

<><><><><><><><><><><>

   Let me conclude, as I do each autumn, with my prayer written some years ago for these pages and carried forward each year....

As autumn returns to earth's northern hemisphere,
and day and night are briefly,
but perfectly,
balanced at the equinox,
may we remember anew how fragile life is ----
human life, surely,
but also the lives of all other creatures,
trees and plants,
waters and winds.

May we make wise choices in how and what we harvest,
may earth's weather turn kinder,
may there be enough food for all creatures,
may the diminishing light in our daytime skies
be met by an increasing compassion and tolerance
in our hearts.

Kathleen

P.S. I chose the art for this webpage last winter and only learned this week that "Music of Autumn" will have a unique meaning this year.  Bruce Springsteen and many other well known musicians have announced a series of October  pre-election concerts in an attempt to influence the November election.  There is long-standing precedent for this: in medieval times, musicians and bards traveled from court to court, village to village, helping to form public opinion and enlivening the social, moral, and political consciousness of people, poor and rich, all across Europe.  If you wish to read "Chords for Change," Springsteen's 5 August 2004 New York Times essay on his decision, please click here.

Relevant Autumnal Dates and Times for the year 2004:

Autumn Equinox arrives when the sun enters Libra:
Wednesday, 22 September 2004 at 0430 GMT,
12:30 pm EDT,
9:30 am PDT.

Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Wednesday, 15 September 2004;
Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Friday, 24 September 2004;
the Jewish harvest festivel of Sukkot begins at sundown on Wednesday, 29 September 2004
(this is also the traditional Christian feastday of Michelmas. honoring Michael the Archangel);
the Islamic period of Ramadan begins at sundown around Friday, 15 October 2004 this year
(the actual date may vary by one or two days depending upon when the crescent moon is sighted).

http://www.geomancy.org/quarter&cross/autumn_equinox.html

FYI: for quick reference, the above site from Sig Lonegren gives an overview of times & science for autumn equinox. He also includes significant September dates along with a fine image of Michael the Archangel for Michelmas on 29 September.  [Note: his equinox times are not always accurate -- they are off by 12 hours for 2004; other data is fine.]

 http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/OM/BA/SF/FallEq.txt

[Added 8/26/02]: This is a plain-text page on ancient Greek festivals from c. 13 September through 13 October.

...Many of the Greek and Roman festivals of this season celebrate the end of the military campaigning season.  At the end of September and beginning of October, however, the emphasis shifts to the Corn Mothers and other agricultural deities.  In many Greek states the month beginning mid-September was called Demetrion after Demeter....

The page beings with the "Great (Eleusinian) Mysteries" of Demeter and Persephone (c. Sept. 29-Oct. 5), since these are, of course, the highlight of the season.  Then it backtracks to 13 September (for the Roman feast of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva) and continues forward to 13 October, the Roman Fontinalia, a festival for Fons, the god of springs.

[Added 8/26-27/02]:  This is a continuation of the above plain-text data: ancient Greek festivals from 22 October to 15 December.

...In the Greek and Roman worlds, there are comparatively few festivals in October and November, which is the seed-time (Gr. sporetos), a season of ploughing and sowing.  Women figure prominently in these festivals since in neolithic times they were responsible for crops raising (by the Bronze Age it became a male occupation)....

The details are wonderful and more information is given on the above-mentioned feasts of Apollo, Dionysus, and Theseus.  There is also fine data for the Thesmophoria (see below).

[Added 8/26-27/02]: From N.S. Gill, the ancient history guide at about.com, comes a fine page on the Greek harvest (or "Thanksgiving") festival, Thesmophoria, which falls during October-November (also see above link):

"It is called Thesmophoria, because Demeter is called Thesmophoros in respect of her establishing laws or thesmoiin accordance with which men must provide nourishment and work the land...."

Since the fall harvest must usually take an agricultural society through winter, it is vitally important for survival. Whatever power provides that bounty deserves praise.... [This festival was]...in honor of the goddess who taught mankind to tend the soil, during a month known as Pyanopsion (Puanepsion), according to the lunisolar calendar of the Athenians. Since our calendar is solar, the month doesn't exactly match, but Pyanopsion would be, more or less, October into November....

For more on this festival, as well as on Dionysiac celebrations, see an excellent essay at: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/classes/LAp.html

Detail of Greek ruins from opening art
on my 2004 Autumn Equinox page, "Music of Autumn"

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/OM/BA/GSF.html

[Added 8/26/02]: This is a very interesting page by John Opsopaus on three autumn festivals of ancient Greece -- these fall after the equinox but contain themes relevant to the entire season:

...Because Ancient Greek festivals were held according to a lunar calendar, which was often out of step with the solar year, it is difficult to say what festivals would correspond to Samhain.

In Homer's time the cosmical setting (first visible setting on western horizon at sunrise) of Orion, the Pleiades and the Hyades, which marked the beginning of the winter, herding season, occurred at the beginning of November (Nov. 5-10, by various computations). (Orion was the son of Poseidon and Euruale, daughter of Minos and sister of Ariadne, about whom more later.). Significantly, these constellations, which mark the seasons, are at the center of the Shield of Achilles (Iliad XVIII), that famous mandala of the Homeric Universe.

In classical Greek times there were several important festivals that nominally occur at the end of October and beginning of November. Two of these, which occur on the same day (7 Puanepsion), are especially interesting; they are followed on the next day by the Theseia (for Theseus), which is intimately connected with the first two....

Two of these festivals honor Apollo and Dionysus and are held on the same day.

...The Oskhophoria, in honor of Dionysos, occurs on the same day as the Puanepsia. It may seem odd to honor Apollo and Dionysos, so often taken as polar opposites, on the same day, but we must remember that They share Delphi, and this is the time of year when the changing of the guard occurs. An ancient pot shows Them shaking hands over the Omphalos (World Naval) at Delphi....

The third, Theseia, commemorates Theseus.  The author retells the story: "Ariadne and Theseus' Descent into the Labyrinth and Return."  The details are fascinating although it should be mentioned that the author has excluded other important ancient variants of the myth.  Nevertheless, the story includes the mysterious desertion of Ariadne by Theseus, followed by her marriage to Dionysus himself -- whose festival was celebrated only the day before.

[Added 8/26/02]:This is an engrossing, contemporary re-visioning of what might have been the ancient "Greek Ritual of the Labyrinth" (Ta Hiera Laburinthou) by John Opsopaus:

...This ritual is an initiation and celebration of new beginnings structured around the myth of Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur and associated Greek midautumn celebrations, which take place when Apollo yields Delphi to Dionysos for the winter months....

I have not had time to read the entire ritual (it's lengthy) but what impresses me is its mythopoetic quality and the deep psychological nuances.  Also, I appreciate the careful footnoting that links the Cretan labyrinth to displaced, but related themes, in Mesopotamian myths.

[Annotation revised 8/16/01]:   I first grokked Waverly Fitzgerald's School of the Seasons for my 1999 debut of the Autumn Equinox page.  Since then, her jewel of a site has become a favorite of mine and appears on all my seasonal pages.  The overall design is unusually tasteful and elegant.  Even more important, Fitzgerald has well-researched content on monthly celebrations, feasts, and cross-cultural holy days (with hypertext links to further information on many of these).  Her opening page also includes fascinating "Special Features" for each season.  Fitzgerald's command of lore is exceptional.

For each current month, she begins with a large number of names from various cross-cultural traditions.  Then a calendar follows.  If you click on hyperlinks for a particular day, you'll be linked to more detail on another page.  The September feasts, for example, include the Nativity of the Virgin on the 8th; Rosh Hashana; England's Day of the Holy Nut; the remembrance of the Virgin's Seven Sorrows; the God Pan; Yom Kippur; Autumn Equinox; the 9-day Eleusinian Mysteries; the Harvest Moon; Sukkoth;  the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival; and Michaelmas on the 29th.

NOTE: a new month's calendar appears on the first of each month (sometimes a night or two beforehand).

[Added 15 September 2000]:   This charming site looks at autumn and the autumnal equinox in Japan.  There are many (usually clickable) photos connected with the months of September, October, and November.  Text is fairly minimal but very useful to those unacquainted with Japan's seasonal customs.

From "Slavic Pagan Holidays" comes fine data on harvest festivals from early August to early November.  Autumn in Russia's cold Ukraine begins early -- it's celebrated on August 2nd, the feast known as St. Ilia's Day. The entire autumn season is a time of music, apples, honey, and grain sheaves:

...Sometimes the last sheaf ceremony was merged with the ritual surrounding a small patch of field that was left uncut. The spirit of the harvest was said to precede the reapers and hide in the uncut grain. This small patch was referred to as the "beard" of Volos, the God of animals and wealth. The uncut sheaves of wheat in "Volos' beard" were decorated with ribbons and the heads were bent toward the ground in a ritual called "The curling of the beard". This was believed to send the spirit of the harvest back to the Earth. Salt and bread, traditional symbols of hospitality were left as offerings to Volos' beard....

Dordona, the Hungarian Harvest Goddess
© Mary B. Kelly: see directly below

 http://www.marykellystudio.homestead.com/painting.html
          [URLs updated 8/18/01]

[Annotation revised 18 August 2001]:  This is the portfolio page of artist/professor Mary B. Kelly, whose vibrant painting (see above) of Hungary's "Black Goddess," the Harvest Goddess, Dordona, is not to be missed:

...Like her counterpart in Russia, her arms are raised. She is crowned by both the sun and the moon.

(Note: the larger version of Dordona, with text, is no longer available on this site, but you might e-mail Dr. Kelly if you wish to see it.   If you click on the menu buttons on her Portfolio page, you'll also find information on her groundbreaking books on goddess embroideries, etc.  On her Home Page, there's a large version of Dordona, by the way, but no text.)

The page offers links to paintings of many other goddesses, some of whom (e.g., Persephone & Demeter -- don't miss that one!) are also connected to autumnal harvest festivals.

[Added 20 August 2000]:...Mike Nichols' series of detailed, well written essays on earth-based pagan celebrations are always worth reading.  This is his page on the history and lore of autumn equinox, or "harvest home" (he prefers not to use the Welsh term, Mabon):

...Mythically, this is the day of the year when the god of light is defeated by his twin and alter-ego, the god of darkness. It is the time of the year when night conquers day....the only day of the whole year when Llew (light) is vulnerable and it is possible to defeat him. Llew now stands on the balance (Libra/autumnal equinox), with one foot on the cauldron (Cancer/summer solstice) and his other foot on the goat (Capricorn/winter solstice). Thus he is betrayed by Blodeuwedd, the Virgin (Virgo) and transformed into an Eagle (Scorpio)....

Nichols touches on many themes.  For example, Celtic Druids have long been accused of practicing human sacrifice at this time of the year.  Nichols looks at the lack of solid evidence and argues convincingly that what these ancient celebrations had instead was the "mock sacrifice" of seasonal sacred theatre.  It was a metaphoric sacrifice, in other words -- not a literal one.  He writes:

...Jesse Weston, in her brilliant study of the Four Hallows of British myth, 'From Ritual to Romance', points out that British folk tradition is...full of mock sacrifices.  In the case of the wicker-man, such figures were referred to in very personified terms, dressed in clothes, addressed by name, etc. In such a religious ritual drama, everybody played along....

[Added 20 August 2000]: Again from Mike Nichols comes this carefully researched essay examining the Celtic deities of light and dark and their role in both equinoxes.  If you're looking for fine mythology, don't miss this one.  For example:

[After Llew is slain]...The Welsh myth concludes with Gwydion pursuing the faithless Blodeuwedd through the night sky, and a path of white flowers springs up in the wake of her passing, which we today know as the Milky Way. When Gwydion catches her, he transforms her into an owl, a fitting symbol of autumn, just as her earlier association with flowers (she was made from them) equates her with spring. Thus, while Llew and Goronwy represent summer and winter, Blodeuwedd herself represents both spring and fall, as patron goddess of flowers and owls, respectively....

For the Celtic Connection comes Akasha's lively page on Mabon, the Celtic celebration of September's autumnal equinox:

...The Druids call this celebration, Mea'n Fo'mhair, and honor the Green Man, the God of the Forest, by offering libations to trees. Offerings of ciders, wines, herbs and fertilizer are appropriate at this time....Mabon is considered a time of the Mysteries. It is a time to honor Aging Deities and the Spirit World....

Akasha looks at Mabon's themes, symbols, herbs, foods, incense, colors, gems, spells, and deities.  If you click on the Holiday Index at the bottom of the page, you'll be given access to recipes, activities (for children and teens), and ritual (see below for a direct link to the autumn ritual...).

[This link from my original 1999 page has been expanded 8/21/04 for my 2004 page]:...This is a powerful, eloquent, lyrical harvest ritual from Akasha (see above). I love her sense of sacred theatre.  Here, for example, is one of the wonderful items included in the ritual:

*Find a fallen tree branch. It need not be a large one, for it will adorn your alter, then go on display in your home. The more smaller offshoots from the main branch, the better. Mine has four, which I think is awesome! Next, take a couple of pine cones, small shells, dried flowers, or any other item that reminds you of the late spring-summer months. With some string, tie each to the offshoots. Also take yarn or ribbon of yellows, oranges, reds, and gold and tie one end to the offshoots. Then, on very thin strips of (colored) paper, write down some projects to work on during the upcoming ' dark ' months. Wrap these around the offshoots (like little cocoons) and tie closed with silver thread. These you will open over the next couple of months when you start feeling lethargic or without a sense of direction. I tie on a couple of small bells, to add some ambiance to my ritual....

[Added 7/23/02 & annotated 8/21/04]:...This is a 1987 "Harvest Home Ritual" by Michael Fix.  I enjoy the poetic imagery in many of the invocations.  In casting the circle, for example, here is the invocation to the west:

...Facing West: Guardians of the watchtower of the west, we do summon, stir, and call thee up to protect us in our rite.  Come forth from the rainbow hued morning dew that covers the fields, and is soon to be frost.  Asperge us with your diadems and water our deepest roots that we may find peace of mind.  So mote it be!...

And this is the element of Air speaking:

...I am everywhere.  I fill the fleshy pouches of your lungs, I stir all things from the smallest blade of grass to the tallest tree. I cool you with my breezes and destroy you with my storms.  Without me you would die.  Am I not holy and worthy of praise?...

[9/2/03 -- the Celtic Connection link is now dead but I'm keeping the original annotation; 8/31/04: a kind and observant reader tracked down a new link -- see above -- and my thanks to Michaela]:

Also from the Celtic Connection comes this lovely and evocative little essay by C. Austin on the "in between" nature of the Celts' autumn:

. . . . We have bid farewell to summer, but the sun's light has not yet faded. Such is the style of in between. . . . Night is falling on the year. The equinox grants us a moment of reverie, before we rush on to year's end at Samhain.

[FYI: the above excerpt was written in the late 1990's and has since been replaced by new material for 2000; I assume the page will now be updated annually -- if not, just ignore the date and times of the autumnal equinox here.]

Rainbow, Crone-Corn, and Harvest Moon
(detail from Sandra Stanton's "Sacred Corn")

[Added 16 August 2001; expanded 20 August 2002]: From the Worldwide Wheat Weavers comes an attractively illustrated and informative little site on wheat-weaving and corn dollies:

...Objects made from dried straw are known to have been made in the earliest civilizations, practiced throughout Europe, Asia and South America. Harvest rituals occurred in every country where grain is grown in order to please the spirits of the crop. Abstract shapes or religious symbols made from straw were believed to insure prosperity and good luck in the next growing season.  Objects made with the heads of grain still on the stem were hung on inside walls where they safely made it through the winter.  These sacred grains were then planted the next season to assure the fertility of the entire crop....

This is "The Elders Speak: About Autumn," a page of wonderfully chosen, evocative, cross-cultural quotes about the fall season.  The page comes from the "Weather Doctor," Dr. Keith Heidorn, whose entire website on all aspects of weather (from science to philosophy to art) is a richly mulled pleasure where I love to browse.  Here is one selection from this page:

The wind that makes music in November corn is in a hurry. The stalks hum, the loose husks whisk skyward in half-playing swirls, and the wind hurries on.... A tree tries to argue, bare limbs waving, but there is no detaining the wind.  [Aldo Leopold]

Note: from this page, you can get to his home page and from there to his no-frames site map, or click here for a direct link: http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/general/site_map.htm

[Added 8/21/04]:...This is another page of autumn quotes with excellent selections.  This one caught my eye tonight:

But now in September the garden has cooled, and with it my possessiveness.  The sun warms my back instead of  beating on my head ... The harvest has dwindled, and I have grown apart from the intense midsummer relationship that brought it on."  [Robert Finch]

[Added 15 September 2000]:  This is a fine little essay on Mabon by "Lance" -- he looks at the season's Wine Moon, Harvest Moon, Corn Man, Wicker Man, and also offers some wonderful suggestions for celebrating the season - for example:

...go through your garden, tending it, thanking the plants and flowers for their abundance, harvesting whatever is ready, collecting seeds; make a mandala of seeds and grains on the ground, an offering of the Mother's gifts to the animals and birds; infuse it with specific magick that will be released as the seeds are consumed or scattered; honor the elders in your circle or your life in some special way....

[Added 8/22/02; annotated 8/21/04]:...This is a nice introduction to Mabon from Lady Bridget.  Along the way, she touches on America's Thanksgiving celebration:

...The reasons the American Thanksgiving is so late in November are twofold: firstly, the Pilgrim's were ignorant of the growing season and had the Indians not gone and brought in the harvest, they all would have died during that first bitter winter; secondly, the United States government changed the date of Thanksgiving to always be the fourth Thursday of the month, so that more shopping days could be added for Christmas shopping, thus improving our economy at that time. (But that's another story for another holiday!)...

She also looks at the autumn season's "Wine Moon":

...The Harvest Moon was also referred to as the Wine Moon, because the grapes also ripen now in the wine making countries. The first wine dieties were female, and wine is one of the oldest libations known to us; it symbolizes the blood of the Sacrificed God in many religions....

[Added 8/25/02]:This is an engaging essay, "Lore and Magick of the Harvest," by Asherah, who belongs to Widdershins, a wiccan group in the Pacific Northwest.  She begins with her childhood Thanksgiving celebrations:

As a child, I found the only harvest celebration I knew about, Thanksgiving, pretty pallid. It didn't involve the provocative personae of Halloween; you could dress up, but you had to be an Indian or a Pilgrim, and you only dressed up at school, and that only if there were a pageant. There, it was more socially acceptable to be a Pilgrim than an Indian; the Indians provided the food, but the Pilgrims ran things. But the Pilgrims wore boring outfits. I had no use for the affair....

Then she broadens her framework to include a wide cross-cultural range of more interesting, vibrant harvest festivities found from the Old World to the New World.  Here are some samples:

...Often pagan harvest celebrations involved a whole series of festivities, of which I still generally approve, starting with a rite offering up the first fruits and culminating with a ritual centering around the final harvest. The Iroquois of the northeastern United States have a typical succession, beginning in June and lasting through early November, including feasts for the spirits of the strawberry, raspberry, bean, green corn and ripe corn and a final thanksgiving for all types of food.

The pinnacle of the harvest celebration depends on the nature of the local produce. The South American Mataco and Choroti Indians' rituals center around the algarroba harvest; Native Americans from the Andes to the northeastern United States build rituals around corn; Mediterranean peoples celebrate the vintage; Lithuanians celebrate the rye harvest. The timing of harvest celebrations also depends on geographical location. Corn ripens for the Native Americans of Mexico in June, for the Iroquois around September, and the corn harvest celebration follows accordingly....

The author doesn't provide a bibliography, but I was nonetheless struck by her passage on Slavic grain-dolls as Babas, or "Grandmothers":

...People in early European societies saw the Harvest Queen or harvest doll as the embodiment of the spirit of the crop. Keeping her safe over the winter ensured fertility for the following harvest, provided that some part of her was given to cattle or horses to eat, strewn on the fields or mixed with the next crop's seeds. However, over time, the belief in the doll as the spirit of the growing grain incarnate gave way to its being merely a symbol of abundance.

In their heyday, harvest dolls popped up all over Europe.... In Poland, the harvest doll was Baba, or Grandmother; in some localities, the woman who bound the last sheaf was herself called Baba. She was dressed in the last sheaf, carried home on the last wagon, drenched with water and generally treated as a representation of the grain spirit.

This gives an intriguingly different nuance to interpretations of the famous Russian story of Vasilisa and the usually frightening crone known as the Baba Yaga.  In that fairy tale, Vasilisa's mother leaves her daughter with a doll before she dies  -- the doll provides the young girl with crucial advice that saves her life when she meets the Baba Yaga.  But from the perspective of Asherah's essay, the doll may be a representation of the Baba Yaga herself, which means that the child's dead mother is herself a Harvest Queen, which is to say, a variant of Baba Yaga, and the child is her divine daughter, a Persephone figure, perhaps from a very early pre-Hades stratum.  In Baba's grain-world, no man alive has any power over the Maiden.

[Added 8/20/02, annotated 8/21/04]:... From The Witches' Voice comes a page on Mabon, or autumn equinox.  Two Mabon essays are offered here -- both are well written but fairly general so I am not quoting any passages.  Connected to the first essay, there are also many links to relevant topics (including great-sounding recipes) -- you might wish to browse among these.

Autumn LINKS:
NEW WORLD TRADITIONS

(Landscape detail from Sandra Stanton's "Sacred Corn")

 http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2007/mabon_lore.html

[Added 15 September 2000; expanded 20 August 2002]:  This is a lengthy, informative, rich page on Autumn Equinox/Mabon from "Storm Wing."  In addition to lore on Mabon and his mother Modron (and Persephone and her mother Demeter), the author gives suggestions for what to gather for your autumn rituals and also offers recipes for covenstead bread, Salem Witch pudding, Texas-style pecan pie, and blackberry wine (also for incense and potpourri).  At the end are several ritual incantations -- my favorite is to the Southwest's Blue Corn Girl (written by Noel-Anne Brennan):

Listen,
She is coming,
Blue Corn Girl is coming,
She is coming in the winds,
(Listen, she is coming)
She is coming in the sunlight,
(Blue Corn Girl is coming)
She is coming in the fallen leaves,
She is coming in the dying meadows.
Listen,
She is coming,
Blue Corn Girl is coming,
(Blue Corn Girl is coming)
She is coming
To see the harvest
(Listen, she is coming)
Of the fruits of the soil
And the fruits of the soul
Listen,
She is coming,
Blue Corn Girl is coming,
Listen,
She is coming.
Blue Corn Girl is here.
Welcome.

[Added 15 September 2000]:  This is "North Carolina Traditional Weather Lore," a brief page offering an engaging Native American (Cherokee) tale that explains why some animals like the panther and owl can see in the dark, and why some plants and trees stay green through the winter.  There's also a good collection of North Carolina folk sayings about autumn and early winter.

Pueblo Harvest Dance
From Canku Ota (artist unknown: see directly below --used with  permission)

[Added 18 August 2001]:This is a page from the award-winning Canku Ota ("Many Paths"), a thoughtful, beautifully presented e-zine on North American Native traditions, past and current.  This particular page, "Dances with Buffaloes" by Suzanne Ruta, looks at buffalo, corn and rain dances among the Pueblo peoples of the southwestern United States.  It begins with the Christmas season but then compares the dramatic winter dances with the quieter rain and corn dances of summer and autumn.  The lively essay is well written and beautifully illustrated (see above for one illustration).

Note: Canku Ota's site is huge and designed for all age groups, with special sections for children.  To explore further, here is the Home Page:  http://www.turtletrack.org/index.html

[Added 18 August 2001]: For those fortunate enough to be able to attend the harvest dances in the southwestern United States, I'm adding a handful of links with further information.  For those, like me, living too far away to attend, we can dream <smile>.  The above is a no frills page from the Pueblo of Santa Ana on dances in Central New Mexico:

There are eighteen Pueblos in addition to Santa Ana within the state of New Mexico. Visitors are usually welcome during annual events and feast days. Easy to reach -- especially in the Albuquerque area, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and between Albuquerque and Grants, New Mexico....

The link will take you to August through the rest of the year; scroll to the top for earlier months.

[Added 18 August 2001]:... From Guest Life: New Mexico comes another Pueblo events calendar, similar to the above but with nearly 2 dozen telephone contacts to specific pueblos -- since dates for these dances can change at a moment's notice, these contacts are especially valuable.  There is also an excellent and sensitive section for non-Pueblo peoples on how to act appropriately in these unique communities.  (FYI: Guest Life is an online e-zine with links to many other well written and illustrated articles.)

[Added 22 September 2001 and updated 21 August 2004]:   This excellent page gives brief but intriguing histories of 17 of the region's pueblos plus 2 Apache reservations.  It's sponsored by the New Mexico Lodging Association and includes useful phone numbers for each group.  Here's an excerpt from the opening:

Of New Mexico's two American Indian groups, the Pueblo Indians can trace their evolution from a prehistory among pit houses and cliff dwellings to stable village life.  Many of the pit houses and cliff dwellings can be seen today. The other group, the Athapascans, which include Apaches and Navajo, arrived later - just a couple of hundred years before Europeans....

[Added 18 August 2001]: Another no frills New Mexico events calendar, with brief etiquette data about visiting a pueblo, telephone contacts, and brief travel instructions for reaching each village.

[Added 18 August 2001]: This is a brief page on Taos (NM) Pueblo.  It looks at:

...the Feast of San Gerónimo at the end of September, when hundreds and even thousands of outsiders flock to join the general revelry....

A telephone number is included.  Nearby is a casino -- and I like the quote from an elder:

As one unapologetic elder remarked, “poverty was never a part of pueblo life until the Europeans came.”

[Revised 20 August 2002]:Note: the page has now been rewritten  -- although the new, more general New Mexico data is fine, I prefer the earlier version and am keeping my original annotation.  The new page can only be reached from a small pull-down menu at the new link (above). 9/2/03: If you get stuck, try for a USA link, then you should be able to find "New Mexico" in the little  pull-down menu at the top of the page.

PUMPKIN LORE
& OTHER THINGS

A pumpkin with a shimmering aura
(Used with the kind permission of the Salem Tarot Page --
check their well-done 3-card tarot reading)

[Added 8/21/04]:...TThis is "The Great Pumpkin" page from the History Channel.  An Irish legend of Stingy Jack and the Devil, which accounts for the origin of the Jack O' Lantern, is especially evocative and well done -- don't miss it!  There is also some factual information about pumpkins themselves -- for example:

...Pumpkins are low in calories, fat, and sodium and high in fiber. They are good sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, potassium, protein, and iron....

[Added 8/21/04]:...From the University of Illinois Extension comes "Pumpkins and More," a home page with links to their following categories:

History | Varieties | Nutrition | Recipes | Education | Pumpkin Farms
Facts | Growing | Selection & Uses | Q&A | Fun | Festivals | Halloween Links

[Added 8/21/04]:...From the above University of Illinois homepage is this direct link to the history and lore of pumpkins.  The History Channel webpage (see above) is used as a major source but this site also offers its own data.  It opens with these interesting facts:

References to pumpkins date back many centuries. The name pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon" wich is "pepon." "Pepon" was nasalized by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion." Shakespeare referred to the "pumpion" in his Merry Wives of Windsor. American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." The "pumpkin" is referred to in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella....

[Added 8/21/04]:...This is a short essay by Cynthia Owens for the University of Maryland on the lore and history of pumpkins.  For example:

...Some people might be surprised to learn there are more than 50 varieties of pumpkin. The three main types are true squash, moschata and the true pumpkin....

[Added 8/21/04]:...This is a fabulous page for children with great links to a zillion educational, arts and crafts, and botanical activities involving pumpkins.  From the opening statement on the short-lived flowers:

...These yellow male and female flowers open for one day. More pumpkin blossoms are male than female. Male blossoms have pollen that is transferred to the female flowers by bees.  Only pollinated female blossoms develop into pumpkins. Therefore, few of the pumpkin flowers actually produce a pumpkin....

From England's erudite Michael B. Quinion comes "CIDER INSIGHT: The jargon of an ancient craft."  This is on autumn cider-making in southern England. . . . . .

. . . . Yet another autumn-related essay from Michael B. Quinion is his engaging "TALKING TURKEY: Names for a much-travelled bird." [Note: a much longer entry on Quinion and his word-loving work is on my Samhain page -- see below for link.]

 

Samhain (Halloween),
and the soul-feasts of November:
I have created 2 separate pages for these at:

SAMHAIN
&
el dia de los Muertos
[Day of the Dead]

Other Related Pages from
Mything Links:

To Archived Autumn Greetings & Lore (2003)

To Archived Autumn Greetings & Lore (2002)

To Archived Autumn Greetings & Lore (2001)

To Archived Autumn Greetings & Lore (2000)

To Archived Autumn Equinox/Mabon Greetings (1999)

To August's Lammas page

To Current Summer Solstice / Summer Greetings & Lore

To Eastern & Western Europe: Earth-Based Ways (Wicca)

To the Wheel of the Year

To the Crone Papers

To Indigenous Peoples of the American Southwest

To Common Themes: WEATHER-WORKING: Introduction
(An experimental on-going ritual in cyberspace)

To Common Themes: Sacred Foods

To Latin America: The Lore and History of Maize

To Common Themes: The Green Man page

********************

Please do not link directly to my images for your own web pages -- save the images you like to your own files instead.  Otherwise you are stealing from graphics-rich sites like mine.  Since that means I have to pay for each download if my own quota is exceeded each month, I may have to shut down these pages. Thank you.

Note: my complete Site Map and e-mail address are on my Home Page.

To hear the embedded music, you'll need to have your JavaScript enabled (and not be on AOL). The "square" on the mini-console below will stop the sound; the "triangle" will start it again; the two lines will pause it; the slider controls the volume.

<BGSOUND SRC="Romanian~eerie~moldva094.mid" LOOP=infinite>

This Hungarian love song, Kerek a szolo levele, is at least 200 years old; it comes from a region in what is now Romania, so it's known among both non-Slavic and Slavic peoples.  Courtesy of Robert Szlizs, whose collection of Hungarian music is at Robert's Midi Creations.

Text and layout © 1999-2005 by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.
All rights reserved.

1999 = Page first created & designed 22 June 1999, 2:15am PDT;
page put online Saturday, 14 August 1999 (see Archived 1999 Page for more specifics).
2000 = 18 August 2000: added new links for current year --
unless noted, all links are from 1999, but newly revised and updated for 2000:
see Archived 2000 Page for more specifics.
2001 = 6 August 2001: began revising images for Autumn 2001 (see Archived 2001 Page for more specifics).
2002 = 20-23 August 2002:  new art added; see Archived 2002 Page for more specifics.
2003 = 2-3 September 2003: designed new page for this year & checked all links;
see Archived 2003 Page for more specifics.
2004 = 4 August:  changed opening art  (I fell in love with it a few months ago & knew I wanted it for this year's autumn equinox) and began a new essay; 5-21 August: slowly doing links-check as time permits.
21 August 2004, 2:38am = launched.  Late afternoon, same day: finished links-check; added 5 new pumpkin links to replace dead one at about.com; finally grokked 3 "new" links leftover from 28 August 2002; also a new "quotes" page.
31 August 2004, 1:40pm: updated C. Austin link.
22 September 2004: I took 12:30pm 9/22 EDT & somehow went forward 3 hours for PDT! Yikes!
An alert reader caught this.  I just corrected it to 9:30am instead of 3:30pm.  :-(
23 January 2005: removed explanation of page's larger focus from the home page and shifted much of it here.
2005 = 14-15 September 2005 wrote opening essay and found B.B. King photo for it.
Split off this page to be archived 9/15/05.