Autumn officially starts in September at the Autumn Equinox, when the hours of dayling and darkness are equal. From this point forward, the daylight hours become noticeably shorter and the weather stars to cool with each passing day. Autumn is a season of waning light and shadows, yet it is also a season of harvest, abundance and thanksgiving.
Autumn has always been a colorful season of reward and people harvested the bounty from the summer growing season and stored it safely away for the long winter: the vegetables from the garden, the fruit from the orchards, and the grain from the fields. Everyone in the community spent long hours participating in the harvest, and at the end, they were exhausted yet grateful, and looked forward to a celebration.
Around the world, there are Autumn Harvest festivals celebrated near the Fall Equinox: from the English Festival of Harvest Home, to Michaelmas Day, to Bavarian Oktoberfest to American Thanksgiving. (which was originally in October, then moved to the first weekend in November by President Lincoln, and then moved yet again by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to the 4th Thursday in November to help boost the post-depression economy and assist merchants with holiday sales by giving folks a full month to shop. ....No comment!)
Harvest Goddess Mythologies
In many mythologies throughout the world, a goddess of the grain, harvest and the good earth was celebrated at the Autumn Equinox, which is not surprising since the Earth herself is seen as a fertile mother or Gaia. From this venerated matriarch, all life was born. Throughout time and in various cultures, she is a great mother goddess known by many names: Astarte and Ishtar to the Sumerians; Isis to the Egyptians; Demeter in Greece and Ceres in Rome. To the indigenous populations of the Americans, she was known as 'Old Woman Who Never Dies' and Mother of Maize.
Equally important was the concept of the seeds from the harvest used for the next year, and considered Mother Earth's child. In Greek mythology, we see this as Demeter being the harvest mother, the goddess of grain and fertile earth. The seed that fell and was planted in the spring was the child, or her daughter , Persephone. The spirit of these future crops were often seen as the daughter, or a maiden, or a divine child. In Russia, the child was simply called the Corn Baby. The Aztecs called the harvest goddess Chicomecoatl, and a goddess named Xilonen was the Goddess of the New Corn. Her son ws symbolized by the seeds and called the Spirit of the Corn. In Egypt, the spirit of the grain was the goddess' son, Horus. The Cherokee people called the harvest child the Green Corn Child. In India, there is a harvest festival called Pongal. It is a rice festival that lasts for three days. The child rice that came from this harvest mother was called the Rice Baby.
On this winter solstice, I baked mini muffins and placed them around my yard at the base of trees for the fairy folk. I took the CDs that come in the mail for postage stamps and other various sales pitches and hung them in the trees as unbreakable reflective decorations to celebrate the the light is returning! And have you noticed that it is not pitch dark black outside at 4:30PM as it usually is at this time of year? Something is going on, and even if I don't have words for it, I can participate in the unfolding of it.
Harvest Goddess Mythologies
In Celtic lore, as well as many other cultures throughout recorded history, the Green Man is a symbol of rebirth, representing the expansive cycles of growth. The power of the sun at Litha is at its most potent, as one can see all around with the bounty of growing life. This is a time of year of brightness and warmth, when crops are growing in their fields with the heat of the sun. In addition to festivities honoring the plentiful sun, the 'yang', male energy that is so verdantly abundant, Summer Solstice/Litha is a time when the Holly King retakes his throne. It is reminiscent of the battle between light and dark. The traditional lore follows that the Oak King, who rules the half of the year from the Winter Solstice to the Summer Solstice, relinquishes his power on the Summer Solstice/Litha to the Holly King, who then rules from the Summer Solstice through to the following Winter Solstice.
Back in March, I posted about making Spring Pesto with greens from our yard, especially using highly invasive garlic mustard (Allaria petiolata). As a member of the Brassicaceae family, garlic mustard contains many healthful and medicinal qualities, so please see that post. Herbal vinegars are truly an excellent way to preserve the goodness of nutritious, tonic herbs and to create a valuable nutritional supplement. I am not talking about the 'culinary vinegars' decorated with a few sprigs of kitchen herbs like rosemary or thyme, but rather concentrated herbal formulas using nutrient-dense herbs and wild foods like Burdock, Nettles, Dandelion and other wild foods/greens. The Spring Pesto post from March has great foraging and plant identification books listed.
(Wise Woman Tip: Remember that you should be in a good mood when working in your kitchen and using medicinal botanicals..... Set the tone with music, etc., whatever puts you in good spirits because the act of creating adds your own energy to the process and the items you make absorb your positive energy. The same principle applies to making meals: prepare them with positive, loving, healing thoughts and vibrations, and your family will receive that love two-fold!)
On an Environmental note, join me and other like minded folks concerned about the environment, global warming, sustainability and peak oil at this month's Transition Newton meeting on May 17th. Held on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7PM... at the Unitarian Fellowship located at 1 West Nelson St., Newton, NJ. 
