Alban Elued, "The Light of the Water," the first day of Autumn, was also
called Thanksgiving, Harvest Home, Alban, Elued and Mean Fomhair. Observed on September 21, the Autumnal Equinox was the day when the sun again began to wane, as the dark half of the year drew
near.
The fall equinox has long been associated with celebrating the harvest, giving thanks for the success of our labors, and shedding things we need to get rid of, as the trees shed their leaves in the northern hemisphere at this time of year.
Harvest Home
Harvest festivals have been part of human history since the beginning of agriculture. With harvesting completed and food stored away for the winter months, those early tillers of the soil celebrated the results of their labor. They also recognized their dependence on elements and forces beyond their efforts that made harvest possible. In England "Harvest Home" celebrations began in the sixteenth century. Today, we no longer call these "Harvest Home" celebrations, but "Thanksgiving." Thanksgiving Day is observed on the second Monday of October in Canada, while in the United States it is on the fourth Thursday of November.
A young member of Foxearth Church, Michael Heathcote, found a faded Suffolk and Essex Free Press newspaper dated September 19, 1867 in a bundle of old papers found stuffed in between the joists of a ceiling and floor in an old house in Sudbury where he was working. He wrote the following from the faded newsprint.
"Those who had been employed in (the fields and who had endured the heat and burden of harvest time had special cause of gratitude to Him who had spared them and blessed the labours of their hands. They might not forget how, during a portion of this harvest time, not a few were stricken down by the excessive heat and unable to pursue their work, while others were called away from their harvest toil, in the midst of their employment, and from among their companions in labour, to their final account."
Although the traditional American holiday of Thanksgiving falls in November, many cultures see the second harvest time of the fall equinox as a time of giving thanks. After all, it's when you figure out how well your crops did, how fat your animals have gotten, and whether or not your family will be able to eat during the coming winter. However, by the end of November, there's not a whole lot left to harvest. Originally, the American Thanksgiving holiday was celebrated on October 3, which makes a lot more sense agriculturally.
Thanksgiving Day
The annual holiday in the United States was not created until Abraham Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863 creating a national day of thanksgiving. In the years afterward, presidents announced a national day of Thanksgiving each year on the last Thursday of November, following Lincoln’s tradition and urging American families and communities to celebrate together. In 1939, Franklin Roosevelt fixed the date of Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November instead of the last Thursday in November in order to allow for a longer Christmas shopping season to spur economic growth during the Great Depression, and in 1941 Congress formalized the date change to make the fourth Thursday of November our permanent holiday.
Harvest Time
Tradition says there were three stages of harvest the first being one of grains, the second one of fruits and vegetables, with the final harvest during the Autumn Equinox.
The earliest-known Celtic calendar is the Coligny calendar, now in the Palais des Arts, Lyon. It dates probably from the 1st century BCE, and is made up of bronze fragments, once a single huge plate: Each year is divided into thirteen months; achieves a complex synchronization of the solar and lunar months; the 13th month, Mid Samonios, was duplicated and since months began with a full moon, no consistent dates can be given.
With the increase of technology in agriculture many areas have combined the second and third harvest into the Autumn Equinox being the one of completion. This being preparation for the long winter ahead with the shortening of days and elongation of nights. All in all the date associated with this time period falls between September 20–23, depending on the calendar, when the sun is one degree Libra.
So the Festival of the Autumn Equinox is not just a celebration of thanksgiving in a literal sense for what we have received, it is also one of thanks knowing, in pure faith, that Spring will assuredly come, just as mother earth will provide the fruits of our labors.
The Celtic Calendar's seasons and cycles is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the Celtic approach to time, and certainly the one that we can most easily follow nowadays. In our time, most of us are out of touch with the seasons, and the one big Western thanksgiving festival has become more of a time for ringing tills than ringing the changes. We can bring a sense of rhythm and continuity to our lives by observing the Celtic festivals and return to a celebration of mother earth. Where we are merely stewards and subject to her changing seasons, which we can not change except by our misguided devotion to the accumulation of material things.
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Copyright:1986-2008