For our ancestors, the Equinox provided a pause between autumn and winter. The word equinox derives from the Latin for “equal to night”. This phenomenon occurs twice a year and happens when the sun rises due east and sets due west and day and night are equal in length.
Samhain which occurs November 7th and is the next “cross quarter” seasonal festival of 2020 is, in truth, a celebration of the Irish indigenous New Year. This makes the last “quarter” festival Cónacht Fómhair /Autumn Equinox extremely special for us and our Ancestors. It is the final verse of energies that began at Samhain 2019. The green leaves are giving themselves up to browns, bronzes, reds and russets and the branches holding them will not be doing so for long. Any swallows you still might see are lagging behind the departure of most of their kin. For many of us, the shortening evenings bring an early shiver not so much from a cooler temperature, but more from an anticipation of the darker, colder days of Winter. Yet the Festival and Rites of Autumn Equinox call us away from such an energy sapping outlook to embrace this time, “the pause between Autumn and Winter”. So significant is the second Equinox of the year that it is our loss to not enter and celebrate it.
Please enjoy our community ceremony in the video below. We share some ideas on how to welcome the ever present energies of Autumn Equinox into your life and home.
