Autumn equinox

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The Autumn Equinox is one of the four sacred holidays that have been venerated and solemnly celebrated since ancient times. In addition to the Autumn Equinox, these are the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, and Summer Solstice. The eternal cycle. And so every year in all cultures of the world in all ages and times.

On September 22, 2017, the Sun will once again cross the celestial equator and move from the northern hemisphere of the celestial sphere to the southern one, and the day of the autumnal equinox will come, i.e. astronomical autumn in the northern hemisphere, and spring in the southern. On this day, the duration of the day and night throughout the Earth is the same and is equal to 12 hours.

RYABINKIN'S NAME

In Russia, the day of the autumnal equinox was considered a holiday and was always celebrated with pies with cabbage, lingonberries and meat, as well as folk festivities. On this day, rowan brushes, together with leaves, were inserted in the evening between the window frames, believing that from that day, when the sun begins to wane, rowan trees will protect the house from the forces of darkness. “When the sun weakens, it's time to stock up on mountain ash for the future. To clean up the poveta, to intercede the place of evil spirits. After all, both the rowan branch and the berry are clean. This tree holds firmly with the strength of the autumnal equinox. And if evil spirits torment you, does not give you sleep, it comes to your chest, strangles, - take a branch of mountain ash, trace it around you - and the evil spirits will perish."

FYOKLA-ZAREVNITSA

On the day of the Autumnal Equinox, the time of the Great Feast of Zarevnitsa begins. The day received this name because of the glow from the steppe burns - dry grass was burned in the fields. From Zarevnitsa, the days quickly run away, the nights darken, and the dawns turn crimson. "The day runs away not with chicken, but with horse steps." Autumn begins to move faster towards winter.

On this day we went to the forest to pick mushrooms. The last day of collecting the king of mushrooms - boletus.

Threshers - begin to thresh with fire in the morning. Bread is threshed in heated barns. "You can't thresh a sheaf by folding your hands", "A flail in your hands, so bread in your teeth, and a flail from your hands, so bread from a tooth."

A nominal sheaf was honored that day. The first sheaf that was compressed was threshed. Grain to grain was collected from it. And the flour from the first sheaf was carried to the big one. She baked good bread, then broke bread for health. And they thrashed already on Thekla - in the early morning, lighting a fire, protecting that fire from a whirlwind. A whirlwind will fly into the barn, scatter fiery sparks, sheaves will flare up. The family will be left without bread.

If someone didn’t touch the girl’s hands, didn’t take the roll brought by the girl, the girl decided: to sit in the girls, to knock around the stove, not to be the mistress of the dough. If the cold swell touched the hand, it was believed that the girl should go for the poor. And the touch will seem warm, shaggy - the rich will marry.

AUTUMN, TAUSEN, PLEASURE

Ancient Slavic harvest festival, Day of Svetovit, Closing of Svarga. Tauseni is the end of all peasant seasonal work of the outgoing year, a harvest festival and the day of the autumn equinox. It was the old holiday of the New Year (new year), the time of the well-deserved awards of the Slav for his work.

with the onset of the autumnal equinox, the Slavs celebrate the great holiday - Tausen (Radogosh). Sun-husband Dazhbog becomes the wise Sun-old man Svetovit. Svetovit (Grandfather the All-Wise) is no longer so high, his rays do not warm him, but he has seen a lot in this world, which is why a special honor is given to the “old man”. A little more and he will go away forever beyond the distant lands in order to be reborn again.

Harvested, the autumn Sun-Svetovit is no longer hot, the trees are preparing for winter sleep, throwing off their beautiful outfits. For this day, a huge honey cake is baked (in the old days, the cake was as tall as a man), behind which, after conception, a priest or an elder hides and asks all those present: "Can you see me, children?" If the answer is: “We do not see, father!”, Then this means a rich harvest, and if: “We see!”, Then a thin one, after which the priest blesses the people with the words: “So give you Gods so that they will not ripen next year! ", and gives a sign to the beginning of the festive "feast by the mountain" …

According to Slavic beliefs, about this time, Svarg begins to "close", where the Light Gods "leave" from Revelation until next spring, remaining, nevertheless, in the Hearts of all who live by the Rule … As a sign of this, a straw bird is burned on the Temple, "seeing off »Her together with the Light Gods and the souls of the Ancestors in Iriy.

On this day, the tale of the knight and the underworld is played out, which should remind of the fading sun and the coming winter. Before dark, they kindle a small Fire and jump over it, purifying themselves. The priests walk with bare feet on hot coals.

For the festive day of the first Osenins, an ancient amusing rite of burial of flies and cockroaches, annoying inhabitants of the Russian summer, was timed.

MABON - CELTIC AUTUMN EQUALITY HOLIDAY

On the autumn equinox, the ancient Celts celebrated Mabon, the festival of the second harvest and ripening of apples. The traditions of Mabon have been alive since pagan times in many European countries, where harvest festivals are traditionally held at the end of September. Often, the Harvest Festival (Harvest Thanksgiving Day) is held on Sunday after the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox. This full moon is called the Harvest Moon. Usually the harvest festival takes place at the end of September, but sometimes it falls into the beginning of October. On this day, parishioners decorate churches with baskets of fruits and vegetables from their gardens, produce from farms and fresh flowers. After the service, this food is distributed to those who need it. Be sure to do charity donations for the local community.

It was a well-known tradition among farmers to hold a special dinner, to which everyone who worked on the farm during the year was invited, so that the farmer could express gratitude to his helpers. Sometimes these dinners were called the dinner of the last sheaf: the harvest is over and the feast begins. Farmers competed among themselves who would harvest the fastest.

In the Middle Ages, the Roman Church replaced the ancient September festivals of gratitude on Michael's Day (Archangel Michael's Day, September 29), the celebration of which inherited many of the traditions of the ancient festivals of the autumn equinox.

ZOROASTRISM, SEDE HOLIDAY

The Zoroastrian holiday of Sede falls on September 23rd. The summer has passed, everything that should have borne fruit and is now dying off, losing its former shape. Vitality is transferred to fruits and seeds. Sede embodies the law according to which some forms are destroyed, being replaced by others in a natural, harmonious way. This law is very important for people as well. Zoroastrians believe that he should also work harmoniously in the inner and outer world of a person. As a symbol of the separation of grains from chaff, grains of valuable experience from waste material, seeds are eaten on this holiday.

It is believed that when the Sun enters the first degree of Libra, then the forces of Evil on Earth are the strongest and most manifested. On this holiday, warriors and priests, and in general all righteous Zoroastrians gather at the Fires. Or it is eight lights in the house, but more often they did it in nature, they assembled a fire in the form of an eight-pointed star. They gathered around this fire and recited mantras in order to stop the spread of Evil.

The festivities run from noon to sunset. They read the prayers of Ahura - Mazda and Mitra - the patron saint of law and order.

JAPAN, SHUBUN-NO-KHI

In Japan, the Autumnal Equinox Day, Shubun no-hi, is considered an official holiday and has been celebrated since 1878. The holiday has another name - Chunichi, which means "middle day". This name is due to the fact that the day of the autumnal equinox falls in the middle of the week called higan.

On the day of the autumnal equinox, Japan performs the rituals of the Buddhist festival Higan, which go back into the depths of history. According to the "Law on National Holidays", the corresponding meaning is embedded on the day of the autumn equinox: "To respect ancestors, to honor the memory of those who have passed away."

The Buddhist concept "higan" can be translated as "that shore", that is, the world where our ancestors left and where their souls settled. Autumn Higan Days is a week that includes three days before and after the Autumn Equinox and the Autumn Equinox itself. Before the start of Higan, the Japanese thoroughly clean the house, especially the home altar with photographs and accessories of departed ancestors, refresh flowers, display ritual food and offerings. In the days of Higan, Japanese families go to venerate the graves of their ancestors, order prayers and perform the necessary ritual honors.

The legislative day for the celebration was established in 1948, and it falls, as Japanese sources say, "around September 23". The exact date of the day of the autumnal equinox for the next year is determined by the National Observatory on February 1 of the current year, making the corresponding celestial measurements and calculations. The week following this day is called Aki no Higan.

By September 23rd, the peak of summer exhausting heat and daytime heat passes ("heat - until the days of Higan"), and the blessed sunny season of "Indian summer" begins. In Japan, there is a saying: "Autumn Higan is like spring Higan."

"Both heat and cold - until the days of Higan." So they say in Japan during both the autumn and spring equinox days.

In the days of Higan, Higan-bana, the "flower of the autumnal equinox", blooms. Another name for the flower is "manjusage", which means "heavenly flower". In Buddhist sutras, there was a mention of bright scarlet flowers falling from the sky, foreshadowing happy events.