It's nobody's business but the turks (trads)

It's Autumn Equinox time. Or Mabon. Or Harvest Home. Or "throw your arms up and go make popcorn" season.

Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@autumnmott?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Autumn Mott Rodeheaver</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/SPd9CSoWCkY?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a>

At Golden Apple, we leave it to the staunch traditionalists to determine what to call the second harvest observance of the year. Yes, Diana wrote a book all about Mabon as part of her two contributions to the Llewellyn Sabbat Essentials series. But first, her beliefs have changed since she wrote the book, as happens when you mature, and second, what to call a manufactured holiday (and all holidays begin in human artifice) seems like a strange hill to die on. If the nuances of the debate matter to you, check below the article for some links on the subject.

If we have to pick a hill to die on, it will be at the top of a mountain, where a kiddie pool filled with champagne awaits us. The trad folk can fight that out while Diana and Nikki cook celebratory meals, donate to local food shelves as able, and attempt to manifest foot rubs from David Tenant and Michael Sheen-like beings.

They can celebrate their way, and we will celebrate ours and save our battle energy for much more immediate concerns around people’s fundamental rights to exist as autonomous beings. Keeping our people safe is a bigger concern than an academic point that doesn’t really change all that much.

So we’ll delegate that

to those who feel strongly about it.

That option to say, “Hey, this issue didn’t quite make the it’s an everyone problem filter is among the significant benefits to building and living on the occult island of Misfit Toys. Foot rubs, while the off-islanders are fighting about literal semantics, are only the beginning. We relax and have the high ground when the real battle begins.

If you want to read more about the Mabon versus Autumn Equinox, we found these articles a worthwhile read:

• Religions News - As pagans celebrate autumn equinox, some question why Mabon is its symbolic deity

• Mhara Startling, the Welsh Witch Mabon and the Autumn Equinox

• Adamantine Muse Did Mabon steal the autumn equinox?

• The Wholesome Witch Mabon: Life, Death and Autumn Leaves