MABON AND THE APPLE.

Normally tilted at an angel of about 23.4 degrees in relation to the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun on the celestial sphere), on just about every day of the year either the Southern or Northern hemisphere tilts a little towards the sun. 

Just about every day that is except the Summer and Autumn Equinox when the tilt of the earth's axis is perpendicular to the sun's rays.

Marking the start of Autumn here in the Northern hemisphere .... astronomically speaking (meteorologists would date the beginning of Autumn three weeks before this) ... the September Equinox (Equinox being from the Latin 'aequus' meaning equal and 'nox' meaning night hence 'equal night') sees a night and day that are (not quite) the exact same length.

Thanks to the 'Gregorian Calendar' usually falling on or around September 22nd (as it does this year UCT) - the last 21st of September Equinox fell on 1000 CE and is not due to fall again until 2092 whilst the last September 24th Equinox occurred in 1931 and will not do so again until 2303 - each September Equinox (sometimes known as Mabon) occurs approximately six hours later than the previous year's September Equinox.

Generally speaking, one of the lesser celebrated Pagan festivals. Mabon (a festival named after the God of Welsh mythology, the Child of Light and the son of the Earth Mother Goddess, Modron).

Traditionally a time when the farmers bought in the harvest) was typically 'replaced' by the Christian festival of Michaelmas celebrating the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel.

A time to celebrate home and hearth. A time to reap what you have sown. A time to let go that which is no longer wanted or needed. As in the Christian tradition thanks is given for the abundance of fruit and vegetables. Fruits including the apple, a symbol of the divine, of life and fertility, a protection against evil, the tree of which represents wisdom ...

Cut an apple width ways and it reveals a pentagram containing seeds. The five points represent the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water with Spirit at the top, and thus also the directions of East, South, West, North and Within.

Folklore has it that ...

• Peel the apple, keeping the peel in one long piece let it drop to the floor. The letter it forms is the first initial of your true love's name.
• If you have more than one potential lover, peel an apple and pull out the seeds placing one on your cheek for each potential boyfriend. The last one left stuck to the skin represents the suitor who is your true love.
• Wait until midnight, cut an apple into nine pieces and take the pieces into a dark room with a mirror. Eat eight of the pieces, piece by piece whilst looking in the mirror, throwing the ninth over your shoulder whereupon the face of your true love should appear.