Witch Thanksgiving

 Witch Thanksgiving: Mabon

When deciding what to write about this week, I decided I would write about the season we are currently in- Thanksgiving. I had no idea if there was any sort of correlation between Witchcraft/Witches and Thanksgiving. After I typed in "Witchcraft and Thanksgiving" on Google, I discovered something called Mabon. Mabon is essentially Thanksgiving in Witchcraft, but it is around the Fall Equinox in September. 

Mabon is practiced by Earth-based spiritual practioners and originates from the Pagan culture. Celebration of the autumn solstice is something that dates back to the early Greeks. The Greeks celebrated Persephone, a greek goddess, returning to Hell. The Romans also had celebrations for autumn returning. Mabon, the name given to this celebration in the 1970s, celebrates the second harvest of the year and the perfect balance between day and night. It's also a way of showing gratitude towards the Earth's abundance, which makes sense because it is harvest time. Mabon is also one of eight seasonal festivals of the Wheel of the Year, which is the calendar for eight most important seasonal events and the midpoints between them. 

Mabon celebrations include decorating alters with typical things you think of when thinking of a fall alter. There is also an element of a feast, similar to that of Thanksgiving. People make harvest bread, make offerings to the land, and preserve food for the winter time. There are also some spiritual practices, mostly routed around meditation and balance. I find this to be one of the best examples of Witchcraft practices being related/centered around the physical external world. Fall can be seen as a transitional season and it could also be classified as a balance between summer and winter. Witchcraft practices have adopted that interpretation, and used it as a way to lead their practices/mindsets during this period. Since the fall is a balance of seasons, this is a time for us (people practicing) to balance their mindsets and lives. There were also lots of themes of gratitude mentioned, similar to Thanksgiving. While Mabon is not Witch Thanksgiving, it is an interesting practices/celebration that correlates with traditional Thanksgiving. 

https://thebusypagan.com/pagan-holidays/mabon/


Comments

  1. williams.dan76November 13, 2024 at 8:33 AM

    Thanks for this. I had not heard of Mabon before or even considered the connections between Thanksgiving and pagan celebrations. But of course, the autumn equinox. I know the equinoxes are celebrated by the Celts but not thought about what was celebrated. And Mabon does have parallels to our Thanksgiving. The Puritans did not celebrate Thanksgiving, though the Pilgrims started the tradition. The Puritans generally thought of the world as a somber place and thought celebrations of any kind were sinful. The definitely did not celebrate either Crhistamas or Easter (too Catholic).

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