I’m Celtic Wiccan. It’s basically a religion that honors and respects the earth. We understand that everything is connected and, when working in harmony, everything flows the way it was designed to by the source.

I love Mabon, as the fall is my favorite season. The weather begins to cool down and the leaves turn gorgeous in their crimsons, oranges, and yellows. With the coming fall, our minds slowly turn to Halloween and Thanksgiving and the rest of the holidays.

My ancestors were attuned to the seasons. As hunter-gatherers, they had to be. If they planted too soon, the crops would die from lack of nutrients and the heat they needed to grow. If they planted too late, the crops were in danger of freezing with winter.

The ancients celebrated the growing seasons with festivals. These festivals honored the successful harvests. They gave thanks to the gods or goddesses of those seasons for the earth’s bounty.

Mabon is the first day of autumn which is around September 20/21 depending on where you are located. It is the grape harvest, where the grapes for wine are harvested and comes after the first harvest known as Lammas.

Lammas is the wheat harvest and celebrates the bountiful harvest of wheat and grains. The third and last harvest is Samhain or Halloween. Samhain is the final harvest of the remaining crops needed to be stored for winter.

The god who rules Mabon is known as Dionysus. He is the Greek god of the grape harvest, wine-making, and wine. He is also known as the god of madness, as in drunken madness.

He is best known in Roman mythology as the god Bacchus. Bacchus took the wine revelry even further than Dionysus. Bacchus was known as the party god and loved to drink lots and lots of wine.

Both gods represent the effects of wine on us mere mortals. Drunken behavior, lust, fertility, and drunken debauchery.

The drinking of wine was the release of rules and laws and loosening of inhibitions in people that released their inner child. Play and forget about the laws and rules that govern society.

In Wiccan celebration, Mabon is the celebration of the harvest. The ancients lived in Northern climates which is very cold in the winter. Without a bountiful harvest, they would starve to death.

So, Mabon is the celebration of a good harvest, which meant food to last through the winter. It meant, after backbreaking work to plant and care for the grapes, they were able to rest a little before the final harvest of Samhain (Halloween).

It was a time of festivals with lots of food and music. This was also the time where fathers made marriage contracts for their daughters.

Mabon was a time to celebrate earth’s bounty to her children and that was how the ancients treated it.

In the world of magick, Mabon was the time to release the past, let go of emotions that no longer help you. Samhain is New Year’s for us Wiccans and Mabon is the last festival to let go of the past, let go of those relationships that no longer work for you, before starting a new year.

Let go of people that are hurting you rather than helping you. It is time to become strong in yourself and realize that you harvest what you plant.

If you plant seeds of anger, hatred, and revenge. If you nurture those seeds and water them, your harvest will be anger, hatred, and revenge.

This is where the term “You sow what you reap” came into existence. Sowing is planting your seeds Reaping is harvesting what you planted.

If you sow negative emotions, then you will reap those negative emotions. Not too many want that kind of harvest.

No matter if you want to celebrate Mabon by getting drunk and letting loose, or work on letting go of those negative habits of ours.

Mabon is the celebration of life. A life well lived that you can harvest the love and memories of that life.

May the goddess bless you and yours with a bountiful harvest filled with love and happiness this Mabon festival.