Other names for this holiday include Mabon, The Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Feast of Avalon, Alben Elfed, Cornucopia, Winter Finding, Mikeli, Harvest Moon Festival, Mea'n Fo'mhair, or Assumption of the Crone.

On or around September 22nd

Mabon, the second celebration of the years three autumn harvests, lands squarely each year upon the Autumnal Equinox. This is the day in autumn where night and day are of equal length. The symbolism of this is equality and balance. It is time to take a moment to pay our respects to the impending dark as well as give thanks to the waning light of summer.

As we leave summer behind us and begin to look forward to the first stirrings of a coming winter. Harvest is in full swing and our time is now filled with winter's preparations. The first cool winds herald the coming of winter and begin the transition to a period of rest - a turning inward to things closer to the hearth.

Celebrations revolve around the gathering of crops and giving thanks for the abundance of the harvest, as well as rituals to insure the success of next year's harvest are characteristic during this harvest time. To this day harvest festivals still take place during this time of year, most prominently in agricultural communities where there is a hum of energy as people prepare for the winter coming just around the bend. A harvest supper, also known as a Harvest Home, a dinner of thanksgiving and celebration, is also traditional. Thanksgiving is an echo of this celebration.

The Autumn Equinox is considered a time of balance. It is at this time we mourn that which is passing and celebrate that which is bountiful. When we stop and relax and enjoy the fruits of our personal harvests, whether they be from toiling in our gardens, working at our jobs, raising our families, or just coping with the sometimes chaotic pace of everyday life. A time for giving thanks for all we have to hold us through the long winter until spring as well as for evaluating and renegotiating goals and priorities.

Some celebration ideas for Mabon include:

• Go through your garden, tending it, thanking the plants and flowers for their abundance, harvesting whatever is ready, collecting seeds.
• Make a mandala of seeds and grains on the ground, an offering of the Mother's gifts to the animals and birds; infuse it with specific magick that will be released as the seeds are consumed or scattered.
• Honor the elders in your life in some special way.
• Have a pot-luck feast of thanksgiving and invite all your friends and loved ones to celebrate abundance.
• Share your abundance...collect a basket of goodies from your garden to share with a neighbor who has no garden, or who has had a rough year.
• Gather donations of food and/or clothing for a favorite charity.
• Go on a Nature walk and enjoy your surroundings.
• Spend time with friends and loved ones discussing things you've done together in the last year.
• Fill a basket with pine cones, colorful drieds leaves, wheat, acorns, and fallen pine branches and leave it by your altar or door.
• Arrange baskets of fresh fruit for friends or family.