This is what the autumnal equinox is about

Twice a year the sun is directly above the equator – and it is the equinox. This year’s autumnal equinox falls on September 23 at 8:50 am (CET). We see this as an opportunity to explain to you what exactly this is about, what the difference is between the meteorological and astronomical beginning of autumn, and which myths from ancient cultures surround the change of seasons.

From a meteorological point of view, the four seasons always begin on the first day of a month – autumn begins on September 1 and lasts until November 30 – winter begins on December 1. Weather experts divide the twelve months of a year into four seasons – regardless of actual weather conditions.

The astronomical – also called calendar – start of autumn falls on September 23 this year. The beginning of spring and the beginning of autumn are determined by the dates on which day and night are exactly the same length. Depending on the year, this time falls on September 22, 23 or 24. This is because our calendar year is not as long as the Earth’s orbit around the sun. That’s why there is an extra day in leap years.

In many places, the so-called Thanksgiving festival symbolizes the beginning of autumn and the equinox. In Bavaria, for example, Oktoberfest was invented for this reason, which actually started in the last week of September. And in China, the Mid-Autumn Festival – also known as the Moon Festival – celebrates family unity and prosperity. In the United States, Thanksgiving was celebrated in early October until Abraham Lincoln postponed the holiday to the following month in 1863.

Traditionally, the Celts celebrated the end of the harvest during the autumn equinox. It is one of the four major solar festivals and is called Mabon. The celebrations then were all about gratitude and appreciation for nature; part of the harvest was sacrificed to the gods. People looked back on a (hopefully) productive summer and looked forward to the cold, dark season. In parts of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, people throw three grains of wheat over their shoulders to commemorate this Mabon festival – showing their gratitude to nature.

The name Mabon goes back to an old legend of the Welsh Celts, which is told differently depending on the source. “Mabon ap Modron” was the name of the son of Modron, the mother goddess. Three days after his birth he was kidnapped, after which King Arthur and his knights came to her rescue. To find out where the newborn child was hidden, they asked the oldest animals where it was located. According to legend, they spoke to the wisest, oldest animals in the world: a blackbird, a deer, an owl, an eagle and finally an enormous salmon. When they found out that Mabon was being held in Gloucester Castle, they released him.

The Greeks also associated a myth with the harvest and the coming of autumn, which is very similar to the Celtic legend described above. In the middle is Demeter – yes, exactly like the Swiss Organic Association. Demeter is a Greek mother goddess who represents the fertility of the earth, grain and seeds. When Hades, the god of the underworld, stole her daughter Persephone, she became so angry and full of grief that she caused the world to wither and stop growing.

Hades therefore let Persephone go again – but she had to return to him every year for a while, to the underworld – always in autumn and winter. In the spring she was allowed to return to her mother. From then on, Demeter, out of grief for her daughter, let everything die in the fall and in the spring, when she returned, Demeter’s heart and with it nature blossomed again, according to the myth.