Winterfylleþ

Lamp and moon, photo I took
at Winterfinding back in 2014

Its that time of year again already, the autumn equinox after which we will rapidly descend into those longer, colder nights. Well actually this year (2018) it was officially a few days ago, and if you were a Wiccan or a Celtic pagan you will have already had the Mabon festival, but the Germanic equivalent 'Winterfylleþ' differs somewhat for reasons which I will explain, but ultimately its very similar.

Winterfylleþ was the Anglo-Saxon word for 'Winterfinding' which occurred each year at the start of what is now the month of October. That might not make much sense seeing as we're still in September, but in the Germanic calendar months always began with the full moon so most of our old festivals are out of sync with the Gregorian calendar.

My personal take on the discrepancy between Mabon and Winterfinding is that there isn't a right or wrong way to mark the passage into winter, the overarching principle is identical and is still represented in the Christian festival of Michealmas.

Autumn today seems to be a bit romanticised by our modern perspectives. The vivid oranges, the dull browns, visions of kids playing in fallen leaves and the aroma of hot chocolate makes for a welcome return - its all very much a positive thing but it wasn't always that way. In modernity, the return of winter is hardly an issue with our central heating and twenty-four hour supermarkets, but falling leaves would have been a stressful reminder to most of our ancestors throughout human history. This time of the year was about preparing everything a family or tribe needed for their survival! Reaping the rest of the produce, storing fire wood, getting livestock ready for slaughter and milling grain into flour - if you weren't productive and ready for winter by the time it came, then the results could be catastrophic.

Thankfully we live in an age of plenty and so are spared the forces of nature, for now at least, but I feel its important that as a society we remain connected with the seasonal changes and remain aware of the dangers those changes can and potentially could bring should our modern conveniences ever fail us.

So despite some differences, Michaelmas, Mabon and Winterfinding generally have the same meaning. The warding off of evil and by extension, death. The Germanic Winterfinding however goes a little further and adopts some elements of what most of us would associate with Samhain, as the ancestor spirits (the Disir and Elves) were invoked around this time and blood sacrifices of cattle or horses were offered to the gods and spirits with the Disablot rite. It gets even more confusing though as the Disablot was also held on Christmas Eve in Anglo-Saxon England in a rite called Mother's Night or Mōdraniht. We have little remaining evidence of how these festivals were related to each other, or whether they were the same festivals held at different times in different regions in different time periods. I think its safe to say then that we need to make some creative decision on how best to proceed with making sense of this all.

How should we celebrate Mabon or Winterfinding? 

There's a plethora of ways we can give small nods to the original meanings behind this time of year, but because of the confusion today between Mother's Night held on Christmas Eve, the Celtic Samhain and Winterfinding, I honestly don't think there is any set way to go about marking the occasion.

Although I am primarily focused on Germanic lore in my practising faith, for cultural reasons I am more inclined to reserve Samhain for the ancestor veneration and Christmas Eve for Mother's Night (owing primarily to the symbology surrounding the long dark nights before the "rebirth" of the sun at the winter solstice, its a nice analogy for the dark of the womb.) Which leaves us with Winterfinding. With the other bases covered, I'm inclined to take inspiration from our more neo-pagan brethren and use it as a time for reflection on the balance between light and dark, the year so far and to give thanks for the fact that unlike the vast majority of our ancestors, this time can be enjoyed rather than feared.

As for ideas on what to do, my personal favourite at this time of year is to collect up fallen apples in the garden or in public orchards to make use with somehow. Personally I'd use them to make a melomel (fruit laced mead) but you could just as easily boil them up to make a nice fruit pie. Over the years I've considered making cider but I can't stand the stuff.

The good thing about brewing a mead or cider at this time of year is that it should be just about ready to drink around Yule, which is handy if you like a good tipple or if you'd like to offer the drink in libations around that time. Obviously if you want to do something for the equinox then you can just offer the fruit itself as it is, or maybe cook them into something to enjoy and share with your deities.

There is some nice symbology behind this. Apples in both Celtic and Germanic mythology were associated with immortality. In Germanic lore there was the goddess Idunn who was the keeper of the golden apples, a fruit given to the gods to ensure their eternal youth. It would seem fitting then to offer such a gift in libations or offerings at this time of year. With nature going into hibernation its a nice reminder that winter is only temporary and that life will return. Eventually.

Something else to consider besides honouring your choice of deities at this time of year, is to give thanks and offerings to your house wights. During the summer we're always out gallivanting around, but come winter we're much more inclined to stay in and put our feet up in the warm, so I think its only fair that we should acknowledge our intrusion into their peace and quiet by giving them a small offering and a few words of thanks.

In any case I hope you will have or have had a wonderful autumnal equinox! If you can think of any other ways you celebrate Mabon/Winterfinding I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.