{"id":9828,"date":"2018-09-27T14:41:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T20:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9828"},"modified":"2018-09-27T14:46:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T20:46:45","slug":"too-late-for-protestors-term-mabon-is-taking-hold-in-pop-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9828","title":{"rendered":"Too Late for Protestors, Term “Mabon” is Taking Hold in Pop Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday was the fall equinox (as I usually call it), and various various voices reminded us again that the term “Mabon” was not Authentically Celtic. (Although disagreeing, John Beckett sums up the objections here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Others disagreed: Jason Mankey suggested that perhaps a god wanted it that way. <\/a><\/p>\n

Mankey linked to an older blog post by Aidan Kelly,<\/a> one of the pioneers of 1960s California Paganism and also a man whom I consider a co-founder of the field of Pagan studies, based his textual criticism of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows back in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Back in 1974, I was putting together a \u201cPagan-Craft\u201d calendar\u2014the first of its kind, as far as I know\u2014listing the holidays, astrological aspects, and other stuff of interest to Pagans. We have Gaelic names for the four Celtic holidays. It offended my aesthetic sensibilities that there seemed to be no Pagan names for the summer solstice or the fall equinox equivalent to Yule or Beltane\u2014so I decided to supply them.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By now, “Mabon” is showing up more and more in popular culture, such as Modern Drunkard <\/em>magazine. (What is more popular than booze?) Their “Today’s Reason to Drink” for September 22nd read,<\/a><\/p>\n

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, it\u2019s the first day of Autumn. Summer just blew by, didn\u2019t it? If that makes you a little melancholy, well, it\u2019s also the International Day of Radiant Peace. Yeah. Also? It\u2019s Batman Day. And Car Free Day. And Chainmail Day. Yes, Chainmail Day is finally upon us. Also? It\u2019s Dear Diary Day. And Fish Amnesty Day. And Hobbit Day. And Ice Cream Cone Day. And International Rabbit Day. If you don\u2019t have a rabbit, some grocery stores keep them in the freezer section. They\u2019re called fryers, and I think we know why. If none of those strike your fancy, it\u2019s also Love Note Day and Elephant Appreciation Day. You can combine those, if you don\u2019t mind getting odd looks down at the zoo. And it\u2019s National Museum Day. And if you\u2019re a Wiccan, it\u2019s Mabon, which sounds a bit sinister, but it\u2019s just their version of the Autumnal equinox. The list goes on. It\u2019s National Centenarian\u2019s Day. National Hunting and Fishing Day. National Public Lands Day. National Rock n\u2019 Roll Dog Day. I don\u2019t even want to know what that\u2019s about. And National Singles Day. National White Chocolate Day. READ in America Day. And finally, Remote Employee Appreciation Day. There are others, but they\u2019re even more frivolous than National Rock n\u2019 Roll Dog Day, if you can believe it. It\u2019s like everyone with an agenda or wacky idea picked the first day of Autumn, so as to steal from its majestic power, and they just piled on. So pick one and raise a drink. Or, since it\u2019s Saturday, pick a lot of them and raise a lot of drinks. Why not? It\u2019s freaking Wiccan Hobbits in Chainmail Riding a Centenarian Elephant Day! Let\u2019s go nuts!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One-hundred-year-old Wiccan hobbits in chainmail . . . how are you going to come back at that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday was the fall equinox (as I usually call it), and various various voices reminded us again that the term “Mabon” was not Authentically Celtic. (Although disagreeing, John Beckett sums up the objections here.) Others disagreed: Jason Mankey suggested that perhaps a god wanted it that way. Mankey linked to an older blog post by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,26,64,65,6],"class_list":["post-9828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-culture","tag-equinox","tag-mabon","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2yw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9791,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9791","url_meta":{"origin":9828,"position":0},"title":"Being a Solitary Pagan Does Not Mean that You Celebrate Alone","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, the fall equinox (Mabon) is nearly upon us \u2014 1:54 a.m. Universal (Greenwich) Time on Sunday the 23rd. For North Americans, that is Saturday evening. What will you do if you are a solitary Pagan? At Under the Ancient Oaks, John Beckett suggests,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/chile-festival-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/chile-festival-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/chile-festival-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10879,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10879","url_meta":{"origin":9828,"position":1},"title":"The Ghosties Are Here Early","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I came down to Pueblo today and stopped for breakfast at the Hanging Tree Caf\u00e9, where it is already Halloween. And here I was getting geared up for the Chile & Frijoles Festival this weekend, which is my personal autumn equinox ritual. Time is out of joint! But at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hanging-tree-catarina.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":931,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=931","url_meta":{"origin":9828,"position":2},"title":"Feral Apples","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The equinox is for apples. First M. and walk the small ravine that cuts through our land--that is where the feral apple trees grow. I think of them as growing from apple cores tossed from someone's pickup window 50 years ago, but really I have no idea. As Sally the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9834,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9834","url_meta":{"origin":9828,"position":3},"title":"Out with Mabon, In with La Catrina","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Grumble grumble. Now\u00a0 D\u00eda de los muertos decorations\u00a0 are on display in late September. The Chile & Frijoles Festival was last weekend, the equinox, and it's on to the next holy day(s)! At the Hanging Tree Cafe, it is kind of D\u00eda de los muertos every day. Today, though, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/la-catrina-2018.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/la-catrina-2018.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/la-catrina-2018.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3261,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3261","url_meta":{"origin":9828,"position":4},"title":"It’s Mabon, so … canta y no llores","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My approach to the eight-festival Pagan calendar works like this: the cross-quarter days are for ritual\u2014be that outdoor bonfires or black candles at midnight. The quarter days\u2014solstices and equinoxes\u2014are for public and communal celebrations: with the whole public, not just with other Pagans. The fall equinox offers choice of harvest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/MarquezBros-300x293.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7020,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7020","url_meta":{"origin":9828,"position":5},"title":"New Pomegranate Published","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Issue 16:2 of The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies has now been published online, with print copies coming soon. The publisher does charge for articles (but try to see if your library can get them), although book reviews are free downloads. Contents \"Deepening Conversations between Ritual Studies and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pomegranate web header","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Pomegranate-web-header.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Pomegranate-web-header.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Pomegranate-web-header.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9828"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9833,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9828\/revisions\/9833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}