Do any of you acknowledge / celebrate the equinox?

[Anne in Saskatchewan]

I was just thinking it would be fun to do something around the fall equinox. Any ideas?

 

TIA,

Anne.

[Tap]

Other than me sobbing uncontrollably about summer being over and the days getting darker...No. :(

[Annie G]

I don't celebrate it but I make cakes and a client has ordered a cake for tomorrow. She's having a party and inviting neighbors.

I'll happily take the money for the cake, but I HATE winter. It gets really dark by 4:30 here. And it's really cold. Not a whole lot to look forward to!

[KarenNC]

We've done a variety of things. We celebrate it as the end of the harvest season, so that lends itself to decorations of seasonal vegetables, fruits and grains. A Waldorf/Montessori nature table idea would work well as a centerpiece. A couple of years I've made a traditional English harvest loaf that looks like this one:

 

Crafts like making pictures/mosaics from seeds, apple-head dolls, drying fruit, all could be fun.

 

Other ideas would be seasonal foods, which will vary according to your area. Your experience of "seasonal" in Saskatchewan is going to be dramatically different than mine in NC :). For crafts around this, if leaves are turning, you can iron colorful leaves between two sheets of wax paper to make placemats or hangings. Leaf crowns, woven wheat ornaments (and if you do a tree later on, they can hang there as well) http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/?q=node/12

 

It's also a time of balance between the outward-focused warm season and the inward-focused cold season, so things that represent balance of light and dark can be fun. Chocolate and vanilla pinwheel rolled cookies are fun. For crafts, mobiles are nice, particularly with suns and moons, pictures representing summer activities and winter activities, etc (or the leaves you ironed above).

 

If you like the story of Demeter and Persephone (or Ceres and Proserpine), telling that story is fun, and easy to make a play from it. Eating or drinking things with pomegranates works with this. If it's not too late in your area, you could plant some spring-blooming bulbs. Song to Demeter is one of our favorite picture books of this. There are likely other cultural stories about the changing of the seasons that may also be of interest.

 

Make lists of the favorite things you did during the summer or would like to do next summer and put it in an envelope, making a note on the calendar to open it at the spring equinox. Then make a list of all the fun/favorite things you plan to do in the winter. This could be easily adapted to a scrapbook page or some other medium as well.

Edited September 21, 2009 by KarenNC

[rowan25]

We've done a variety of things. We celebrate it as the end of the harvest season, so that lends itself to decorations of seasonal vegetables, fruits and grains. A Waldorf/Montessori nature table idea would work well as a centerpiece. A couple of years I've made a traditional English harvest loaf that looks like this one:

 

Crafts like making pictures/mosaics from seeds, apple-head dolls, drying fruit, all could be fun.

 

Other ideas would be seasonal foods, which will vary according to your area. Your experience of "seasonal" in Saskatchewan is going to be dramatically different than mine in NC :). For crafts around this, if leaves are turning, you can iron colorful leaves between two sheets of wax paper to make placemats or hangings. Leaf crowns, woven wheat ornaments (and if you do a tree later on, they can hang there as well) http://gingerbreadsnowflakes.com/?q=node/12

 

It's also a time of balance between the outward-focused warm season and the inward-focused cold season, so things that represent balance of light and dark can be fun. Chocolate and vanilla pinwheel rolled cookies are fun. For crafts, mobiles are nice, particularly with suns and moons, pictures representing summer activities and winter activities, etc (or the leaves you ironed above).

 

If you like the story of Demeter and Persephone (or Ceres and Proserpine), telling that story is fun, and easy to make a play from it. Eating or drinking things with pomegranates works with this. If it's not too late in your area, you could plant some spring-blooming bulbs. Song to Demeter is one of our favorite picture books of this. There are likely other cultural stories about the changing of the seasons that may also be of interest.

 

Make lists of the favorite things you did during the summer or would like to do next summer and put it in an envelope, making a note on the calendar to open it at the spring equinox. Then make a list of all the fun/favorite things you plan to do in the winter. This could be easily adapted to a scrapbook page or some other medium as well.

KarenNC,

 

You sound very knowledgeable. Do you teach Waldorf method? Could you pm me with some books/resources you use? I'm very curious! :001_smile: Thanks!!

 

rowan

[shadowcat]

Karen's ideas are great. I like to go apple picking, too. We also talk about what each of us likes about the autumn, which is easy for me because its one of my favorite times of year!

[Happy]

Other than me sobbing uncontrollably about summer being over and the days getting darker...No. :(

 

Oh yeah. Here, too.

 

I think sitting around the fire pit out back would be fun. Roast marshmellows, enjoy slightly cooler temps, star-gaze....

 

Gee, that sounds fun. Now if we only had a fire pit. :D

 

Dragging out the fall decor would be uplifting...not Halloween stuff yet, just the fall stuff. For the record, I have fall stuff, then layer on some mild halloween stuff, remove that and layer on some Thanksgiving stuff.

 

Summer came and went in a hurry at our house this year.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

.

Edited September 22, 2009 by Dulcimeramy

[rowan25]

Lord, how I wish we had seasons here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our leaves never change. They either stay green or turn brown and fall off. It's possible that it can be in the 80s up until Christmas! It would be easier to feel in a fall kindof mood, if it wasn't almost 90 outside! :001_huh:

[K-FL]

Lord, how I wish we had seasons here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our leaves never change. They either stay green or turn brown and fall off. It's possible that it can be in the 80s up until Christmas! It would be easier to feel in a fall kindof mood, if it wasn't almost 90 outside! :001_huh:

 

LOL! Here too. We old-timers can tell when the humidity gets lower & the cold fronts start blowing in. If you just look at the thermometer, it's like summer to you folks north of Miami.:D

[sleepymommy]

We usually read some books on Fall and changing seasons and we change our nature table.

[KarenNC]

KarenNC,

 

You sound very knowledgeable. Do you teach Waldorf method? Could you pm me with some books/resources you use? I'm very curious! :001_smile: Thanks!!

 

rowan

 

Actually I only know a little bit about the Waldorf method, mostly that a nature table features in it and they like to use natural materials, I'm afraid. Most of my info comes from having pulled together things to celebrate the changing of the seasons religiously over the years and trying to make it fun and relevant to my daughter (we are Hellenic Neopagan Unitarian Universalists). The Waldorf info comes due to the fact that my daughter's preschool (years ago) incorporated some of the principles and a friend of mine makes the Waldorf-style wool felt dolls and toys.

[KarenNC]

Lord, how I wish we had seasons here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our leaves never change. They either stay green or turn brown and fall off. It's possible that it can be in the 80s up until Christmas! It would be easier to feel in a fall kindof mood, if it wasn't almost 90 outside! :001_huh:

 

Well, it's 81 right now at 6pm here and high tomorrow is going to be 84. That's why I told the OP one needs to look at seasonality of food in one's own region. We're still getting tomatoes from the CSA. Some of the fall veggies haven't even started producing.

[IsabelC]

We do! Except that right now Down Under we are preparing for Ostara (Spring Equinox). We usually have a family feast of seasonal food and drink, themed music, stories and poems, craft activities, really anything goes and it varies a bit each year as to what we do. The kids love celebrating the seasons though, and you can work a lot of 'educational' stuff in with it, too :)

[rowan25]

LOL! Here too. We old-timers can tell when the humidity gets lower & the cold fronts start blowing in. If you just look at the thermometer, it's like summer to you folks north of Miami.:D

Yep!! We're looking forward to a few fronts here in the next couple of weeks. The temps will be about mid 80s! :lol:

[rowan25]

Actually I only know a little bit about the Waldorf method, mostly that a nature table features in it and they like to use natural materials, I'm afraid. Most of my info comes from having pulled together things to celebrate the changing of the seasons religiously over the years and trying to make it fun and relevant to my daughter (we are Hellenic Neopagan Unitarian Universalists). The Waldorf info comes due to the fact that my daughter's preschool (years ago) incorporated some of the principles and a friend of mine makes the Waldorf-style wool felt dolls and toys.

 

Actually I think I'm beginning to do this myself. I'd like to start celebrating the seasons more. I know that Waldorf does things similar to this; that's the only reason I mentioned that method. :)

 

I'm not quite sure what I want to know, but I know that something is missing both in our lives and our school. I thought I might try some seasonal celebrations and see if that helped.

[Ibbygirl]

Lord, how I wish we had seasons here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our leaves never change. They either stay green or turn brown and fall off. It's possible that it can be in the 80s up until Christmas! It would be easier to feel in a fall kindof mood, if it wasn't almost 90 outside! :001_huh:

 

You MUST be in Florida! hehe It's been 92 down here by me. :) I sure do love Florida's winter though. It's so nice to leave the house and actually make it to my car without dripping with sweat. I also love how blue the skies are in winter. So beautiful. :)

[Tutor]

I was just thinking it would be fun to do something around the fall equinox. Any ideas?

 

TIA,

Anne.

 

I am hosting this week's Carnival of Homeschooling on my blog and am including lesson ideas for a slew of subjects surrounding the autumnal equinox and fall. I'll post on the boards when it's up. (Right now, I'm going to bed or the carnival will consist of whatever gets typed when my head hits the keyboard. :D )

[Peela]

I love the idea of celebrating it, but rarely actually do, other than acknowledging to myself the change of seasons.

Dh and I go married on the autumn equinox though. We did remember for the first time this year to celebrate that :)

 

We are coming into summer....not that it feels like it yet here, we are still huddled up in warm clothes and have the heaters on.

[KarenNC]

Actually I think I'm beginning to do this myself. I'd like to start celebrating the seasons more. I know that Waldorf does things similar to this; that's the only reason I mentioned that method. :)

 

I'm not quite sure what I want to know, but I know that something is missing both in our lives and our school. I thought I might try some seasonal celebrations and see if that helped.

 

Look up "Waldorf nature table" or just "nature table" and it will give you lots of ideas.

 

You can also google "Wheel of the Year" and "recipes", "crafts", "activities", etc and get lots of ideas. Since the model for that came out of Northern European and British customs, though, you will possibly need to modify--we have had to. For me the biggest thing is to become aware of and honor the changes that happen in your actual location rather than getting hung up in trying to replicate exactly something that fits another area with a totally different climate. Some of the symbolic meanings can work the same (at least in the Northern Hemisphere;)) but not all and trying to ignore that is somewhat counterproductive IMO. The point of seasonal celebrations is that they are tied to your real seasons, not a mythical or idealized "autumn", "winter", "spring" or "summer".

 

I am not terribly familiar with Florida and like areas, but I imagine there must be some subtler seasonal changes? Different flowers that bloom, fruits or vegetables that come into season? What's in your farmers' markets rather than just the grocery? Eating seasonally as much as possible can help make the connections. Here's a list for Florida of seasonal produce: http://localfoods.about.com/od/searchbyregion/a/floridaseasons.htm

We're also making a point of putting up (freezing, drying, etc) some of our excess seasonal stuff for off season. We belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm, so we get shares of what is growing currently on the farm---dealing with what's currently growing (and what's not) have really given us a greater connection to the land where we live. Growing even a small garden or in pots helps as well.

[rowan25]

You MUST be in Florida! hehe It's been 92 down here by me. :) I sure do love Florida's winter though. It's so nice to leave the house and actually make it to my car without dripping with sweat. I also love how blue the skies are in winter. So beautiful. :)

:lol: No, southeast Louisiana. Same thing, right?!

[rowan25]

Look up "Waldorf nature table" or just "nature table" and it will give you lots of ideas.

 

You can also google "Wheel of the Year" and "recipes", "crafts", "activities", etc and get lots of ideas. Since the model for that came out of Northern European and British customs, though, you will possibly need to modify--we have had to. For me the biggest thing is to become aware of and honor the changes that happen in your actual location rather than getting hung up in trying to replicate exactly something that fits another area with a totally different climate. Some of the symbolic meanings can work the same (at least in the Northern Hemisphere;)) but not all and trying to ignore that is somewhat counterproductive IMO. The point of seasonal celebrations is that they are tied to your real seasons, not a mythical or idealized "autumn", "winter", "spring" or "summer".

 

I am not terribly familiar with Florida and like areas, but I imagine there must be some subtler seasonal changes? Different flowers that bloom, fruits or vegetables that come into season? What's in your farmers' markets rather than just the grocery? Eating seasonally as much as possible can help make the connections. Here's a list for Florida of seasonal produce: http://localfoods.about.com/od/searchbyregion/a/floridaseasons.htm

We're also making a point of putting up (freezing, drying, etc) some of our excess seasonal stuff for off season. We belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture) farm, so we get shares of what is growing currently on the farm---dealing with what's currently growing (and what's not) have really given us a greater connection to the land where we live. Growing even a small garden or in pots helps as well.

Thanks so much. You've given me some good ideas! :)

[rowan25]

We talked about fall equinox scientifically, colored leaf pictures, made leaf suncatchers and had a generally more relaxed day. It wasn't everything I really wanted it to be, but considering I pulled this together at midnight the night before, it went really well. Thanks to everyone for their ideas and recommendations. :)

[Ibbygirl]

:lol: No, southeast Louisiana. Same thing, right?!

 

LOL Pretty much I reckon. :) Except ya'll speak French and we speak Spanish. ;)

[Ravin]

We usually don't. I did update my altar with some different seasonal decorations. But my tradition calls for celebrating the Equinox as Winternights, the beginning of winter. We usually celebrate Winternights at Halloween, because it makes more sense here, seasonally.

[Audrey]

Ah this year was a bust as far as celebrating Mabon. We spent it in the fields harvesting the flax. I did make an awesome beef stew though.

 

I suppose that, Mabon being a harvest celebration, it was probably spot-on appropriate that we actually spent it harvesting.

[rowan25]

LOL Pretty much I reckon. :) Except ya'll speak French and we speak Spanish. ;)

Nah, we speak Bronx! :lol:

[Ibbygirl]

Nah, we speak Bronx! :lol:

 

 

Then you really are just like us! hehehehe :lol:

[KarenNC]

We talked about fall equinox scientifically, colored leaf pictures, made leaf suncatchers and had a generally more relaxed day. It wasn't everything I really wanted it to be, but considering I pulled this together at midnight the night before, it went really well. Thanks to everyone for their ideas and recommendations. :)

 

Glad it went well for you. Here's another idea for the future from something that cropped up serendipitously for me. My stepmother had surgery yesterday and I went up this evening to sit with her so my dad could go home for a bit, go to Wednesday night church services if he wanted, etc. I am not familiar with the hospital, so ended up parking on the opposite end from where I needed to be. It was, however, on the same end of the building as the labyrinth, which I had not known existed. I took a few minutes to walk it this evening. It makes a nice reminder for me of the Persephone story as well as the inward-turning nature of this seasonal change. I am thinking I may start taking the family there at both the autumnal and vernal equinox. As a bonus, it's close to the giant (and very loud) fountain near one of the hospital entrances, so I got to walk it to the sound of running water.:001_smile:

 

Labyrinths in public spaces are becoming more common, so you might want to see if there's one near you if the idea appeals.

[orangearrow]

I try my very best to ignore it completely. :glare: I like fall weather but have to fight depression when it starts getting dark at 5:30 every day.

 

Now, when it's spring, we'll do something special!! lol

[rowan25]

Then you really are just like us! hehehehe :lol:

:lol::lol: Yep!

[rowan25]

Glad it went well for you. Here's another idea for the future from something that cropped up serendipitously for me. My stepmother had surgery yesterday and I went up this evening to sit with her so my dad could go home for a bit, go to Wednesday night church services if he wanted, etc. I am not familiar with the hospital, so ended up parking on the opposite end from where I needed to be. It was, however, on the same end of the building as the labyrinth, which I had not known existed. I took a few minutes to walk it this evening. It makes a nice reminder for me of the Persephone story as well as the inward-turning nature of this seasonal change. I am thinking I may start taking the family there at both the autumnal and vernal equinox. As a bonus, it's close to the giant (and very loud) fountain near one of the hospital entrances, so I got to walk it to the sound of running water.:001_smile:

 

Labyrinths in public spaces are becoming more common, so you might want to see if there's one near you if the idea appeals.

How beautiful that sounds!

 

I know there was talk of someone putting one in, but Katrina happened and I never heard anymore about it. I'm going to have to look again.

[rowan25]

We celebrated by watching it snow...

SNOW???!!!! Wow! :lol: