I’m away this weekend honouring Cerridwen with a bunch of Druids on the shores of Llyn Tegid. So won’t be able to post much about the autumn equinox/Mabon stuff.
So here’s just a gentle reminder that “Mabon” is the name of a Welsh deity. His name, “Mabon ap Modron” means “the great son of the great mother”. Modron isn’t an alternate name for him…nor the seasonal celebration…it is the name of his mother.
Mabon was stolen away from his mother as just a babe, and because of this many draw parallels between his tale and the myth of Persephone/Kore going into the underworld. Of course Persephone’s mythos is used as an explanation for the disparity between the darker and the lighter halves of the year.
But Mabon’s myth does not specify his abduction and imprisonment had any seasonal connotations. In fact, he wasn’t trapped in Caerloyw for just a season, it’s implied he was imprisoned for quite a long, long time. So long indeed that only the most ancient of animals knows where he is.
And so there isn’t anything at all really to link Mabon with the autumn equinox in traditional Welsh myth and lore. The idea that he represents the equinox is a modern invention.
I don’t particularly mind folks referring to the autumn equinox as “Mabon”. All I ask, as a person born and bred in Wales, whose first language is Welsh, is that if you insist on using Mabon as the name of the equinox…at least learn the correct pronunciation, and maybe familiarise yourself with who Mabon is a little.
Otherwise it feels rather disrespectful to the culture the name is drawn from.
