Thanksgiving is a holiday widely associated with American traditions, rooted in the historical event of the Pilgrims and Native Americans gathering together to give thanks for a successful harvest. However, this tradition of expressing gratitude for a bountiful harvest is not unique to American history or culture. Ancient pagans across various civilizations also observed similar celebrations of thanksgiving. In the ancient world, many pagan societies held harvest festivals to express gratitude for a bountiful harvest and to honor the gods or deities associated with fertility and agriculture. These festivals were often accompanied by feasts, rituals, and ceremonies. While the specific customs and traditions varied among different pagan cultures, the underlying theme of thanksgiving for the harvest remained consistent.
Ancient Celtic peoples had robust harvest festivals , and these traditions have continued for thousands of years.
The Thanksgiving myth doesn t address the deterioration of this relationship culminating in one of the most horrific colonial Indian wars on record, King Philip s War, and also doesn t address Wampanoag survival and adaptation over the centuries, which is why they re still here, despite the odds. Oh sure, friends enjoyed a turkey dinner with their families like most other Americans on the last Thursday of November, but there wasn t anything magickal associated with Wicca or Wiccan beliefs about it.
While the specific customs and traditions varied among different pagan cultures, the underlying theme of thanksgiving for the harvest remained consistent. One example of an ancient pagan thanksgiving celebration is the Roman festival of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture. Known as the Cerelia, this festival included a grand procession, sacrificial offerings, and feasting to honor Ceres and give thanks for the abundance of crops.
Even Non-Wiccans Can Celebrate Mabon, the 'Pagan Thanksgiving'
If you love all things autumn — "leaf peeping" the fall foliage, picking apples, decking out your front stoop with gourds and corn stalks — then you might want to add another holiday to the calendar. Mabon, also known as "Pagan Thanksgiving," is a harvest celebration that falls around the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22-23, 2022.
Since the dawn of agriculture, cultures around the world marked the harvest season with ancient rituals of feasting and thanksgiving for the abundance of the earth. In contemporary Paganism, some of those ancient harvest traditions are revived and reinterpreted by people who may identify as Neopagans, Wiccans, druids, hedonists, witches, animists, nature worshippers or plain old Pagans.
Mabon is one of eight "sabbats," contemporary Pagan festivals that mark the changing of the seasons on the Pagan calendar known as the Wheel of the Year. The best-known sabbats are Yule, which commemorates the winter solstice and Samhain, the late harvest festival associated with Halloween.
Although lesser-known, the fall equinox festival Mabon is "a really powerful time," says Selena Fox, senior minister and high priestess of Circle Sanctuary, a nature spirituality center in Wisconsin. "I think most people would recognize a lot of the ancient fall equinox customs, but didn't realize where they had their origins."
What Is the Autumnal Equinox?
If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, the autumnal equinox is the date in late September when the number of daylight hours and darkness are almost exactly equal (12 hours each). If you live in the Southern Hemisphere, that same September date is your spring equinox, also known as the vernal equinox. (In 2022, the date is Sept. 22.)
Druid Merlin poses for a photograph as druids, Pagans and revelers gather to take part in Mabon celebrations at the ancient neolithic monument of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, 2017.
Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesModern astronomers are not the only ones who have carefully calculated and tracked the fall and spring equinoxes, as well as the summer and winter solstices when the daylight hours are longest and shortest.
"All around the world, there are ancient monuments and sacred sites that were built to attune to the equinox points and the solstice points," says Fox. Examples include the Pyramid of Kukulkán at the ancient Mayan site of Chichen Itza in Mexico. Every year on the fall and spring equinoxes, the interplay of light and shadow makes it look like a large serpent is descending the temple's stone steps.
Mabon: a New Name for Old Ways
Fox has organized the Welcome Fall Festival at Circle Sanctuary since 1974, not long after Paganism was reborn as a contemporary religious movement. "The word Mabon as a term for the fall equinox is only about 55 years old," says Fox.
Mabon was a name borrowed from Welsh mythology and lore. There's a medieval Welsh text called the Mabinogion that includes some of the earliest tales of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The hero of one of the stories is a handsome young god named Mabon ap Modron ("Son of the Mother") who was held hostage in the underworld as a baby.
When contemporary Paganism was emerging in the 1960s and 1970s, an academic and poet named Aiden Kelly was trying to create a vocabulary for this new/old religion. As Kelly wrote on Patheos, he went looking for Gaelic or Germanic names for a Pagan calendar based on the solstices, equinoxes and other dates that would become the eight sabbats.
When he couldn't find a suitable Gaelic or Germanic name for the fall equinox, Kelly chose Mabon, because the Welsh god's story has some elements in common with Greek goddess Demeter, whose ancient cult was associated with the fall equinox. "It was not an arbitrary choice," Kelly wrote. "There seems to be a complex of myths associating the fall equinox with the rescue of a young person from death, datable back to about 1500 B.C.E." He referred to the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac which is read at Rosh Hashanah, a Jewish holiday that also happens in late September.
Whether you call it Mabon, fall equinox or Pagan Thanksgiving, Fox says that the name of the holiday isn't as important as the traditions and meaning behind it.
"I appreciate the fact that some long-standing harvest traditions are continuing to be kept alive by individuals and families and communities, by whatever name," says Fox.
Ways to Celebrate Mabon
On the Pagan calendar, Mabon is the second of three harvest festivals. The first harvest, Lughnasadh, is observed in early August. Mabon celebrates the bounty of late September, and Samhain marks the final harvest of late October.
As farmers and gardeners in the Northern Hemisphere know, late September is the height of the harvest season, when everything in the field is ripe and ready to pick: corn, squash, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, apples, pears and grapes. One of Fox's favorite Mabon traditions is to fill a cornucopia with the bounty of the season.
"The Horn of Plenty, which is such an iconic fall decoration, has its roots among the ancient Greeks," says Fox.
The cornucopia could be the centerpiece for a potluck Mabon picnic with family and friends, where everyone brings a homemade dish featuring the fruits of the fall. If you want to make it more of a Pagan Thanksgiving, ask everyone to reflect on the past year and share something that they're thankful for. Fox even has a call-and-response Thanksgiving rite that you can perform as a group.
You can also set aside time to meditate on the idea of "balance," says Fox, since the fall equinox is when the light and dark are in balance. "Whether you're Pagan or not, this time of year can be a really good opportunity to take a look at what kind of balance to bring to our personal lives. Are we working too much? Are we procrastinating too much and not accomplishing enough? There's an opportunity at Mabon to evaluate and reset."
Probably the simplest way to celebrate Mabon is by bringing the colors of fall into the home. Place a basket of fresh red and yellow apples on the kitchen table. Fashion a fall wreath out of autumn leaves and dried flowers.
Or better yet, says Fox, go out into nature itself. Take an early evening walk in the brisk fall air. Get lost in a corn maze. Or on a clear night, soak in the glow of the Harvest Moon, the last full moon before the fall equinox. "Before electricity, it was really helpful to have that extra illumination when you were bringing in the crops."
Now That's InterestingThe Neolithic architects of Stonehenge originally aligned some of the great stones to frame the sunrise and sunset during mid-summer and mid-winter, but experts say that there's no evidence that Stonehenge marks the fall and spring equinoxes.
Wild turkey. The bird most associated with American Thanksgiving, which becomes the roast and centerpiece of the meal. It has become custom that the President of the USA annually spares a turkey’s life by ‘pardoning’ the bird. (Flickr/ CC BY 2.0 )
Similarly, the Greeks celebrated the Thesmophoria in honor of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, with rituals and banquets to express gratitude for a successful harvest. In Norse mythology, the Scandinavians celebrated a harvest festival called "Haustblot" or "Harvest Sacrifice." During this festival, offerings were made to the Norse gods, particularly Freyr, the god of fertility, in gratitude for the fruitful harvest. The Celts also had their own thanksgiving celebrations, such as the Lughnasadh festival, which honored the god Lugh and marked the beginning of the harvest season. The practice of observing thanksgiving in pagan cultures extended beyond Europe as well. In ancient Egypt, the festival of Wepet Renpet celebrated the beginning of the agricultural season and involved both religious and social activities. Similarly, in ancient China, the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, was a time of thanksgiving for the harvest and an occasion for families to come together and celebrate. In sum, ancient pagan cultures had their own variations of thanksgiving celebrations to express gratitude for a bountiful harvest. These festivals were an integral part of their cultural and religious practices, emphasizing the importance of giving thanks for the sustenance provided by the earth. While the specific customs and deities varied across civilizations, the common thread of thanksgiving and appreciation for the harvest united these ancient pagan societies..
Reviews for "Ancient Pagan Festivals: Were They Precursors to Thanksgiving?"
1. John - 1 star
I was very disappointed with "Did ancient pagans observe thanksgiving". The author completely missed the mark with this book. I was expecting a thought-provoking exploration of ancient pagan traditions, but instead, I got a poorly researched and poorly written mess. The author presents weak arguments and lacks any real evidence to support their claims. I would not recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about ancient paganism.
2. Sarah - 2 stars
I had high hopes for "Did ancient pagans observe thanksgiving", but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. While it did touch on some interesting ideas, the book was riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. The author seemed to have a biased perspective and cherry-picked evidence to support their narrative. I was left feeling frustrated and unsatisfied after reading this book.
3. Mark - 1 star
"Did ancient pagans observe thanksgiving" was a waste of my time and money. The title of the book is misleading, as it barely covers the topic it promises. The content was dry and lacked depth. It felt more like a poorly written essay than a well-researched book. I would not recommend this book to anyone, as there are much better resources available on the topic. Save your money and look elsewhere for accurate and engaging information.