Short Stuff: Mabon

Mabon is often called the Pagan Thanksgiving but though it seems like it’s as ancient as Halloween, it’s actually only around 50 years old. But, pagan or not, it’s a great chance to really feel the fall and thank Mother Earth. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:20Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, there's Jerry here, too, sitting in for Dave. And we're here to celebrate the pagan Thanksgiving that you never knew you needed.

• 1:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't remember if we mentioned this, because we covered some stuff on Wiccans and other sort of pagan religions years ago, I feel like.

• 1:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  But the pagan Thanksgiving is Mabon, M-A-B-O-N. And it is one of many kind of fall harvest celebrations that have happened throughout history that celebrate the Autumnal Equinox.

• 1:56Josh Clark?

  Wow, way to go. Say it again.

• 1:58Speaker 01

  The Autumnal Equinox.

• 2:00Josh Clark?

  Very nice. Yeah, but it's actually kind of new. Mabon is. Because ironically, the original pagans, like the Celts, for example, did not celebrate the Autumnal Equinox, which is evidenced by, if you go to Stonehenge on the Autumnal Equinox, nothing happens, nothing special. It's just like any other day. But like you said, cultures around the world have. And today, neo-pagans, Druids, Wiccans, et cetera, definitely celebrate it. It's one of eight Sabbats. Sabbats. Sabbats, I think, right? Like Sabbath. And there are eight of them on the Wheel of the Year.

• 2:40Josh Clark?

  And in fact, Mabon is one of three harvest festivals that occur from August through October.

• 2:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, you've probably heard us talk about Yule before in one of our Christmas episodes, probably. That is a Sabbat. And we've also talked about Samhain, for sure, spelled Samhain.

• 3:00Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  Because that's the one associated with Halloween. So those are definitely much more well-known. But Mabon, we gotta talk about Mabon a little bit.

• 3:08Josh Clark?

  All right. Well, first, let's talk about the first harvest festival, Lunasa. That takes place in early August, where I guess, I don't know what you're picking then. Mabon is like the money harvest festival. Late September, that's when everything's ready to be picked, basically. And then Samhain is the third, the one in October. And the Autumnal Equinox, and this is a big part of Mabon in particular, is balance. The reason why there's a focus on balance is because the day and night are basically evenly split between 12 hours apiece on the Autumnal Equinox and the Vernal Equinox, the Spring Equinox. So that's a big theme in Mabon.

• 3:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, for sure. And one of the things that if you practice any kind of paganism and you want to celebrate Mabon, you want to maybe meditate on that balance in your own life, might be a thing to do.

• 4:03Josh Clark?

  For sure.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  Another thing you mentioned earlier is that it's a newer thing. This term is only about 55 years old. The Mabon actually comes from a Welsh god, son of the earth, mother goddess. And there was a Welsh text, an old Welsh text called the Mabinogion.

• 4:26Josh Clark?

  Your guess is as good as mine.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, that looks about right. That has, it tells about like, you know, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and stuff like that. And one of the heroes of those stories is a god named Mabon, son of mother, who was held hostage as a baby.

• 4:45Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and as we'll see, the reason that Mabon was chosen to mark the Autumnal Equinox, despite the fact that the ancient Druids and Celts like did not, there was no recognition of Mabon or association with them, that's a modern thing, like we said, is that the guy who kind of helped write or put together the Wheel of the Year for modern paganism's Aidan Kelly back in the 60s and 70s, he did his research. And he found out that in Greek lore and mythology, the goddess Demeter is celebrated on the Autumnal Equinox.

• 5:24Josh Clark?

  And Demeter shares in common with Mabon that this idea that she was young and was rescued from the underworld, just like Mabon was. So he's like, I think this is enough of an association to call this Mabon.

• 5:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's kind of funny. Apparently, he was looking for something Gaelic or Germanic, name-wise, on the pagan calendar, based on the solstices, and he couldn't find anything. So he was like, eh, maybe a stretch, but I'm just gonna go with this one.

• 5:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's not to say that, so Mabon seems to be the only one that they put into the Wheel of the Year. There are some really ancient Celtic festivals, including Samhain and Lunasa, and one called Beltane, and one called Imbolc, which is spelled I-M-B-O-L-C. And I'm just so pleased as punch that I pronounced it correctly.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  Nice work.

• 6:17Josh Clark?

  But Mabon, they said, we're gonna add this in because we feel like it's a big deal. And again, there's other cultures that celebrate this, like the Maltese, the Mayans. And then Chuck, get this, the Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza in Mexico. Did you look a picture of this up?

• 6:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, amazing.

• 6:36Josh Clark?

  It is amazing. So the shadows fall on the pyramid, the steps of the pyramid, technically it's a ziggurat, and it looks like a serpent coming down the steps on the side on the Autumnal Equinox. It's nuts, because it definitely looks like that.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's cool. It reminded me of when I lived in Los Angeles. When Emily and I moved in together, we lived in the neighborhood of Eagle Rock. And Eagle Rock is so named because there's a big rock by the highway that has, it's not like hand carved, it's just a piece kind of nature carved out. And when the sun hits that at a certain time of the day, it looks like an eagle flying.

• 7:17Josh Clark?

  Oh, neat.

• 7:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:19Josh Clark?

  I'm sure it wasn't named after the band.

• 7:22Speaker 01

  What, eagles? No, probably not.

• 7:25Josh Clark?

  Because they do not rock.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  Should we take a break? All right, we'll be right back.

• 7:43Josh Clark?

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• 8:46Josh Clark?

  Hey, this is Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know.

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• 9:56Josh Clark?

  Okay Chuck, I feel like it's high time that we explain to people what they can do to celebrate Mabon, even if you're not a pagan, or a Wiccan, or a witch, or have never owned a crystal. Doesn't matter. You can still, you can still observe Mabon. I should say also, we base this short stuff on an article from How Stuff Works, written by our own Dave Ruves. Dave Ruves is one of the most religiously tolerant people you will ever meet.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:27Josh Clark?

  And he definitely applied that to this. And I feel like we also, we need to shout out Dave's podcast Biblical Time Machine, which is also very tolerant, too.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, Dave's great. So is the podcast. I mentioned earlier in Act One, that one thing you can do is reflect on the past year and talk about like balance. Also, obviously, things that you're thankful for, because again, it's around Thanksgiving. And something you can do in your house, if you want, is to have a cornucopia, like a little horn of plenty. That has roots in ancient Greece.

• 11:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  But if you have a centerpiece of a cornucopia in your home to celebrate fall, or the autumnal equinox, or Mabon, there are certainly worse ways to go about it than that. So it's a lovely thing to do.

• 11:14Josh Clark?

  And it is. It is like an iconic fall look, essentially. And it's just yet another thing that people do today and don't realize that it's an ancient pagan custom, you know? I love that kind of stuff. Another thing you can do is reflect. There's a lot of time for reflecting over the course of a 12-hour day.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 11:37Josh Clark?

  And so because the energy is in balance between night and day on Mabon, it's the same on the vernal equinox, too, Ostara. But with Ostara, it's, you're thinking about like renewal, and growth, and awakening, basically from the winter slumber. In autumn, you're kind of going the opposite way. You're talking about releasing stuff. You know, like, is that toupee really working for you? That kind of stuff. Like, you've harvested the year already, and now you're, you're basically getting ready to go to sleep for months.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. If I size up a shirt, will that hide my beer belly a little more?

• 12:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it definitely will.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  Sometimes that's not the way to go, though.

• 12:23Josh Clark?

  Oh, no, definitely not. Especially if it's a tight shirt.

• 12:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:27Josh Clark?

  Did you ever see, I Think You Should Leave?

• 12:32Speaker 01

  The TV show?

• 12:32Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 12:33Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:34Josh Clark?

  Remember that one skit where he's got like the handle on his shirt to pull it away from his gut more efficiently?

• 12:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I thought you were gonna talk about the episode where he was obsessed with that particular shirt brand?

• 12:47Josh Clark?

  I don't remember that one.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  That he kept buying, yeah. He does, he has lots of funny clothing things, because also in the movie he did with Paul Rudd, Friendship? Was that what it's called?

• 12:58Josh Clark?

  I think so, yeah.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  It was a very funny clothing company. He made up for that. What was the name of it?

• 13:03Josh Clark?

  I don't remember.

• 13:04Speaker 01

  Oh, it was called, God, he's so funny to me, Ocean View Dining.

• 13:13Josh Clark?

  That rings a bell, but I don't remember the whole joke.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, he just loved, it was just a Tim Robinson thing. He just loved Ocean View Dining clothes, and talked about them a lot.

• 13:24Josh Clark?

  Are you a Detroit-er fan, too?

• 13:26Speaker 01

  No, that's still the one I haven't seen. It's on the list, though.

• 13:28Josh Clark?

  You're gonna love it.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:29Josh Clark?

  You will absolutely love it.

• 13:31Speaker 01

  God, he's so great. If you're weird enough to not last long on Saturday Night Live, then that's, you're probably headed in the right direction.

• 13:37Josh Clark?

  For sure.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:39Josh Clark?

  So yeah, that's another thing you can do on Mabon, is have a Tim Robinson marathon. You could definitely do a lot worse than that.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, or you could just bring some fall color in there. And if you don't have the cornucopia, just, you know, maybe bring in a few things that are in harvest, maybe some dried flowers, maybe take a walk.

• 13:59Josh Clark?

  That's a big one.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  Go to a corn maze.

• 14:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah, why not? Support your local economy.

• 14:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:06Josh Clark?

  Although there is big corn maze now.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  Right. You don't want to go there.

• 14:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah, there's a lot of stuff you can do. And essentially, it's just feel good about fall is the key for non-pagans. If you're a pagan, you got a lot more to do, sorry.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, agreed.

• 14:23Josh Clark?

  So the autumnal equinox is Tuesday, September 22nd this year. Hopefully, we're releasing this before then, although it'd be classic stuff you should know to release it the day after.

• 14:34Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 14:35Josh Clark?

  Either way, just get out there in the nice fall weather. That's the point here.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Agreed. I cannot wait. It is still so hot. So bring it on.

• 14:43Josh Clark?

  Bring it on. Short stuff is out.

• 14:49Speaker 06

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