Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Celebrating Autumn

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure. Please see my suggested resources.

September 20, 2021 By Jennifer Lambert 8 Comments

September is a time to welcome harvest, say goodbye to summer for good even if temps are still warm, welcoming fall.

I think everyone has a favorite season and I have always loved autumn, the scents or decaying leaves, the breezes that transition into crisp licks from summer warmth. I look forward to boots and sweaters and all the beautiful colors.

It seems that summer continues longer and then Halloween keeps creeping up, so I have barely a few days to actually enjoy autumn.

I love setting out my ceramic pumpkins on the brick hearth and my little velvet ones on the mantle. I switch out my front door wreath to one with leaves and pinecones. I have fall tablecloths and towels.

Celebrate the Autumnal Equinox around the 23rd of September.

The word equinox is from Latin, meaning “equal night.” 

The autumn equinox is called Mabon, or Second Harvest, is one of the sacred Celtic celebrations, which date back to ancient times. It’s a time to give thanks for the summer and to pay tribute to the coming darkness.

Thanksgiving, the Moon Festival, Higan, Sukkot, Diwali, and many other fall festivals also hit upon themes of light, darkness, change, plenty, gratitude, and community.

According to legend, a feathered serpent deity named Kukulcan visits the Maya city of Chichen Itza every equinox. On both the vernal and autumnal equinox, crowds gather to watch as a snake-like shadow slides down the god’s namesake pyramid.

Fall festivals of the equinox often involve themes:

  • balancing opposites, especially the scientific, aesthetic, and symbolic senses of light and darkness in balance
  • food, plenty, and gratitude
  • building and celebrating community through sharing food and labor
  • preparing for winter practically, emotionally, and spiritually

Celebrating Autumn

  • Decorating with leaves, pumpkins, apples – fall things!
  • Nature walk
  • Foraging
  • Reading Favorite Fall Books
  • Fall Leaf Crafts
  • Fall Sensory Bin and Light Table
  • Fall Unit Study
  • Warm foods and drinks. Celebrate the harvest with garden fresh fruits and veggies.
  • Read or sing fun animal nature stories like Squirrel Nutkin.
  • Measure shadows outside
  • Bonfires and sharing thankfulness for the year
  • visit farmers markets before they close for the year
  • pumpkin patches and corn mazes

Apples are a great September theme.

Pomona was a Roman goddess who was the keeper of orchards and fruit trees.

  • Canning applesauce
  • Apple Tasting
  • Apple Orchard Tour
  • Preschool Letter A

Here are a few verses perfect for Autumn (from A Beautiful Childhood):

  • Harvest. This is a sweet poem that you can bring to life with some simple actions: “Blow, wind, blow! and go, mill, go! that the miller may grind his corn; that the baker may take it, and into bread make it, and bring us a loaf in the morn. When the wind drops, so the mill stops; when the wind blows, so the mill goes, going: ‘clickety-clacketyclickety-clackety-clickety-clacketyclickety-clack.”
  • Seeds. Tell this poem slowly whilst doing actions with your hands: “A little seed for me to sow, a little earth to make it grow, a little dig, a little pat, a little wish, and that is that. A little sun, a little shower, a little wait, and then… a flower!”
  • Wind / leaves. There are so many similar to this but I love this one, again it could easily be brought to life with a few simple hand gestures: “Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day; Come over the meadows with me and play; Put on your dresses of red and gold; For summer is gone, and the days grow cold. Soon as the leaves heard the wind’s loud call, Down they came fluttering, one and all; Over the fields they danced and flew, Singing the soft little songs they knew. Dancing and whirling the little leaves went; Winter had called them and they were content; Soon, fast asleep in their earthy beds, The snow laid a coverlet over their heads.”
  • Apples. You can cut an apple in half to see the “star” inside and tell this poem / sing this song:  “My nice red rosy apple, has a secret hid unseen. You’d see if you could slip inside, five rooms so neat and clean. In each room there are living, two pips so shiny bright. Asleep they are a-dreaming, of lovely warm sunlight. And sometimes they are dreaming, of things that are to be. For soon they will be hanging, upon a Christmas tree.”

Books

  • Celebrating Autumn Equinox: Customs & Crafts, Recipes & Rituals for Harvest, Sukkot, Mid Autumn Moon, Michaelmas, Eleusinian Mysteries & Other Autumn Holidays
  • Mabon: Celebrating the Autumn Equinox
  • Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon
  • Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain: Hero Myths in the Mabinogion
  • A Child’s Seasonal Treasury
  • All Year Round: Christian Calendar of Celebrations
  • Festivals Together
  • Festivals Family and Food
  • The Rhythm of Family: Discovering a Sense of Wonder through the Seasons
  • Birthday Book: Celebrations for Everyone
  • Balance in Teaching
  • Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

You might also like:

  • Celebrating Rosh Hashanah
  • Celebrating Michaelmas

What’s your favorite thing about autumn?

Linking up: Grammy’s Grid, Pinch of Joy, House on Silverado, Pam’s Party, Random Musings, Anita Ojeda, April Harris, Mostly Blogging, Lou Lou Girls, Stroll Through Life, OMHG, Across the Blvd, Suburbia, Jenerally Informed, Shelbee on the Edge, Thistle Key Lane, Soaring with Him, Fluster Buster, Ginger Snap, Ducks in a Row, InstaEncouragements, Ridge Haven, Anchored Abode, Try it Like it, Slices of Life, Imparting Grace, Simply Beautiful, Answer is Choco, Artful Mom, Being a Wordsmith, Momfessionals, Hubbard Home, Cottage Market, Modern on Monticello, Simply Sweet Home, Pieced Pastimes, Create with Joy,

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Filed Under: Family Tagged With: autumn, equinox, fall

Celebrating Spring

This blog may contain affiliate links: disclosure. Please see my suggested resources.

March 20, 2021 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

Spring is a time of renewal.

The breezes and rain wash away the old and bring in something bright and new.

The kids and I love to explore our yard and the woods behind our house, seeking out new shoots of green, awakening insects, migrating birds.

We’re surprised every year by the bulbs re-emerging, like we’ve forgotten or are worried they might not appear for some reason this year.

I’ve always felt like a spring baby, even though I’m born on only the 18th. My aunt was born on the 20th and I always thought she was so special.

I remember all the springtimes at every house we’ve lived – the flowers that grew there and I sometimes miss in a different climate. I long for the blooming azaleas of my Southern home.

After the vernal equinox, the days become longer and the nights become shorter. Daylight Saving Time also helps us to enjoy the warmer sunnier weather.

We naturally long to be outside more as the weather warms, after being perhaps more cooped up inside during the colder months, when the sun set at or even before dinnertime.

We enjoy our after-dinner walks again. It helps digestion and sleep and I just generally feel better.

We visit our resident Great Horned Owls by our neighborhood pond and woods. We will soon welcome the Little Brown Bats from their winter slumber to eat up the mosquitoes. Birds, raccoons, squirrels, and opossums will soon have babies foraging at our feeders and in our yard.

It’s baseball season and we’re running around to practices and games, dodging the rain with prayers, blankets, and umbrellas.

We’re planning our backyard vegetable garden. We notice the herbs returning after their winter dormancy. We’ve pruned the roses and fertilized the lawn and shrubs.

The world is awakening in wonder.

Celebrating the Spring Equinox

  • Spring Books
  • Eggs – decorating or eating
  • Flowers!
  • Backyard birds
  • Easter is soon!
  • Passover is soon!
  • Spring cleaning our hearts and homes
  • Seeds
  • Gardening
  • Rain painting
  • Baby animals
  • Backwoods Mama
  • The Seasonal Soul

Books:

  • A Child’s Seasonal Treasury
  • All Year Round: Christian Calendar of Celebrations
  • Festivals Together
  • Festivals Family and Food
  • The Rhythm of Family: Discovering a Sense of Wonder through the Seasons
  • Birthday Book: Celebrations for Everyone
  • Balance in Teaching
  • Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Step softly. The earth is pregnant.

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Filed Under: Family Tagged With: equinox, spring

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