Changing of Season: Mabon

Mabon is the season in which the harvest is being gathered. It's also the time in which the hunt often begins -- deer and other animals are killed during the autumn in many parts of the world. The autumn equinox, or Mabon, takes place on or near September 21, and its spring counterpart falls around March 21. If you're in the Northern hemisphere, the days will begin getting shorter after the autumn equinox and the nights will grow longer—in the Southern hemisphere, the reverse is true. The idea of a harvest festival is nothing new. In fact, people have celebrated it for millennia, all around the world. In ancient Greece, Oschophoria was a festival held in the fall to celebrate the harvesting of grapes for wine. In the 1700's, the Bavarians came up with Oktoberfest, which actually begins in the last week of September, and it was a time of great feasting and merriment, still in existence today.

Popular Gods and Goddesses of Agriculture

Demeter: Greek Goddess of Agriculture, the Bountiful Harvest, and the Green Earth. She is the Mistress of the Season

Osiris: Egyptian God of Agriculture, Rebirth and the Nile flood. He is also Ruler of the Afterlife

Pomona: Roman Goddess of Fruit Orchard and Harvest.

Popular Gods and Goddesses of the Hunt

Cernunnos is a protector of the forest and master of the hunt.

Artemis is the Greek goddess of both hunting and childbirth. Her twin brother was Apollo

Odin is associated with the concept of the wild hunt and leads a noisy horde of fallen warriors across the sky.

In some parts of the northern hemisphere, autumn has a strong association with the end of summer holiday and the start of a new school year, particularly for children in primary and secondary education. "Back to School" advertising and preparations usually occurs in the weeks leading to the beginning of autumn.

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada, in the United States, in some of the Caribbean islands and in Liberia. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States, and around the same part of the year in other places. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan.

Television stations and networks, particularly in North America, traditionally begin their regular seasons in their autumn, with new series and new episodes of existing series debuting mostly during late September or early October (series that debut outside the fall season are usually known as mid-season replacements). A sweeps period takes place in November to measure Nielsen Ratings.

American football is played almost exclusively in the autumn months; at the high school level, seasons run from late August through early November, with some playoff games and holiday rivalry contests being played as late as Thanksgiving. In many American states, the championship games take place in early December. College football's regular season runs from September through November, while the main professional circuit, the National Football League, plays from September through to early January. Summer sports, such as stock car racing, Major League Soccer, and Major League Baseball, wrap up their seasons in early to late autumn; MLB's championship World Series is known popularly as the "Fall Classic". (Amateur baseball is usually finished by August.) Likewise, professional winter sports, such as professional ice hockey, basketball and most leagues of soccer football in Europe, are in the early stages of their seasons during autumn; American college basketball and college ice hockey play teams outside their athletic conferences during the late autumn before their in-conference schedules begin in winter.

The Christian religious holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day are observed in autumn in the Northern hemisphere.

In Indian mythology, autumn is considered to be the preferred season for the goddess of learning Saraswathi, who is also known by the name of "goddess of autumn" (Sharada).

In Asian mysticism, Autumn is associated with the element of metal, and subsequently with the color white, the White Tiger of the West, and death and mourning.