"The moon was created for the counting of days." - Hebrew midrash
Last month, we talked about the Grain Moon, linked to the grain harvest/bread festival of Lammas. This month brings us further into my favorite season - to the fullness of the harvest, to the cusp of the Autumn Equinox and, this Monday, to the September Moon.
While a few moons on my coven's calendar have multiple aspects - depending on which "moon" we want to celebrate that year - very few can actually move from month to month. We may observe April, for instance, as either the Egg or Seed Moon, but those moons always happen only in April.
This next moon breaks that rule. It usually happens in September (as it does this year), but not always. That's because this next moon is always the closest full moon to the Autumn Equinox, whichever month that moon happens to fall in.
This is the Harvest Moon.
Read on . . .
"The harvest moon has no innocence, like the slim quarter moon of a spring twilight, nor has it the silver penny brilliance of the moon that looks down upon the resorts of summer time. Wise, ripe, and portly, like an old Bacchus, it waxes night after night." - Donald Culross Peattie
Coming just as the crops were ready in the field, the Harvest Moon - the largest and brightest of the year - gave our ancestors extra hours of light to finish the harvest. Like Lammas and the Grain Moon, it is a night of joy, of family, and of thanksgiving for the good things we have in the here and now (and the good things that led to those good things).
I wrote a good bit about the myth and symbolism of the harvest last month, when we looked at the Grain Moon. Since this moon marks the peak of the harvest season, all of those things hold true for this one as well - and even more so, by some measures.
In the esoteric mysticism of the Kabbalah, you see, the first world of Tohu (“chaos”) shattered into sparks of light which fell into the Lower Worlds (including our own), where they're perfected ("rectified"). The wheat field - produced through cultivation - is a symbol of this rectification of Tohu. But grains of wheat are just copies of the original seed - multiplication without transformation. Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, produce something qualitatively different from their seeds, something greater – the seeds have nullified themselves, giving up their own identity for the sake of transformation, and as such symbolize a greater step toward Tikun (“perfection”).
By that analysis, the Harvest Moon marks an increase over the Grain Moon, and the squash and potatoes of September a "greater perfection" than the humble wheat of the First Harvest. You may or may not agree (I know I'm iffy on it), but it is true that the middle of Autumn is a much more widely celebrated time of harvest celebrations.
"Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits. " - Samuel Butler
"Thy bounty shines in autumn unconfined, and spreads a common feast for all that live." - James Thomson
The Hebrew festival of Sukkot (The Feast of Ingathering), for example, falls on the 15th day of the lunar month Tishrei, which aligns it with the full moon of either September or October of any given year. While a commemoration of the simple shelters the Hebrews lived in during their long sojourn in the desert (“Sukkot” is the plural of sukkah, “booth”), its origins lay in a thanksgiving festival of the harvest.
It's not a perfect parallel. Due to the particulars of the Hebrew calendar, Sukkot may correspond to the Harvest Moon- will not necessarily do so (in this year, for instance, it will align with October’s moon instead, while next year’s - on September 30th - will fall at the Harvest Moon).
"Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress." – Deuteronomy 16:13
But another lunar calendar, the Chinese, marks the 3000-year-old Mid-Autumn Festival at the full moon of its 8th month - and that does, in fact, align with the Harvest Moon. A massively popular harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated by gathering with family under the moon, lighting lanterns, honoring Chang’e (the Moon Goddess of Immortality), and especially eating pastries called mooncakes (seen at right . . . mmmm . . . mooncakes).
For the Norse, the Harvest Moon was a period of feasting and celebration. Loki was believed to bless the earth with bounty.
Some Hindu regional celebrations also correspond with this time in mid-Autumn, such as Onam or Nuakhai. While they may have rich, non-agricultural aspects, many of these celebrations at heart carry the same message of feasting, family and charity as the more "naked" harvest celebrations.
"And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growin' brown and golden under a sinkin' sun." - Roy Bean
"Snow time ain't no time to stay outdoors and spoon / So shine on, shine on, harvest moon . . ." - From the vaudeville song "Shine On, Harvest Moon"
Ah, but it can't . . . like every other moon, the bright Harvest Moon eventually sets. And like every other season, Autumn always passes, and Winter rolls over the land in its place. The Grain Moon comes amid the hot days of August, but the Harvest Moon shines over a world in the full of Autumn.
The reaping leaves brown and dead fields, and rolling of the seasons leaves us with shorter days and longer nights. All harvest festivals keep one eye on the coming Winter, but as we move into this month, that Winter is noticeably closer . . . and, consequently, the phantoms of death and loss and want a little more real.
So we cherish life now all the more. We gather close with friends and family. We drink the wines made from the Summer fruits, or the meads of Summer's honey, or the sweet tea in the fridge, if it's what we're blessed to have. We set the table with the bounty we've been given, however grand or humble - chowders, casseroles, pies and, hey, maybe even mooncakes.
We sit together, share what we have, and remember how we got here - the blessings that led to blessings. We remember all the things we're thankful for, and savor them - because these are the moments that will take us through the long nights of Winter . . . and through the dark nights of our lives, in whichever season they may fall.
So take some time tomorrow night to watch the Harvest Moon . . . but don't watch it alone. Watch it with your Truest and Closest, share what you have to share, and enjoy this bright Autumn night.
Blessed Be.