Happy Mabon

Transferred from myspace. Originally posted September 23, 2007.

Hello and happy Mabon. That would be the pagan holiday that celebrated the autumnal equinox. While it does not feel like autum here (92 for a high today), I still put out some autum decorations and ate some pomegranate which is a traditional Mabon food. I'll bet you didn't know that, did you? Why a pomegranate, you ask. Well, that would be because Persephone, that lovely young goddess who was kidnapped by Hades and brought down to the underworld to be his queen, ate 6 pomegranate seeds while she was with him, and bound herself to him by doing so. When Zeus forced Hades to release poor, hungry Persephone, Hades told Zeus that she had eaten them, and it was then decided that Persephone would spend 6 months of the year above ground with her mother Demeter, goddess of the earth (hence Spring and Summer) and 6 months below ground with Hades (Autumn and Winter). As the autumnal equinox is the start of her 6 months underground, the pomegranate is a traditional food to eat to celebrate the day. If you've ever eaten a pomegranate, you know this is no easy task. For one, you really do only eat the seeds (pomegranates are chock full of seeds). They are hard to get to though! I did mine out with a grapefruit spoon (in case you were wondering). I started thinking, as I was diging out my seeds, that it's a good thing Hades didn't try to drag me into the underworld and feed me pomegranate seeds. I'd have been like, "Um Hades, I'm sure these 6 seeds will be oh so delicious and really filling, but seriously, where are the Cool Ranch Doritos?" I mean really, if you're dragging someone off to be queen of the underworld, the least you could do is have some decent snack foods. It's all dark and dreary down there and the sattelite reception has to be dreadful. And how long can you spend gazing at the souls of the dead before you start going a bit bonkers? Cool Ranch Doritos can held alleviate some of the boredom. Plus, you could probably chuck them at the new souls coming in, just to freak them out. "Oh my gods! We're going to spend eternity having Doritos thrown at us? I should not have stepped in front of that donkey cart!" AND if you're underground, who's going to notice that you've gained a pound or twenty by eating bag after bag? It's dark down there (or so I hear). Hades probably would have tossed me back after my many demands ("Internet, Hades! I need my internet! You're the god of the freaking underworld and you still have is dial up?") and then there would be no autumn or winter (both of which I am rather fond of), so I suppose we should all be glad that poor Persephone was dragged off, ate her 6 seeds, and her mother, Demeter, decided that while Persephone was underground the earth would become barren and lifeless.
On that note, I wish you all a lovely Mabon and a wonderful auntum season.