Fall Equinox 2024: Get the Most Out of This Auspicious Event

As the sun passes South across the equator we will experience equal amounts of light and dark on the Fall Equinox 2024. This auspicious solar event is balance point in the year just as the Vernal Equinox was. Energies draw inward. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) calls this yin energy. Harvest time ends and plants wither and die but it's beautiful. We can tap into these energies and live better.

The Spring Equinox expressed dynamic yang energy outwardly with plants sprouting and greening in the sunlight. But with the Fall Equinox we see and feel energies begin to draw inward. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) call this yin energy. Harvest time ends and plants wither and die.

Full moons often happen around the Equinoxes. They bring energy that’s palpable and pivotal. For the ancient Chinese, the Autumnal Equinox full moon represented the beginning of the dark yin or female half of the year.

Our internal and external energy is noticeably winding down this time of year, moving out of the total yang of Summer and late Summer but not yet descending into the total yin of Winter. As such we call this season ‘yang within yin’ to reflect that last burst of yang energy before the complete yin immersion in Winter. Most people love this final burst as it reveals itself through the leaves changing color to the most beautiful bright reds and yellows. —Mindi Counts in Everyday Chinese Medicine

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Fall Equinox 2024 is September 22.

The Fall Equinox occurs during TCM’s energetic Fall and the Metal element on September 21, 22 or 23 each year. This year 2024, the Autumnal Equinox falls on the 22nd.

Depending on how close to the equator you live determines whether you’ll see a bit more or a bit less than 12 hours of daylight.

Once Fall Equinox 2024 arrives, daylight hours will start dwindling. And they’ll continue to dwindle up until the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and beginning of Winter. 

Fall Equinox 2024 will completely oppose the Spring Equinox of 2024.

Both Spring and Fall Equinoxes feature a feast of seasonal produce. During both occasions plants are responding to the shift in balance of light and dark. That shift reaches its pinnacle during the both Equinoxes.

The Vernal Equinox which occurs around Easter, Passover and Nowruz(1) presents:

… the first bitter greens of Spring, a newly-born lamb (perhaps), fresh eggs (plucked from the nest of amorous birds who mated on Valentine’s Day) and often items made from the fresh butter and cream available as the cows, goats and sheep produce milk for their young. — Waverly Fitzgerald in Celebrating Autumn Equinox

The full moon that occurs closest to the Equinox often coincides with the harvest.

Contrary to the fresh green sprouts of Spring earlier this year, Fall Equinox 2024 will yield, as always, its abundance of produce on the edge of dying. Says Fitzgerald:

ripe pumpkins and squashes, elegant jams and jellies, bread made from the freshly reaped and ground grain, wine and beer made from the harvested grapes and hops, and poultry (either game birds shot out of the air or culled from the domestic flock).

The energy of Fall Equinox 2024 you can conveniently tap into to shift your lifestyle.

For most people the Fall Equinox marks the official start of Autumn. And Autumn is an important time of year to cleanse the body.

Lung and large intestine, the organs of TCM’s Metal element, require cleansing at this time.

You need to keep them strong and healthy as we march into eventual Winter. And you can do this by first cleansing the body, then enriching your diet with the more heat producing foods of Fall. These actions will help carry you through Winter.

Notice the changes in light and movement in the heavens on the Fall Equinox 2024.

All of nature responds to these changes that happen on and around Fall Equinox 2024.

And plants aren’t the only living beings responding to changes in light on that day.

You’ll respond to them too whether you’re consciously aware of it or not. The Fall Equinox signals to both human body and mind that now is the time to slow down, gather your energies and go within.

The Fall Equinox of any year will occur when the sun moves into Libra—the sign of balance. And the sun moves into Libra on September 22 explaining the precise date and time of Fall Equinox 2024.

Learn from the balance of light and dark this Fall Equinox 2024.

Equinoxes always strike a perfect balance of light and dark and you can take important cues from this solar event.

Fall Equinox 2024 is the most perfect day to stop and contemplate how much balance you have in your life.

• Do you have balance in body, mind and spirit?

• Where are you out of balance in your life?

• What can you do to regain balance? 

Several months ago, nature turned on the ignition key for the year in the Vernal Equinox. And it ushered in a great revving up of life, growth and activity. You too got more physically active and dynamic.

But now Fall Equinox 2024 begins to pull those active energies in to rest. And you right along with it.

Days shorten and darkness increases. And just like the energy of the Metal element prevailing at this same time, you can shift from outward dynamism to more resting time, even the start of incubation.

Earth is giving up her copious bounty in her last breath and display. And she’s showing that you need to make shortening days, and the need for rest and contemplation the focal point of your life.

While you’ll recognize and celebrate Earth’s spectacular abundance, Fall Equinox 2024 will remind you Earth’s beginning to go into incubation and so should you.

Mirror this phenomenon in your spiritual and lifestyle practices. Resolve to dive deeper into your spiritual essence and foster an intimate connection with it.

These spiritual practices will make your Fall Equinox 2024 meaningful.

Known in various philosophies and traditions by many names—Mabon, Feast of Avalon, Cornucopia, Harvest Home, Festival of the Vine—the Fall Equinox has a mystique all its own.

Tap into this mystique help and get the most out of your Fall Equinox 2024 and the time immediately before and after.

Here are some ideas for celebrating your Fall Equinox 2024:

• Gather with friends around a bonfire in the spirit of your yin energy Fall Equinox 2024 as Summer’s yang outward energies come to a close.

• Find an outdoor place of special beauty and atmosphere. Meditate there or make affirmations to attract your desires into your life.

• Make an altar in your home that pays homage to Earth’s bounty.

• Bake bread from scratch and make rustic sandwiches using grilled harvest type vegetables.

• Make a hearty Fall Equinox 2024 stew appreciating the bountiful produce of the Earth. Serve it to family or friends with rustic decorations all around.

• Decorate your living space with apple garlands, wreaths, candles, homemade centerpieces and sheaves of grain. Light your candles at night and be mindful of the balance of energy.

• Create a bowl of nuts and seeds and share with the birds and animals who are already so tuned in to this auspicious Equinox.

• Give thanks on Fall Equinox 2024. Focus on gratitude for the natural life-giving world all around us.

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Endnotes:

(1) Nowruz is the first day of the Iranian new year, occurring on the Vernal Equinox (usually March 20 or 21).

(2) Fitzgerald, Waverly. Celebrating Autumn Equinox: Customs and Crafts, Recipes and Rituals for Harvest, Sukkot, Mid-Autumn Moon, Michaelmas, Eleusinian Mysteries and Other Autumn Holidays. United States, Genesta Press, 2019.

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Sources:

Shipway, Jilly. Yoga Through the Year: A Seasonal Approach to Your Practice. United States, Llewellyn Worldwide, Limited, 2019.

Forest, Danu. The Magic of the Autumn Equinox: Seasonal Celebrations to Honour Nature's Ever-turning Wheel. United Kingdom, Watkins Media Limited, 2015.

Counts, Mindi K.. Everyday Chinese Medicine: Healing Remedies for Immunity, Vitality, and Optimal Health. United States, Shambhala, 2020.

Lane, Mary. Divine Nourishment: A Woman's Sacred Journey with Food. United States, Dog Ear Publishing, 2010.

L'Esperance, Carrie. The Seasonal Detox Diet: Remedies from the Ancient Cookfire. United States, Inner Traditions/Bear, 2002.

Fitzgerald, Waverly. Celebrating Autumn Equinox: Customs and Crafts, Recipes and Rituals for Harvest, Sukkot, Mid-Autumn Moon, Michaelmas, Eleusinian Mysteries and Other Autumn Holidays. United States, Genesta Press, 2019.

Photo courtesy of Karolina Grabowska at pexels

The Spring Equinox. The Real New Year Is In Spring.

For many ancient cultures the real New Year is in Spring. It happens at or around the time of the Spring Equinox every March 20 or 25. But in 1582 Pope Gregory XIII changed that for followers of the Church moving the start of the New Year back to January 1. He took the very natural rhythmic lunar-based calendar and made it an unnatural calendar misaligned with the moon that affects Earth so much.

Understanding the Spring Equinox Makes Sense that the Real New Year Is In Spring.

The Spring or Vernal Equinox 2022 happens every year on March 20 or 21. This special day, when the sun crosses the celestial equator, marks the middle point between the Winter solstice and the Summer solstice.

On the Spring Equinox day every spot on the entire planet experiences an equal amount of time in the light and in the darkness. From that day on in the Northern hemisphere, each day thereafter we leave behind more of the dark of Winter as we receive a greater amount of the light and warmth of the sun.

Now all of nature begins reviving in earnest after its Winter hibernation.

Although for huge swathes of the global population the New Year begins on the first day of January, some societies and cultures celebrate the real New Year at some point in early Spring.

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It’s logical that the real New Year is in Spring.

Spring—a season of rebirth and the planting of new crops—is a logical time to start the New Year for many people. It doesn’t make sense to celebrate the New Year in the middle of the dark, cold hostile Winter.

“March tests our faith. It can summon all the bluster of its namesake to convince huddled mortals that the power of winter, like that of any tyrant, is not soon or highly surrendered. On a night in late March the wind can blow with a force unfelt all winter. Fear not. Beneath the angry skies, fragile as parchment but as irresistible as time, crocuses push their shafts up through the damp earth.” —Michael Judge in The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar.

Ancient cultures lived more in harmony with nature. It was logical to align their celebrations with lunar movements.

Somewhere around 2000 BCE, the Babylonian New Year began on March 25. Very many cultures in ancient times regarded their New Year as the traditional fixed date for the Vernal Equinox.

In ancient Persia and now present-day Iran, the new year, called nowruz meaning new day began and still begins on March 21.

For some native tribes the arrival of certain animals for the hunt or the appearance of certain shoals of fish marked the beginning of another year.

In some parts of the ancient Near East, the people celebrated the New Year in the Fall when rains ended the long drought of Summer.

For the ancient Egyptians, Sirius, the dog star, held its place unrivaled as the most important star in the sky. It formed the foundation of the Egyptians’ entire religious system. The Egyptian calendar system was based on the heliacal rising of Sirius that occurred just before the annual flooding of the Nile during Summer, signaling their start of a New Year and new life.

In the more ancient Northern hemisphere New Year celebrations were a way to rejoice in the resurrection of life. The people acted out the seasonal changes ritually—from the symbolic death of the earth in Winter to its resurrection vibrantly enacted through the sprouting and blossoming that came with Spring.

Throughout the ancient world New Year’s Day was quite logically and almost always celebrated in the Spring when the world seemed new once again. After months of long nights and short days, both day and night now lasted an equal amount of time. The people knew that on the Vernal Equinox the cosmic balance would now swing in favor of the sun.

Here’s When the New Year celebration date got changed.

Originally, the ancient Roman calendar had only ten months which we can see reflected in the names of many of our months derived from Roman numerals.

When a New Year began in March as month one of the year, they named the months very logically:

• the seventh month | September meaning seventh (septem from latin meaning seven)

• the eighth month October meaning eighth (octo from latin meaning eight)

• the ninth month they gave the name November meaning ninth (novem from latin meaning nine)

• the last and tenth month, they named December meaning tenth (decem from latin meaning ten).

Back then the calendar year was lunar-based and ten moons long, and the remaining roughly 70 days of Winter occurred without being assigned a month name. This is the time period we now call January and February.

The beginning of a New Year started the calendar afresh and signaled to farmers to trellis their vines, prune the trees, and sow spring wheat. On this auspicious first day of the New Year concurrent with the Vernal Equinox people could expect equal parts day and night. And the New Year observance always took place on the first new moon before the Spring equinox.

The Romans eventually transitioned away from a lunar to a solar calendar. It seemed to them a solar calendar better reflected the seasons. But as before, they still didn’t consider the remaining now roughly 60 Winter days part of the calendar.

Even Following a Solar Calendar, the Real New Year Was Still In Spring.

The calendar began each year with the first day of Spring falling a few days after the Ides(1) of March. This put the New Year at approximately the twentieth of March. The 60-day margin of Winter days which existed in a sort of limbo outside of the calendar is how the early Romans handled not truly knowing the actual length of a year.

In about 715 BCE, the months January and February were added to the Roman calendar.

Over time, many empowers continued to tamper with the calendar. They knocked the calendar out of synchronization with the sun.

In 46 BCE, this precipitated Julius Caesar to decree the start of the New Year the beginning of January. And so January 1 became a day of great festivities for all Roman people. But even though Julius Caesar decreed such a change, for some time Romans of city and country continued to celebrate the New Year with the onset of Spring. They felt nature was telling them more accurately than any calendar could that the Earth was about to be reborn.

But with Christianity taking hold, the Church outlawed their New Year celebrations, banning all Christians from participating in any festivities under threat of excommunication. The Church believed the celebrations were pagan and encouraged idolatry since the day’s festivities evolved from the feast of January’s namesake—the two-faced god Janus.

The Flip-flopping Church Made the Real New Year January 1 to March 25 and back again to January 1.

By 567 CE, the Christian Church’s power was massive and so, at the Council of Tours, they officially moved the start date of the New Year from January 1 back to March 25. They did this to remove potential for too many pagan celebrations. For centuries thereafter all European countries celebrated the new year on March 25.

But in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII was not to be outdone. He introduced our current and rather inaccurate Gregorian calendar. Once again, they officially moved the start of the New Year back to January 1.

Not all European countries adopted January 1 as the official opening of a New Year right away. The Catholic countries did so, but Protestant countries took their time. It’s only been a few hundred years that these northern European countries have observed New Year’s Day as January 1.

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Endnotes:

(1) Ides: (in the ancient Roman calendar) a day falling roughly in the middle of each month (the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th of other months) from which other dates were calculated.

Strange but True: A Historical Background to Popular Beliefs and Traditions. N.p., Crux Publishing Ltd, 2014.

Judge, Michael. The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar. United Kingdom, Arcade, 2012.

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