Celebrating Fall Equinox
By April. Filed in Living, Parenting |Tags: 12 moons, Autumnal (fall) Equinox, Autumnal Equinox, books, Celebrating nature, children, Earth, Equinox, Fall, Fall Equinox, harvest moon, harvest moon 2012, learning, nature, seasonal, seasons, waxing moon
Fall Equinox is on Saturday September 22, 2012.
I’m so excited that fall is almost here and the temperatures are going to start to drop. Fall is such a fun time of year with the added bonus of the Harvest Moon on the night of September 29. That’s because in traditional skylore, the Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the Autumnal (fall) Equinox.
On the equinox, night and day are close to the same length (equinoxes don’t have exactly 12 hours of daylight). The tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun and can be observed to be directly above the equator. Day and night are about 12 hours each all over the world. This is the reason it’s called an “equinox”, derived from Latin, meaning “equal night.” The Equinox occurs twice a year: once in the Spring and once in the Fall.
I love that fall was traditionally a time of harvest when families came together to prepare for the long cold winter. Natures palette changes from greens to beautiful oranges, reds and yellows amongst crisp air. It brings thoughts warm mugs, glowing fires, and cuddles in cozy quilts. It’s such a great time of year!
I put a large emphasis on learning about nature with my children. Celebrating the Earth’s changing seasons has been a great way to nurture their natural interest in nature and celebrate it. I have collected seasonal books over the years, in order to create a sense of tradition while we follow natures transitions. I like to put these seasonal books away and only get them out during their special time of year. It makes my children real excited to see them again and it creates tradition that way too. I also plan crafts to coincide with what we are learning and of course plan time in nature to observe the things we are learning about.
My children have been watching the waxing moon since the New Moon on the 15th of this month. They know as they are able to see more and more of it each night, that soon it will be a special full Moon: the Harvest Moon. There are 12 specially named Moons during the year. The other eleven specially named Moons are: the Wolf Moon, the Snow Moon, the Worm Moon, the Pink Moon, the Flower Moon, the Strawberry Moon, the Buck Moon, the Sturgeon Moon, the Hunter’s Moon, the Beaver Moon, and the Cold Moon.
Throughout the year the Moon rises, on average, about 50 minutes later each day. Near the Autumnal (fall) Equinox, the day-to-day difference in the local time of moonrise is only 30 minutes. During the Harvest Moon, the Moon will rise around sunset, and not long after sunset for the following few evenings. Farmers used to use the light of the Harvest Moon to continue working on their crops.
Two of my favorite books for children about the Fall Equinox are By The Light of The Harvest Moon and We Gather Together, Celebrating The Harvest Season. I love the artwork in both books, so full of fall beauty.
How do you celebrate Fall Equinox, or just Fall in general with your family?
