{"title":"Thanksgiving","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#ff0000;\"\u003eHarvest Thanksgiving – Mabon Festival, is a Germanic and Celtic festival, but is also celebrated in Scandinavia and other Nordic countries.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eAmong the Germanic peoples, the harvest festival lasted three days from September 21st to 23rd. They held a great feast and drank mead. The gods were thanked for the harvest. They left a bundle of corn in the field so that Odin's horse Sleipnir also had something to eat. A wreath was woven from the last cut of corn. As an offering, the last apple was often left hanging on the tree. \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eSometimes a harvest fire was also lit for this, and sometimes it was customary to throw a small fruit offering, grains of corn, and other sheaves into the fire. At the harvest festival, the gods were thanked for nature's bounty, although the festivities could certainly \"get out of hand\" and become very lavish. We thank the gods for the harvest and at the same time say goodbye to summer. \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eHarvest Thanksgiving is also called a threshold festival because day and night then balance each other out for the same length of time. If we transfer this to the annual cycle, this festival corresponds to sunset, the afterglow, and twilight. The day thus becomes a threshold, an intermediate state between day and night. The beauty of the evening sun, the intense colors of the sunset, are the tension between the receding light and the slowly rising night, the threshold, the door to the otherworld, and often very emotionally moving internally. \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e \n\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color:#ff0000;font-size:small;\"\u003eAmong the Celts, the Harvest Festival was also called \"Mabon.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eMabon means \"Great Son\" and is the Welsh son of the Mother Goddess Modron, who was considered the earth mother and patroness of the \"Otherworld.\" Mabon's father was Mellt (Lightning), who fertilized the earth with his lightning and thus fathered his son. According to legend, the three-night-old Mabon then disappeared, which caused the earth to suffer terribly. \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eSamhain (also known as Halloween) is one of the four great Irish-Celtic festivals and takes place on the night of October 31st to November 1st. It is a festival of the dead, where ancestors are remembered. During this time, it was believed, the souls of the dead also returned to their homes. The festival also celebrated the end of summer and the bringing of cattle into the stalls. \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eCustoms and traditions sometimes differ or overlap in various cultures. Samhain and the autumn sacrifice festival are of pagan origin, sometimes persecuted by the Christian church, reinterpreted, or used\/abused for their purposes. From the 3rd century onwards, Christians also celebrated harvest festivals with modified and reinterpreted customs. In Germany, Thanksgiving Day was set for the first Sunday in October. \u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eWe know the origin and meaning of the celebration and always celebrate Thanksgiving Day in autumn at the equinox on September 23rd, when the nights become longer than the day again and darkness increasingly gains \"the upper hand\"!\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eIt is up to us to cultivate the old customs again in their original tradition....\u003c\/div\u003e","products":[],"url":"https:\/\/nordwelt.myshopify.com\/en\/collections\/brauchtum-ernte-dank-1.oembed","provider":"nordwelt","version":"1.0","type":"link"}