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Short Stuff: Mabon · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: There's Jerry here, too, sitting in for Dave. And we're
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: here to celebrate the pagan Thanksgiving that you never knew
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: you needed.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember if we mentioned this, because we
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: covered some stuff on Wiccans and other sort of pagan
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: religions years ago, I feel like. But the pagan Thanksgiving
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: is Mabon, M-A-B-O-N. And it is one of many kind
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: of fall harvest celebrations that have happened throughout history that
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: celebrate the autumnal equinox.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Wow. Way to go. Say it again.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: The autumnal equinox.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Very nice.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: But it's actually kind of new. Mabon is. Because ironically,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the original pagans, like the Celts, for example, did not
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: celebrate the autumnal equinox. which is evidenced by, um, if
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: you go to Stonehenge on the autumnal equinox, nothing happens,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: nothing special. It's just like any other day. Um, but
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: like you said, cultures around the world have, and today, neo-pagans, Druids, Wiccans,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: et cetera, um, definitely celebrated as one of eight Sabbaths, Sabbaths, Sabbaths,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I think, right? Like Sabbaths. Um, And there are eight
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of them on the wheel of the year. And in fact,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Mabon is one of three harvest festivals that occur from
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: August through October. Yeah.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, you probably heard us talk about Yule before
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: in one of our Christmas episodes, probably. That is a Sabbat.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: And we've also talked about Samhain, for sure, spelled Samhain.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Because that's the one associated with Halloween. So those are
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: definitely much more well-known. But Mabon... We got to talk
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: about Mabon a little bit. All right.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Well, first, let's talk about the first harvest festival, Lunasa.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: That takes place in early August, where I guess I
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: don't know what you're picking then. Mabon is like the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: money harvest festival. Late September, that's when everything's ready to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: be picked, basically. And then Samhain is the third, the
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: one in October. And the autumnal equinox, and this is
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: a big part of Mabon in particular, is The reason
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: why there's a focus on balance is because the day
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and night are basically evenly split between 12 hours apiece
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: on the autumnal equinox and the vernal equinox, the spring equinox.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: So that's a big theme in Mabon.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And one of the things that if
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: you practice any kind of paganism and you want to
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: celebrate Mabon, you want to maybe meditate on that balance
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: in your own life might be a thing to do.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: For sure.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Another thing you mentioned earlier is that it's a newer thing.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: This term is only about 55 years old. The Mabon
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: actually comes from a Welsh god, son of the Earth
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Mother Goddess. And there was a Welsh text, an old
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Welsh text called the Mabinagion.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Your guess is as good as mine.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that looks about right. that has, it tells about like,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: you know, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Table and stuff like that. And one of the heroes
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: of those stories is a god named Mabon, son of mother,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: who was held hostage as a baby.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And as we'll see, the reason that Mabon was
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: chosen to mark the autumnal equinox, despite the fact that
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the ancient Druids and Celts like did not there was
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: no recognition of Mabon or association with them. That's a
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: modern thing, like we said, is that the guy who
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: kind of helped write or put together the wheel of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the year for modern paganisms, Aidan Kelly, back in the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: 60s and 70s, he did his research and he found
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: out that in Greek lore and mythology, the goddess Demeter
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: is celebrated as on the autumnal equinox. And Demeter shares
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: in common with Mabon that this idea that she was
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: young and was rescued from the underworld, just like Mabon was.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: So he's like, I think this is enough of an
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: association to call this Mabon.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of funny. Apparently he was looking
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: for something Gaelic or Germanic. name-wise, on the pagan calendar,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: based on the solstices, and he couldn't find anything. So
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: he was like, eh, maybe a stretch, but I'm just
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: going to go with this one.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not to say that, so Mabon seems to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: be the only one that they put into the wheel
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of the year. There are some really ancient Celtic festivals,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: including Samhain and Lunasa, and one called Beltane, and one
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  Speaker 1: called Imolc, which is spelled I-M-B-O-L-C. And I'm just so
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: pleased as punch that I pronounced it correctly.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Nice work.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: But Mabon, they said, we're going to add this in
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: because we feel like it's a big deal. And again,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: there's other cultures that celebrate this, like the Maltese, the Mayans.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: And then, Chuck, get this. The Pyramid of Kukulkan at
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Chichen Itza in Mexico. Did you look a picture of
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: this up?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Amazing.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: It is amazing. So the shadows fall on the pyramids. Um,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the steps of the pyramid, technically it's a ziggurat and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: it looks like a serpent coming down the steps on
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: the side on the autumnal equinox. It's nuts. Cause it
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: definitely looks like that. Yeah. It's cool.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: It reminded me of when I lived in Los Angeles,
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: when Emily and I moved in together, we lived in
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the neighborhood of Eagle Rock and Eagle Rock is so
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: named because there's a big rock by the highway that has, uh,
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: It's not like hand carved. It's just a piece kind
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: of nature carved out. And when the sun hits that
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: at a certain time of the day, it looks like
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: an eagle flying.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, neat. Yeah. I'm sure it wasn't named after the band. What?
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Eagles?
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: No, probably not.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Because they do not rock.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Should we take a break?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. All right.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: All right. Okay, Chuck, I feel like it's high time
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that we explain to people what they can do to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: celebrate Mabon, even if you're not a pagan or a
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Wicca or a witch or have never owned a crystal.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. You can still observe Mabon. I should
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: say also we based this short stuff on an article
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: from How Stuff Works written by our own Dave Rooves. Dave.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Dave Rooves is one of the most religiously tolerant people
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: you will ever meet.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: And he definitely applied that to this. And I feel
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: like we also we need to shout out Dave's podcast,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Biblical Time Machine, which is also very tolerant, too.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Dave's great. So is the podcast. I mentioned earlier
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: in Act One that one thing you can do is
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: reflect on the past year and talk about like balance. Also, obviously,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: things that you're thankful for, because, again, this is around
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Thanksgiving and something you can do in your house. if
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: you want, is to have a cornucopia, like a little
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: horn of plenty. That has roots in ancient Greece. But
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: if you have a centerpiece of a cornucopia in your
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: home to celebrate fall or the autumnal equinox or Mabon,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: there are certainly worse ways to go about it than that.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: So it's a lovely thing to do.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: And it is. It is like an iconic fall look, essentially.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: And it's just yet another thing that people do today
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and don't realize that it's an ancient pagan custom. You know,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I love that kind of stuff. Another thing you can
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: do is reflect. There's a lot of time for reflecting
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: over the course of a 12 hour day.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: And so because the energy is in balance between night
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and day on Mabon, you it's the same on the
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: vernal equinox to Ostara, but with Ostara it's, you're thinking
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: about like renewal and growth and awakening basically from the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: winter slumber in autumn, you're kind of going the opposite way.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: You're talking about releasing stuff, you know, like is that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: toupee really working for you? Um, that kind of stuff,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: like you've harvested the year already and now you're, um,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: You're basically getting ready to go to sleep for months.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. If I size up a shirt, will that hide
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: my beer belly a little more?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it definitely will.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Sometimes that's not the way to go, though.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, definitely not. Especially if it's a tight shirt. Yeah.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Did you ever see, I think you should leave.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: The TV show?
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Remember that one skit where he's got like the handle
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: on his shirt to pull it away from his gut
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: more efficiently?
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought you were going to talk about the
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: episode where he was obsessed with that particular shirt brand.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I don't remember that one.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: That he kept buying. Yeah. He has lots of funny
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: clothing things because also in the movie he did with
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Paul Rudd, Friendship?
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Was that what it was called? I think so, yeah.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: It was a very funny clothing company. He made up
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: for that. What was the name of it?
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I don't remember.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was called. God, he's so funny to me.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Ocean View Dining.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: That rings a bell, but I don't remember the whole joke.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he just loved it. It was just a Tim
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Robinson thing.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Just loved Ocean View Dining clothes and talked about them
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: a lot.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Are you a Detroiter fan too?
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: No, that's still the one I haven't seen. It's on
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: the list though.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're going to love it.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: You will absolutely love it.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: God, he's so great. If you're weird enough to not
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: last long on Saturday Night Live, then you're probably headed
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: in the right direction.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: For sure. For sure. So, yeah, that's another thing you
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: can do in Mabon is have a Tim Robinson marathon.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: You could definitely do a lot worse than that. Yeah.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Or you could just bring some fall color in there.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: And if you don't have the cornucopia, just, you know,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: maybe bring in a few things that are in harvest.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Maybe some dried flowers. Maybe take a walk.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: That's a big one.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Go to a corn maze.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Why not? Support your local economy.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Although there is big corn maze now.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Right. You don't want to go there.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of stuff you can do. And essentially,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: it's just feel good about fall is the key for non-pagans.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: If you're a pagan, you got a lot more to do. Sorry.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, agreed.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So the Autumnal Equinox is Tuesday, September 22nd this year.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Hopefully we're releasing this before then. Although it'd be classic
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: stuff you should know to release it the day after.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Totally.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Either way. Just get out there in the nice fall weather.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: That's the point here. Agreed.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: I cannot wait. It is still so hot. So bring
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: it on.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Bring it on. Short Stuff is out.
• 11:30
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• 11:33
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• 11:37
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