The date of Madron varies but it's celebrated around 21st September. Like Oestara/the Spring Equinox, at this time of year day and night are of equal length. Since Litha (Midsummer/the Summer Solstice) the days have been getting gradually shorter and the nights longer (although not as noticeably as in autumn and winter). At this point they are equal and from now on the days continue to get shorter and the nights longer until Yule (Midwinter/the Winter Solstice) in December. (In the southern hemisphere this is all reversed, so they have their Spring Equinox around this time). From this point on the difference will be more noticeable. My favourite time of year is summer and I also like autumn, but I don't enjoy it when it gets dark at 4pm in the winter! lol.
Like Lammas, Madron is a harvest festival. It's a time of balance, healing and letting go, a time to look back on what has gone before, forgive yourself for any mistakes you might have made and think about your future plans. Other themes are justice and releasing prisoners.
The past couple of years I've celebrated by making gingerbread (like I do for Lammas) but this year I wanted to do something slightly different, so I made a gingerbread cake. I found the recipe on Pinterest. The original recipe has a Creamy Gingerbread Frosting but since I wasn't sure if we had some of the ingredients for it in the UK (like vanilla instant pudding mix and frozen whipped topping), I decided to use Betty Crocker cream cheese icing instead.
I had trouble spreading the icing because the cake fell apart a bit! lol.
Here's link to the recipe: https://www.mccormick.com/recipes/dessert/gingerbread-cake-with-creamy-gingerbread-frosting
It was quite nice but the treacle (molasses) was a bit strong. I think the cream cheese topping went nicely with it.
Update 9/9/24: Updated this section.
For more on Madron visit these links:
https://www.learnreligions.com/all-about-mabon-the-autumn-equinox-2562286
https://wiccaliving.com/wiccan-calendar-mabon-autumn-equinox/
P.S. I've updated my Seasonal board on Pinterest. Check it out here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/moonsparkle84/seasonal/
I never care if a cake falls apart----makes it easier to eat more of it and not realize it :) Yummy looking!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jean! :) Yes, it doesn't matter as long as it tastes good! lol.
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