After Michaelmas

It is worth stopping for a moment at this time of year to reflect on where we are. This is traditionally the harvest festival time. Michaelmas is the christian and probably pre-christian festival most connected to the harvesting time of year. Michaelmas is set close to the autumn solstice - the day on which the days switch from longer days into longer nights. Almost every culture (especially those based around agriculture) have some form of harvest festival. It is difficult to find the right time and place for festivals in our cluttered, modern lives. Most people only celebrate a few festivals in the year (including us), but for millennia peoples lives were ordered by numerous festivals throughout the year, many of which coincided to either winter/summer equinoxes or spring/autumn solstices - and these yearly cycles helped to bring so much meaning into people's lives. Now it is a challenge to recreate festivals and their associated sense of meaning into our lives, without the constraints of orthodox religious or cultural traditions. How do we stay anchored and yet develop individual freedom? Finding new connections with the rhythms of nature is one way.