Life is more fun and meaningful when you align your rhythms with nature. Plus, the seasons can teach you so much about how to approach healthy living! I’ve gathered some ideas for celebrating the Autumn Equinox that will help you connect to yourself, to your family, and to nature during this very special time time of the year.
What’s So Special About the Autumn Equinox?
The first day of Autumn is more than just a change in weather and pretty seasonal colors. The Autumn Equinox represents the balance of light and dark and a preparation for great change.
We can perceive the dark as being the absence of the sun since we’re continuing to have shorter days and longer nights until Winter. Symbolically, Autumn is a gradual letting go – a movement toward stillness, emptiness, and even death.
This balance of appreciating what you have (light) and letting go of what you no longer need (dark) is modeled for us in nature during this time as well. Deciduous trees undergo huge transformations by shedding their leaves. They trust that this needs to happen in order for renewal and more growth. Animals pare down their activity and focus on storing food and energy. Letting go is necessary and important in order to sustain life.
There can be a sense of loss during this season too, so it’s important for families to spend more time with each other and develop closer, stronger, more loving and supportive bonds.
Here’s some ways to celebrate Autumn by yourself or with your family and friends to honor the change in season.
9 Special Ways to Celebrate The Autumn Equinox
1. Go On A Nature Walk
Let’s start with the easiest way to appreciate nature: just walk among it. There is so much to notice, especially in Fall with the change in colors and falling leaves.
But what else might you notice when you walk? What’s the difference in smell? How are the animals behaving? Talk about this with your family and friends. Or if you’re doing this alone, maybe you can sit down and journal about what you’re noticing.
2. Make An Autumn Wreath
From your nature walk pick up what nature as discarded and add them to a wreath to adorn your home. Acorns, multi-colored leaves, dried berries and corn, grain grasses, vines, and dried end-of-summer flowers, can all be woven or glued onto a circular wreath and hung on your front door.
Each time you enter your home you’ll be reminded of the change we all need to embrace during this time.
3. Celebrate With An Autumn Equinox Feast
You don’t need to wait until Thanksgiving for a special feast! And all of Autumn can be a time for you to express gratitude for what is bountiful in your life.
Make a special meal with seasonal fruits, vegetables, and spices. These may be different than what’s around in November with Thanksgiving. Right now in California we have lots of figs, grapes, corn, and late summer squashes. The different food makes it more unique! You can talk about what Autumn means to you as your family gathers.
You might want to try cooking a dish with acorns which are known to symbolize strength, potential, fertility, and new beginnings. They are also a traditional food in many places in the world, so a good food for you to become reacquainted with!
Acorns can be fermented, ground, and made into a flour to use in many yummy recipes. Here’s an excellent article that will teach you just about everything you need to know about acorns.
Enjoy!
4. Do A Special Yoga And Meditation Practice
I love to do Sun Salutations to honor the Equinoxes and the Solstices alike. Surya Namaskara is traditionally done as a prayer, a prostration to the Sun, so fitting to celebrate the change in season and the meaning behind it.
I used to do 108 Sun Salutations in my younger years since it’s an auspicious number. Now that I’m 47 and a little slower-moving, I realize how ridiculous that is. Intention is most important, not how much you do!
Just do as many Sun Salutations of versions A, B, or C that you feel comfortable with, bringing your intention into each breath and movement.
Or if Sun Salutations are not your thing, you can choose to do this Autumn Yin Yoga practice that targets the Lung and Large intestine meridians that are associated with this season.
You can simply do a Gratitude Meditation instead.
Or, do all three recommendations! That’s what I like to do!
5. Candle Ceremony
Light a candle in the dark to represent the balance of energy at the Equinox. You can write down all the things you’d like to clear from your life. Tear them up or carefully burn them in the candle. Then you can write down all the things you now want to bring into your life.
6. Have A Harvest Party With Friends
If you have a garden, is there any better way to enjoy your bounty than to share with others? You can get some friends and neighbors together who also have gardens. Each person can bring fruit, vegetables, flowers, grains – whatever they have plenty of. You can trade items and talk about what to do with them in Autumn while enjoying some seasonal teas and treats.
7. Clear and Bless Your Home
Bring balance to your home with an energetic clearing. This can be done many ways, depending on the healing practices you study.
I love to burn a Sage wand and go around to the corner of each room in my house, asking for all negativity to be cleared from our home and our lives.
Then I do the same with Palo Santo which has a more revitalizing energy to it. I go around and ask that we bring in more happiness, health, and prosperity to fill the space.
The same can be done with essential oils, though I do this more regularly and not as a special ritual. This diffuser blend is fabulous at clearing negative energy:
Clear The Space Diffuser Blend
- 2 drops Lemongrass
- 2 drops Clary Sage
- 2 drops Lime
Lemongrass clears stagnant energy and negativity. Clary Sage clears confusion and brings in more clarity and intuitive guidance. Lime cleanses the heart and mind, promoting more gratitude for the gift of life. The combination of these three also smells amazing!
8. Fallen Leaf Ceremony
This is a fun and quick one! If you have enough fallen leaves around your property, rake them all up into a pile. Pick up an armful of leaves and throw them up in the air, mindful of what you’d like to let go of this season to create more harmony in your life.
If you’re doing this in a group, it’s fun for everyone to shout out what their letting go of. Then afterwards you can all talk about what you’re making space for in your life, what you’re now wanting to bring in.
9. Honor A Tree In Your Neighborhood
Spend some time picnicking under a tree’s shade, or hugging a tree, or singing to a tree. You can bury special items like herbs or crystals in the ground near the tree with a blessing.
These suggestions may sound silly to some, but I don’t care. Our disconnection to nature is what’s fueling much of the dissent in our world right now and that needs to change.
One thing we can all agree on is that we have a symbiotic relationship with trees and we need more of them. So you can also use this special time to plant some new ones.
Want To Learn More About Autumn Equinox Celebrations?
You can check out my Pinterest Board here for more ideas and recipes!
Which of these Autumn Equinox Celebration ideas is your favorite? Do you have any other ideas of how you can celebrate Autumn in your home? Let’s hear about them in the comments!
