It’s time again for the beginning of August Sabbath: the midpoint between Midsummer and Harvest.
It’s always been a challenge for me to name this holiday. I tried things like “Summer’s End”–but it’s often the hottest time of the year where I live. Summer’s Waning, perhaps? But again, it doesn’t feel like that…yet.
Still, the wheel of the year has definitely turned: the days are shorter, the quality of the light a bit paler, the sky a deeper, harder blue. As the first harvests come in and we begin to realize the fruits of the year’s labors, we are definitely headed into the dark and cold, however preliminary these steps may seem to be.
A member of the Atheopaganism Facebook group suggested calling this holiday “Dimming” a few years ago, and I really like that because it’s true everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (and can easily be swapped for “Brightening” in the South). So that’s what I have settled on.
I celebrate Dimming with both traditional folkways, such as associating the holiday with the early harvest of grain and enjoying bread and beer and ripened berries, as well as with meanings I have chosen myself. To me, Dimming is the time when I celebrate the middle aged people in my community, and the accumulated “harvest” of all human experience: art, culture, science, engineering. My Paganism isn’t just about the old stuff of pre-modernity, but about all of the Cosmos and human experience: what we have learned and what we have made.
So think about it: what is the early harvest you’re enjoying? Not just from this year, but from all the accumulated years of evolution and learning that support where you are today. Got electricity, and running water? Books, safe shelter, sophisticated technology? Celebrate that harvest at this holiday, feeling the gratitude that those of us so privileged should never lose sight of.
I wish you joy and contentment in celebration of your harvest, and enjoyment of this waning summer.
