Mabon Marshmallows

Three years ago, I decided to start celebrating some of the Pagan holidays. I was envious of families whose religions allowed them regular celebrations and rituals to help mark the passage of time. Lena and I were both raised celebrating the Santa Claus version of Christmas and the Easter Bunny version of Easter, but without any real religion. None of our parents would identify as Christian, and we never went to Church or believed in God. There was little meaning behind our celebrations, aside from togetherness with family. As a child, I wished I could be Jewish. I went to a Jewish camp and learned many Hebrew songs and was fascinated by the numerous holidays and traditions. But as an adult, the idea of converting to Judaism seemed false. I love the culture but don't necessarily believe in many of the more religious aspects of the faith.

Lena and I had long been celebrating the winter solstice (Yule) together as opposed to Christmas, partially because it made things easier scheduling-wise (we could then go on to be with our extended families on Christmas), but also because it made more sense to us. I didn't feel like any sort of a fake celebrating the solstice, the way I felt celebrating Christmas. Yule is the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year, a time to appreciate our earth and celebrate the fact that the days are getting longer and lighter. Who wouldn't believe in that? So when I started feeling the itch to add more "religion" to our kids' lives, it made sense to look to the Pagan beliefs and holidays. With the help of the book, Circle Round: Raising Children in Godess Tradition, I learned that there were ways we could be celebrating the earth with our kids all year round. We planned to incorporate celebrations of the Summer Solstice, the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, and Samhain (Halloween) into our lives. Every year, our celebrations become richer and more meaningful. The kids are beginning to understand what we are celebrating and why. We hope to instill in them a deep love and respect for our Mother Earth as well as to strengthen their connection to the earth and the seasons.

The first thing we did after we decided to "convert" to Paganism was to buy an outdoor fireplace so that we could add fire to our celebrations. Circles and stars are both significant Pagan symbols, the circle representing the circle of life, and each point on the star represents one of the elements (earth, air, fire, water and spirit). So we feel like our fireplace is pretty perfect.

For Mabon this year, we made the fire in my mom's backyard, right next to the river, and decided to add Marshmallows to our ceremony.

The grassy hill behind us is the dike.
The Connecticut river is on the other side.

Zeben had his first ever taste of melty Marshmallow.

He decided it was more fun to do the roasting and feed the marshmallows to the rest of us.

Jaz made S'Mores for the first time. The verdict? Yum.

Lukas worked on perfecting his technique for making
"golden brown" marshmallows,
but had no interest in tasting one.

The last part of our Mabon celebration this year was a big feast (Mabon is sort of like Thanksgiving, it's a time to enjoy all the food that is being harvested at Summer's end) that we did potluck-style with friends. It was delicious. I was too busy eating to take any pictures.

The next holiday we will celebrate is Samhain (Halloween), which we recognize by making lanterns out of pumpkins, dressing up in costumes, and remembering our ancestors. We may sneak in a few more fires (and marshmallows) before then, though!