Here is a photo of El Castillo at Chichen Itza which is on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. (None of those words you probably pronounced correctly if you were reading aloud, except, hopefully "peninsula". Never mind that is not the point of the post anyway.)

It was built by the Mayans around 1500 years ago when their civilisation was thriving in the area. The Mayans, like many ancient civilisations, were deeply committed to the study of celestial bodies and the changing of the seasons were always marked with celebrations. In the Mayans this usually involved doing all sorts or terrible things to captured warriors but we won't go there.

You can see steps running up each face of the monument. The ones that are of interest in the context of this post are the ones on the right. Those clever Mayans built this monument in such a way that at the equinox the shadow of cast by the sun on these steps formed the image of a snake. At 3 PM the snakes body makes its way down from the top until it connects with a huge carved stone snakes head at the base of the steps.

The photo on the left is of The Green Man gingerly descending the said steps, in a green t-shirt, naturally. I include this photo primarily because it is my blog and I can. It has no particular relevance to the article in question. The photo was taken in October so verification of the snake business was impossible. If you think those steps look steep you are right. In fact they are probably steeper than you think, the OH&S representative was obviously not present during the construction phase. Still, given that they had the habit of ripping the still beating heart from their enemies and chucking people into cenotes, occupational health and safey may not have had the priority that it does today.

The Green Man has never been very good with heights so what was good fun going up was a nightmare coming down.

Anyway back to the topic. The Autumn Equinox is also a big event in England with harvest feasting and celebrations. It is also the time of the symbolic death of Goddess (or possibly wood nymph) Pomona. Pomona is the spirit charged with the responsibility of looking after the fruit and vegies. She is dressed in flowing robes, she generally wears a crown of fruit and often carries an overflowing cornucopia dripping with the fruits of the harvest. Don't be too upset though she is returned to life next spring.

The horse pulling in the last cartful of produce is garlanded with ropes of flowers although this lost something when the farmers moved to tractors. A garland of flowers around the exhaust pipe just doesn't have the same romantic feel about it. The Green Man is also featured but more in a supporting role, May is The Green Man's time.

Christians, eager not to be left out of the celebrations also have harvest services to give thanks for the years produce but, as in so many cases, much of their traditions have their origins in our pagan past.