Celebrate the Equinox with the Wild Geese!

Diagram of Knowth - a predictor of the 19 year Metonic cycle of the Moon

From time immemorial the Wild Geese could measure the passage of time and knew when to bid temporary farewell to their Emerald Refuge. The ancient Irish had to work it out the hard way. For over five thousand years the intricate mechanisms devised by the Tuatha Dé Danann, and built for them by the Fir Bolg have marked the eight segments of the ancient year. Newgrange is famous the world over for its annual celebration of the winter solstice, Knowth perhaps is less well known because of vandalism by the early Christians which destroyed the entrances to the passageways. Sufficient however remains to illustrate the magnificence of the original concept. And so today the Irish around the world can celebrate the Autumnal Equinox [in 2025 occuring precisely on Monday, Sep 22, 2025, 8:19 PM CET] as our ancestors did.

Knowth is a prehistoric monument overlooking the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland. It comprises a large 'so-called' passage tomb surrounded by seventeen smaller ones and was built during the Neolithic era around 3200 BC. It contains the largest assemblage of megalithic neolithic art in Europe. Knowth is part of the Brú na Bóinne complex, a World Heritage Site that also includes the similar passage mounds of Newgrange and Dowth.

The main mound at Knowth is about 12 metres in height and 67 metres in diameter. It contains two passages placed along an east-west line and is encircled by 127 retaining kerbstones, many of which have been decorated with enigmatic geometric designs. The passages are independent of each other, the western one ending in a single chamber while the eastern one ends in a cruciform chamber, very similar to the one at Newgrange. The eastern chamber has a corballed ceiling (as at Newgrange) and each cell contained a stone basin, the righthand one of the eastern chamber being beautifully carved with lunar and solar symbols. The basins were found to have contained the cremated remains of a few individuals who must have had a special status for such effort and expense to have been lavished on them.

But even more spectacularly, Knowth contains the earliest depiction known of the surface of the moon, as well as unique records of lunar crescents. One of its decorated kerbstones depicts a diagram once considered to be that of a sundial but now recognised as a predictor of the 19 year Metonic cycle of the Moon (see image above).

The considerable effort and expense that went into building constructions such as Knowth all those thousands of years ago manifested clearly a sense of 'something' greater than mere physical survival. While the passages at Knowth are oriented east-west and thus mark the Vernal and Autumnal equinoxes, (important dates in the agricultural calendar), they were never merely determinants of the seasons as there were far simpler ways of doing this. It is probable that the basins were designed to hold the cremated remains of the chief royalty of the time, and it is speculated that a similar 'resurrection' rite fell to be performed at Knowth as at Newgrange, where, in the latter case the rays of the rising sun at dawn on the Winter Solstice penetrate the corridor through a specially constructed 'lens' and bathe the ashes in the basin with the sacred life-restoring light of the re-birthing sun.

The eve of the equinox this year falls on Sunday 21 September. It will, of course, be celebrated by the Wild Geese Historical Society of Czechia agus tá fáilte roimh cách! To be included in the mailing list of the Wild Geese, send an email to info@wildgeese.cz.

The Wild Geese will be celebrating the Autumn Equinox this year together with CIBCA at the Irish Community Family Barbeque. Details and registration here.