Today is the equinox, a magic day

I've told my kids that in the fairy-lands, today is the day of Equinox, when the sides of the fairy world are even.

You see the The Seelie court of the Summer lands, who rule by day, and the Unseelie court of the Winter lands, who rule by night, have been locked in a war that has lasted since the dawn of time. As all the members of the Fey folk are immortal, no one truly dies, and the wars go on forever. Strategies are plotted. Heroes are dispatched to accomplish goals against great odds. Warriors fall valiantly in battle (only to eventually rise again). Intrigue, betrayal, sacrifice, glory. All happen within these courts, again and again. The details change from year to year, but the outcome is inevitable.









As the day and the night are tied to the courts... who is winning is revealed by the length of day or night. In the solstice, the longest day or the longest night, is when the tides of battle turn, and one side starts losing ground to the other. It is from that point on, that the other side begins to rally.

The Summer lands are ruled by the elves of garden and grass, hearth gnomes, pixies, flower fairies, and the like. While the Winter elves of ice and snow rule over goblins, and knockers, and trolls. Neither side is good, and neither side is evil. They all have their flaws, and they all have their merits.

In these stories, I talk about grand adventures where the goblins sneak into the summer lands and trick Oberon the King of flames on the summer solstice. Or another tale, where Titania the ice queen has her crown stolen by the pixies in dead of winter.



But today, you see is the day that neither side has antecedence. Today is the day that anything... anything at all, can happen. And the summer lands are on the rise. This is the day of magic, of flirting, and play and celebrating all things of warmth, and life and comfort. Today is the day to dance among flowers.

And then I tell them the truth, that the equinox is simply  when night and day are measured to be equal. That it has to do with the tilt of the earth as it travels around the sun. But by then I have successfully integrated a sense of wonder and magic in their minds, that nothing will ever shake. And I watch, satisfied, as they dream a little of the fairy lands.