Samhain

I'm really excited; less than a week to go!
Samhain (pronounced sow-in) has been replaced by the majority with what we know as Halloween. The word itself means 'summer's end' as it marks the start of winter, and it is the final harvest of the year. October 31st is the old Celtic New Year, or the Witch's New Year, and the concept of 'Halloween' is taken from the traditions this day holds. It is the second of the two "spirit days" of the year, the other being the 1st of May; known as Beltane. October 31st (or November 1st; some prefer to celebrate a day later) is supposedly the day of the year in which the spirit world is most connected with us and is used to celebrate the cycle of death and rebirth, as well as a day to honour and show respect to our loved ones that have crossed into the spirit world. It is also seen by some as the time to honour the Dark Mother and Dark Father (often symbolised by Crone and her consort). The traditions for this day originated with Celts who left offerings of food on doorsteps for the 'wandering dead' and left single candles in their windows so spirits would be guided to their homes. Commonly extra chairs and space would be allocated at the dinner table on this night for the unseen guest too. Other Celtic Samhain traditions include hollowing out turnips as protectors because this night was believed to be chaotic and burying apples along roadsides for spirits who were lost and/or had no families to find. Any plants or crops that were still unharvested by this point would be left as offerings to the Nature spirits and all the peoples' cattle would be slaughtered and kept as a food supply for over the winter months. Traditionally bone-fires (now known as bonfires) were set up and all the bones from food that day would be tossed into the bone-fire. Another tradition was writing the names of late relatives onto stones, tossing them into the bone-fire and going back to get the stones the next morning after the fire had completely burnt out. Some people believed that the amount their stones had burnt would reflect their fortune for the upcoming year, and often any ashes from the bone-fire were scattered across farming fields to 'protect the land'.
A lot of these Celtic traditions are still practised today amongst Pagan/Wiccan families, along with many more. Of course, all of this is debatable regarding whether it has any truth or not, so how about this year instead of telling goofy little ghost stories to your friends you try out the traditional celebrations and see what happens?

xo