Samhain

Samhain, the Witches’ New Year
(Sow-in, rhymes with cow-in)
aka All Hallows Eve, Hallowmas, Feast of the Dead, and Ancestor Night.

“As October turns to November, thousands of Witches, Wiccans, Druids, and other Pagans across America, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere observe the sacred time of Samhain. Samhain is a festival of the Dead. Meaning “Summer’s End” and pronounced saah-win or saa-ween, Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest and the start of the coldest half of the year. For many practitioners, myself included, Samhain also is the beginning of the spiritual new year.”
Article on Circle Sanctuary by Selena Fox

“Samhain is one of the major festivals of the Wheel of the Year, for many Pagans the most important festival of all. It is the third and final harvest festival of nuts and berries and a fire festival. All the harvest is in, all is complete, it is the end of the cycle of birth and growth, it is the point of death. The seeds of the harvest have fallen deep into the dark earth, they are unseen, dormant, and thus apparently lifeless.
The God, as Sun King is sacrificed back to the land with the seed until the Winter Solstice, and the Goddess, now as Crone, mourns Him until His rebirth at Yule. He travels the Underworld learning its wisdom. This is the time of the descent into darkness, of pre-conception, out of which new life, new ideas, will eventually emerge.
Traditionally the veils between the worlds are at their thinnest now. Bou daries dissolve and all is laid bare. It is time to honour and offer hospitality to, our ancestors.”
Post on The Goddess & The Green Man

I’ve read various posts on how to observe Samhain, how to decorate my altar, and what to do overall.
1) Ritual Bath: There are various elements or seasonal items to include in a ritual bath. I wasn’t sure how to go about deciding or gathering the items so I got this from Etsy.
2) The Proper Gemstones: citrine, black onyx, carnelian, yellow jasper, and red jasper; and other fall-colored gemstones. I was able to find all of these in one affordable order on Etsy.
3) Witches Brew: while any darker-colored, warming drink will do I wanted this to be special so I’m making some mulled wine. Here’s a nice all-in-one purchase for mulling spices.
4) I also bought a special candle, with herbs and dried flowers. I hope to make my own next year and will plant as well as collect plants and herbs to dry myself.
5) Colors: black, orange, gold, brown, and in some references white, silver, deep reds and purple
6) Foods, herbs, flowers: Acorns and other nuts, apples, gourds (carved or otherwise), catnip, calendula, chrysanthemum, deadly nightshade, mandrake, mint, nutmeg, pomegranate, rosemary, sage, thistle, wormwood
7) Animals and other symbols: bat, black cat, owl, raven, brooms, black candles
8) Remembering and honoring ancestors: pictures, mementos, and in some cases divination or séance
9) Connect with nature: go for a walk, breath fresh air, I created an event on Meetup to try to find others to observe with at a local park (we’ll see who, if anyone, comes)
10) Decorate your altar with the information from above

My notes on the Holy Days in my OneNote can be found here.

I’m Jewish. I am proud of being Jewish. I also feel there’s more out there that I can add to my life to enrich my whole self.

I love nature. I miss the stars from a childhood camp with minimal light pollution. I feel connected to a certain rock from a hike and bring it home. Sitting on the beach and listening to the waves, feeling the sand, and enjoying the sun and the wind is calming and rejuvenating. In feeling this connection, and wanting to explore it further, I have begun researching Wicca.

I’m organizing my notes in OneNote because I love how you can create sections of the notebook, when you paste from the internet it also pastes the website, and it’s easy to organize with drag-able sections and easy editing and adding of pictures and tables. Please bear in mind this is research in progress.
To view the whole Notebook, click here.

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Halloween

“Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in)-” History.com

“Halloween and Samhain are not the same, but two separate holidays that differ considerably in focus and practice.” – “Although observances may include merry-making, the honoring of the Dead that is central to Samhain is a serious religious practice rather than a light-hearted make-believe re-enactment. Today’s Pagan Samhain rites, while somber, are benevolent, and, although centered on death, do not involve human or animal sacrifices. Most Samhain rituals are held in private rather than in public.” – Circle Sanctuary

“Originally, Christians observed All Saints’ Day on May 13. But in the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved it to November 1. Officially, the Church chose this new date to mark the papal dedication of a church honoring the saints. But many historians believe the Church really moved the observance to correspond with Samhain and other pagan fall festivals.” – How Stuff Works

“It is widely accepted that the early church missionaries chose to hold a festival at this time of year in order to absorb existing native Pagan practices into Christianity, thereby smoothing the conversion process.”- ” Either way, what we can be sure of is that the modern celebration of Hallowe’en is a complicated mix of evolved (and evolving) traditions and influences.” – BBC

But why 10/31?

“Halloween falls on October 31 because the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, considered the earliest known root of Halloween, occurred on this day. It marked a pivotal time of year when seasons changed, but (more importantly) observers also believed the boundary between this world and the next became especially thin at this time, enabling them to connect with the dead. This belief is shared by some other cultures; a similar idea is mentioned around the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which also typically occurs in October and involves saying prayers for the dead. This is also where Halloween gains its ‘haunted” connotations.’ ” – Country Living

Traditions

All of the ways we celebrate Halloween are derivative.

“During Samhain, the Celts ‘offered food’ as a way to ward off evil spirits. In the Middle Ages on the eve of All Saints’ Day, the poor would go ‘souling’, visiting houses and offering prayers for the family’s dead in exchange for food, called ‘soul cakes.’ ” –

-“To protect themselves from the potentially evil spirits that may appear during Samhain, the Celts wore animal skin costumes to hide in plain sight. If they looked like a fellow spirit, they believed, it would be safe to go outside. Later, a variant of souling called ‘guising’ emerged in Scotland, in which children dressed up and asked neighbors for food or money in exchange for a song or poem.”-

-“According to the original Irish legend, ‘Stingy Jack’ tried to cheat the devil out of his soul. But when Jack died, heaven didn’t want him either, so the devil cursed him to roam the earth using a carved-out turnip as a lantern. A tradition began of carving scary faces into turnips, beets, or potatoes and putting them in the window to scare away “Jack of the Lantern” and other spirits.”-

-“As part of the ancient festival, a large bonfire would be lit to ward off spirits and lead them to the afterlife. The Celts would then light their hearth fires for the winter from the sacred bonfire. “- Reader’s Digest
The bonfires and hearth-lighting traditions evolved into candle-lighting in the home.

Dolla Dolla Bils Ya’all

National Retail Federation

Not Just For Youngins

“More than 30 million people will spend an estimated $480 million treating their pets to costumes this Halloween, more than double the $220 million spend on pet Halloween costumes in 2010 when the National Retail Federation began tracking pet costumes. ” – Market Watch (2018)

National Retail Federation

Happy Halloween!

*If you enjoyed any part of this post, please consider liking it. If you loved it, please consider following me on WordPress. I also love comments including questions, advice, or a review of the post itself. Thank you for reading and best of luck in your adventures.*