Blessed Samhain - Happy Hallowe'en!

Someone asked me yesterday what - as a witchy person - I do for Halloween.

Well firstly, I call it Samhain (summer's end) and a lot of what I do is pretty much the same as what other people do...

I carve Jack O'Lanterns (but I try to make them friendly) because the folklore behind them, which you can read all about here tells us that they were traditionally carved to provide light and warmth for lost souls. 

All Hallow's Eve is a Sabbat when the veil between this world and the Otherworld is at is thinnest - like at the opposite side of the wheel when we celebrate Beltane - and because of this, it is historically regarded as the one night of the year when the spirits of the dead return to earth. These Jack O'Lanterns are to guide them home. 

At Samhain, another thing I do is honour those who are no longer with us. I do this simply, by having a photograph or memory of them on my altar and lighting a candle. When I drink my mulled cider, I raise a toast to them, in hopes that they are wandering free and happy. 

Finally, as the Sabbat marks the end of the year and the end of the harvest, I try to cook up a feast of food which represents the season. This year we made pumpkin pie and I'll share the recipe with you later this week. We give thanks for all we have harvested during the year that has just passed and talk about our hopes, dreams and wishes for the new year to come. Sometimes we write these down and sometimes we cast them off into the wide world to allow the gods and spirits to help them come to fruition. We have done this in a whole range of ways over the past few years - writing them on a paper lantern and setting it free on the wind, tying them to a feather and casting them downstream, or burying them in the earth as seeds to grow. 

Every hedge, hearth, kitchen, garden or any other kind of witch is different - as a solitary I have made the choice not to follow a ritualised path with ceremonies set out by others. I go with my heart and do what comes naturally each year - I find that it is what is inside that counts. 

Whatever your choices, rituals, traditions, hopes, goals and dreams are at this turn of the wheel, I wish you love, light and laughter as you go about them.

Brightest blessings. 

Blessed Samhain

or

Happy Hallowe'en

or (for those of you who follow the Wheel of the Year)

Happy New Year's Eve!

Samhain marks the last turn of the wheel - the final harvest and the dying of the year. The ends of the crops have been gathered, the light is leaving those of us in the Northern Hemisphere and the time for spiritual 'hibernation' is upon us. Long, dark and cold nights wait on the other side of this eve.

However, it is not a time to be sad; rather to celebrate the achievements of the year just past and to honour the earth for the fruits it has provided for us over the summer months. Sitting opposite Beltane (the festival of light and fertility) on the wheel, Samhain marks the contradictory forces of darkness and death. Said to fall at the time when the veil between this earthly world and the Otherworld is at its thinnest, the feast of Samhain traditionally also honours the dead and is a night for remembering ancestors and loved ones who have left us. It is tradition to set a place for those absent friends at the table before enjoying a Samhain meal. 

Some people celebrate Samhain with a ritual to mark the passing of the old year and these rituals are as varied as the individuals who celebrate the festival. You could create a representative 'wheel of the year' with symbolic markers for the sabbats and burn it to mark the end of the year. 

These pictures show an edible version of this ritual: a sabbat cake! Each sabbat is marked on the cake with a leaf, flower or seed which reflects the season - we have a miniature eggshell for Ostara, a holly leaf for Yule and a lavendar sprig for the first harvest of Lammas, for example. Samhain here is shown by an autumn leaf. Instead of being burned, the wheel of the year will be gobbled up!

This year will be the first in a long time that I will celebrate Samhain alone - although I did have family to share an early feast of pumpkin curry with yesterday (more on that recipe to come, I feel). Traditionally I carve my pumpkin and let the light shine like a miniature beacon in the window, to guide the way for spirits; warm a pot of mulled cider and complete a small ritual which acknowledges the year past and sets forth my hopes for the year to come. Tonight I will be quietly contemplating everything that this toughest of years has brought to my family and honouring my dad, so recently passed, with a simple prayer. 

Brightest blessings to you all.