By the Great Pumpkin.

I’m going to have to have a little rant. Because to be frank it’s been bugging me. I love Halloween as much as the next person, but please by all that is orange and pumpkin like don’t confuse the modern holiday of Halloween with the festival of Samhain, or Nos Calan Gaeaf for that matter.

Please don’t go round running rituals where everyone dresses up as the Worst Witch, or a reject from Twilight or Potter world. It actually cheapens many peoples beliefs and practises. By all means have a party, invite me along I love a bloody good knees up. But don’t pretend that what you are doing is pagan. Particularly if you then plaster pictures of yourself all over Facebook. It totally misses the point of guising, which was to be unrecognisable.

If you want to combine reverence and mirth, how about a dumb supper eaten in silence, food brought to share, an empty space laid out for those that have gone before. Each person lighting a tea light for their ancestors. After the solemn meal songs and laughter may ensue, and when the last tealight burns out then the last ancestor has departed and the party is over. Another excellent practise is a vigil, take time to process to your local cemetery. Find the oldest graves there, for quite truthfully they represent the ancestors of the community. Take time to clear their graves, light a votive candle and thank them, sit vigil for a while before departing silently, not looking back.

If you aren’t squeamish about mixing a bit of ancient Christian lore you could even make soul cakes. A medieval tradition. Sweet biscuit like cakes made with cinnamon and nutmeg, which would have been almost prohibitively expensive and therefore a true sacrifice of time and resources. They were set out on All Hallows’ Eve, sometime with an alcohol libation as well. Very reminiscent of the Hekate’s suppers practised on New Moons. You can find a nice recipe for souls cakes here it’s a recipe from the Welsh borders so quite authentic.

I love Samhain, it’s possibly one of the most important festivals of the year for me. I genuinely feel the Magick in the air. The light has an eerie quality. Your skin prickles. You can almost smell the feral musk of the creatures of the hunt slowly waking from their summer slumber. Leaves skitter along the paths leaving you feeling like something is just a few steps behind. Whispered voices travel on the wind and you can almost hear small scampering feet. Waiting for the moment when the final shift happens. When, for another cycle Gwyn ap Nudd gains the upper hand in his eternal battle with Gwythyr ap Greidawl. The hounds of Annwfn bray and the hunt rides forth. Ready to sweep the unsuspecting human with eyes to see along, helter skelter into the night.

A sight both fearsome and truly wondrous to behold. A feeling that brings you to tears of awe and fear and love. And worth far more respect than some parody in black lipstick and a nylon costume bought from a superstore.

3 thoughts on “By the Great Pumpkin.

  1. Robert podmore

    I couldn’t agree more Tara I like to honour the ancestors with due ritual and reverence. Then go to a party but never the two together

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  2. Wolfe van Brussel

    Totally agree! Will be making those Soul Cakes….but it all seems to have kicked off a bit early this time, though of course the gods don’t work by clock time or even our calendars, its the liminal moment when the year turns.

    Was particularly hoping to be in Mon on November 3rd because that’s the deathday of my father, but can honour the season and celebrate quietly wherever. Like full moons etc, they seem to me to be three day events, one can feel the energies flowing in, changing and receding in their own good time.

    XXXX wolfe

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  3. Gail Spiritstar

    Tara, good points and suggestions, thanks. Ianto and I got married on the 1st November. The night before, we set a place at the banquet table for our departed dead and invited them to join us. When we walked into the room where the ceremony was to take place and turned towards the gathering we could see many more faces than belonged to the corporeal guests. It was a liminal time in our lives, changing from single to married states, so it seemed only fitting to have an invitation list that spanned the realms. I will never forget the experience.

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