Merry meet all,

Samhain falls on October 31. It is a time of endings and new beginnings. The God of Light descends into the Underworld. opening a doorway into the realm of the dead. Samhain is the ancient Celtic festival of death. 

On the night of October 31st, the Pagan celebration known as Samhain (pronounced saa-win or sah-ween) was performed at sunset, when the Celtic calendar day officially ended. The Celts believed that the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest on this specific day, due to their belief that summer brought life and a full harvest while winter brought death and symbolized a dark, cold season. Since this boundary between our world and the underworld was permeable, it was believed that otherworldly beings such as ghosts and demons would return to earth. Celtic Druids would build large bonfires and dress up in animal hides to perform ritualistic sacrifices of food and animals (favoring black cats) so the returning dead would help them make predictions and forecast the future. The Celts would also leave offerings at their doorstep and dress up on Samhain in hopes of fooling or appeasing the ghosts to ensure that the people and their livestock survived the winter.

Much of modern pagan practice is based on the wheel of the year, a major determining factor in Celtic worship. The Celtic year was divided into two halves — light and dark, which were delineated by two of their four annual fire festivals. In between, rituals or ceremonies were celebrated marking solstices (when night is either the shortest or longest) or equinoxes (when day and night are equal). Samhain, the fire festival that marked the beginning of the dark half of the year, is situated between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice.

Encyclopedia Britannica notes that, during this festival, the world of the gods “was believed to be made visible to humankind,” leading to supernatural tricks and trouble; ghosts of the dead and spirits from the Otherworld were also thought to return to the earth during Samhain. To appease deities during this time, sacrifices (generally of crops and animals) were burned in bonfires as a protective measure from from evil otherworldly beings and offerings were left out for other visiting mischievous spirits. Tricks and pranks were often played, but blamed on fairies and spirits during the three-day period when the line between the two worlds blurred.

The spiritual undertones of the Samhain festival also lent themselves to looking to the future, an activity quite apropos to the start of the Celtic new year; History.com notes that Druids, or Celtic priests, thought that “the presence of otherworldly spirits made it easier…to make predictions about the future.” At the bonfires of the festival, fortune-telling was done alongside sacrifices, and many participants also donned costumes, often masquerading as animals or beasts, in hopes of fooling spirits who might want to harm them.

The practices of this fire festival evolved over time — most notably with the spread of Christianity and the Catholic church, by 43 A.D., following Rome conquering most of the Celtic lands. In Jack Santino’s Halloween in America: Contemporary Customs and Performances, he explains how, during this time, many of Celtic traditions were reframed with a Christian narrative in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the pagan practices while spreading the new religion. That reframing created many of the Halloween traditions that people still participate in today.

It was May 13 in the year 609 that Pope Boniface IV declared a celebration called All Saints’ Day, also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas in Middle English; the day before it was thus known as All-hallows’ Eve, as History.com explains. The festival was a day to honor Christian martyrs and saints. Later, in the mid-eighth century, Pope Gregory III strategically moved the celebration to November 1, coinciding with the time Samhain would have typically been held. The homage paid to martyrs and saints who passed closely paralleled the appeasement of ghosts of the dead during Samhain. The church’s capitalization on Samhain traditions didn’t end there, however; participants in the new version of the holiday celebrated in much the same manner as their Celtic forebears had — with bonfires and costumes that reflected the spiritual and otherworldly. The offerings of food and goods to protect themselves from spirits and ancestral ghosts became offerings of food and drink to the poor, displays of generosity and goodwill. And the tricks and pranks attributed to otherworldly and evil spirits manifested themselves in the spirit of the saints.

Eventually, All-hallows’ Eve evolved into Halloween, becoming more popular in secular culture than All Saints’ Day. The pagan-turned-Christian practices of dressing up in costume, playing pranks and handing out offerings have evolved into popular traditions even for those who may not believe in otherworldly spirits or saints. However, whether Halloween celebrants know it or not, they’re following the legacy of the ancient Celts who, with the festival of Samhain, celebrated the inevitability of death and rebirth.

HOW TO HONOR YOUR ANCESTORS AT SAMHAIN

Clean your altar. Yes clean. Haul it out, sweep the dust away and wash your tools in lunar charged water. Put it back. Set down a clean altar cloth. Now you can have fun! Setting up your altar doesn’t need to be a chore. Have fun with it. If you have an altar cloth perfect for this celebrated season of death. Add your idols, statues, pentacles. Place black and orange taper candles on the altar along with a few items that correspond to the season. Pinecones, gourds, acorns, fall flowers and seeds, and a few offerings are good choices. Offerings, especially to Hekate can be mullein, wormwood, and bay leaves correspond to Hekate. Now your altar is prepared for the season. 

Light a white candle to guide your ancestors and/ or lost spirits on October 31st. Play music, leave offerings and eat a meal that reminds you of those who have gone before you. This means a lot to them because it proves to them someone remembers them. If it is too painful ( as it is for me), then you can honour a different ancestor this year. Whatever you do, have a good time. 

Blessings, Spiderwitch