🎃“It’s the MOST wonderful time of the year”. Halloween or traditionally called Samhain (pronounced soW-en) is an ancient Celtic/Pagan tradition still celebrated, BIG TIME, today. It signaled a time of total celebration of the year gone past. It was considered to be a New Year celebration of sorts, the end of the great Wheel of the Year.
🎃Big bon fires were lit as this was the last of the fire celebrations. Food, wine, mead & beer were laid out for all to share from the final harvest of the year. This was traditionally an agricultural festival, a time for farmers to thank the Gods & Goddesses for the bounty that was received and for families to pray that the harvest would last all winter long.
🎃The celebration of Samhain also included carving root vegetables, like pumpkins, by village children to ward off spirits that had not found rest. People would also wear costumes to either scare these spirits off or to disguise themselves so the spirits wouldn’t follow them back to the village. This, of course, grew into our Halloween of today.
🎃For me, I always take time to focus on what “seeds” I planted in early spring. How my ideas, intentions & goals grew during the warm summer months and how I “harvested” them or incorporated them into my life by fall. I reflect on what I said goodbye to that was no longer needed or was no longer for my highest good, being grateful for their lessons that served me in my past.
🎃Our spring, summer & fall seasons can be filled with tons of things we have on the go so by Halloween we are ready to sit by a fire with a few friends & relax. Winter is around the corner which brings much needed rest & hibernation so embrace the darkness. Samhain is the true last time to celebrate with the little bit of light we have left, literally & figuratively with the people we love the most, even with a few spirits on the side.
🎃The legend of the Jack-O’-Lantern has it’s origins in Ireland where a little man named “Stingy Jack” used to lure & trap the Devil in a turnip. When Jack made a “deal with the Devil” to let him out of the turnip ONLY if Jack never had to go to or thru Hell.
🎃When Jack passed, as per the deal made, he was not allowed in Hell nor was he allowed in Heaven. The Devil had condemned Jack to wander the Earth as a lost soul for all eternity. The Devil did gift him with a some burning coal & a turnip to light his way.
