I LOVE Halloween!! Love Love Love!! Big BIG hearts.
This has always been my favorite holiday in all the land!!!
As a little kid Halloween was the most magical of all my magickal days.You can imagine that a kid who swore she saw fairies and ghosts and all things unseen would way get into this holiday.Getting to be outside at night... in the cold dark....all dressed like something far far away was THE highlight of my year:) Even as a teenager it was fun:) I think we dragged the candy getting out farther than it needed to be because the magick never waned:) And I am little,I passed as a kid FOR much longer than I cared to! I could probably still pass as a kid if I waltzed around under a sheet!Not as much of thrill now though because I can buy my own candy and walk out into the night at will!!
However this is still my favorite holiday EVER. and now that I am a grownup and know the origins of Halloween I get why it was such a big deal:)
I love all the traditions and ideas that blend to give us what we call Halloween.If you DON"T know..Our Halloween is loosely based on Samhain which is a holiday that had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead. The Celtic people, and many other people of that time,divided the year by four major holidays. According to their calendar, the year began on a day corresponding to November 1st on our present calendar. The date marked the beginning of winter. Since they were pastoral people, it was a time when cattle and sheep had to be moved to closer pastures and all livestock had to be secured for the winter months. Crops were harvested and stored. The date marked both an ending and a beginning in an eternal cycle.
Samhain was the beginning of the dark time of the year and thus naturally became a time to acknowledge the dark parts of ourselves and the world, namely death and the world beyond.Samhain was also a time to honor the ancestors and those who had passed.
The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year,the veil between our world and the world beyond was the thinnest.They believed that the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living on this night .. .People lit bonfires in honor of the dead, to aid them on their journey, and to keep them away from the living.(origins of our jack o lanterns)It was believed that on Samhain all manner of beings were abroad: ghosts, fairies, and demons--all part of the dark and dread.From this so many of our traditions come..
Both Mexicans and Italians celebrate a similar holiday at this time of the year. In Italy they celebrate Ognissanti over two days, November 1 and November 2.In Mexico the day of the dead or
Día de los Muertos is celebrate don November 1st, again to honor thse who have passed and also to celebrate life and living.
Most cultures have a holiday such as this...many in the fall...some at other parts of the year.
I love that.That different people in different places... all over the world.. are tapping into a common sense of tradition and belief.
In my particular spiritual worldview there are many influences. You could say I kind of believe in everything.I call myself a pagan for that reason..because... How I feel about the world.. and God.. and the universe doesn't really ft into any one "religion"so.... I take a little bit from all of them and use what speaks to me... what motivates me... and what feeds my particularly peculiar soul.
So my Halloween is a little bit of a lot of things:) Some cooking, some craftiness, some reflection, a little honoring and homage, and a lot of celebrating the thing I am most grateful for.... my comfy happy home and my soldier man.
Clearly we do not trick or treat anymore.. I have usually hosted a party since I was old enough to do so..Jay and I always had a party when we lived in Chicago unless one of the Witchy Trio hosted. Halloweens are usually highly social days for us:)
Since we have been in Indy a party has not worked out. Last year we helped do a block party in October and this year we took vacation around Halloween.
So it has been a little low key..But pretty blissy:). We started a tradition of making pumpkin ravioli for our Halloween feast and carving our pumpkin on Halloween night while watching DVRd Charlie Brown:)
And that is what we are up to tonight:) We are on the couch in post pumpkin carving and post dinner haze and soldier man is annoying me because he is refusing to share candy giving duty..declaring it "womans' work" but you know.. there is wine and the fireplace and the fact that my life kind of rocks... so I can't be too mad:)
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