Green Wizardries, Samhain by Maxine Rogers
Samhain, pronounced, “sowin,” is the third and last harvest festival of the year. Its emblems are the fallen leaves, the dry corn stalks and the newly ripe pumpkins because that is what nature is producing in abundance right now. The ancient Celts thought of Samhain as the end of the year. Samhain means summer’s end in modern Irish. The ancient Irish recognized only two seasons, summer and winter and Samhain irrevocably marks the end of summer.
They also believed that this time of year is marked by a thinning of the veil between this material world and the spirit world which is always near us but closest at this time of the year. The ancient Celts were not totally comfortable with the idea of spirits roaming the land so they sometimes wore masks to disguise themselves if they had any powerful enemies in the spirit world that might come and haunt them.
On the other hand, they were very happy to lay a place at the table for deceased family members to come share a meal at this time. I can remember my mother doing this when I was little. She was raised with the help of a Grandmother who came to Canada from Ireland. My Great-grandmother was a Christian and a very educated woman who practised this sort of magic as a matter of course.
These ancient Celtic traditions found their way into Christianity via the Catholic Church which knew a good thing when they saw it. Around the year 700 AD they started to celebrate All Saints Day on the first of November. Before that, it had been celebrated in May. All Saints Day, November first celebrates the deaths of martyrs and All Souls Day, the second of November is a time to pray for all the souls in Purgatory, which is a kind of stuffy, unpleasant, waiting room in the afterlife.
How then did we get to the annual sugar-worship fest of Halloween? Well, it comes from a contraction of the words, “all hallows eve,” which means the evening before All Saints Day. The Celts thought of the night as the start of time so they always began the celebrations on the evening before as that was the start of the day to them.
Of course, they celebrated with bonfires which were important to cleanse the body and to frighten off evil spirits. That is why we always used to celebrate Halloween with fireworks and bonfires. Sadly, this custom is in abeyance on Denman. No good will come of it. If you don’t follow tradition, you just make a mockery of the whole damned thing.
The fireworks on Denman were glorious and I want to thank all the volunteer firefighters who put on such a splendid fireworks show for so many years. The people who put an end to the fireworks here will just have to deal with the bad luck and dislike they have let themselves in for.
If anyone would like to get away from the commercial and tacky aspects of Halloween, they might want to build an altar to their beloved dead. Such an altar is traditionally built in three levels to represent life, death and the afterlife. It is decorated with flowers, candles, and the favourite food of the deceased. The altar should contain the four elements of air, fire, water and earth. Air is represented by incense or those Mexican paper flags. Fire by the candles. Water is self explanatory and the bread we set out represents earth.
My altar always has a bowl of alfalfa pellets as that is the favourite treat of my pet sheep, Septima, now lost to me these many years. This year, it will also have a small bowl of cat food as we lost our beloved cat, Caligula, last spring. It will also have a piece of bread for the human spirits who will visit and a jug of water to refresh them after their long journey. Other favourite food such as chocolate and wine are added. I have a deal with a Mexican-Canadian girlfriend to visit her altar if I pass first and she will visit mine if the reverse is true.
As a religious person, one of my duties at this time of the year is to pray for the spirits of the dead. I do this every morning for the people I know who have died but this time of the year, the prayers are more extensive. I will pray for the comfort and ease of all my ancestors and all who died under tyranny and all who have died of medical malpractice which is a terrible betrayal.
A feast is usual at this time of the year and we have so much fresh food in our gardens still and recently harvested from our orchards that selecting beautiful, nutritious food is a pleasure. I wish you all a Happy Year’s End.