It’s autumn again! The season of golden leaves, cold air and carved pumpkins! It is my favorite season. Fall has never looked so colorful where I come from, so I have a sincere appreciation for all the colors fall brushes onto everything here in Vancouver. I love waking up in the morning to absolute fog enveloping my neighborhood, or hearing the crunch of dry leaves decorating the sidewalks and breaking underfoot. Even the solemn black ravens are seen more in their place in the fall. The romance and melancholy of coats and gloves and boots warm me somehow, and my secret desire to want to scatter fallen leaves, lie on the ground, and move my arms and legs frantically to make leaf-angels always resurfaces. When I go out. for rides.
October for me is synonymous with Halloween. I’ve never celebrated Halloween, which is a shame because it looks like so much fun; a really fun way to unleash your creativity while hanging out with your friends and stuffing yourself with candy at the same time…not to mention Halloween recipes and decorations! But before I moved to Canada, October was Samhain for me; the Gaelic Harvest Festival, just like May was Beltane. Not because I’m Celtic or because I’m Wiccan, I’m not, but simply because when I was younger I was fascinated by both of those things and, in a way, I still am.
Samhain (pronounced Sa-wen– Gaelic rocks!) is one of the four medieval Gaelic festivals. It marks the end of the harvest and is still celebrated by Pagans and Wiccans as one of the four Gaelic High Sabbaths. It is also still considered in Celtic cultures as the Celtic New Year. The date of the night of Samhain is, as you may have already guessed: October 31! The death of the sun and the beginning of darkness are marked by Samhain, a time when the gates between realms are open and spirits are free to roam and cross thresholds for a few hours before the gates are closed again. The church calendar has its own day associated with Samhain, and that day is All Saints’ Day or All Saints’ Day on November 1. November 2 is the Day of the Dead, a day to remember the deceased.
So how was Samhain celebrated in the old days?
The animals were slaughtered for food and their bones thrown into huge bonfires that were lit in the villages. boneFire, can you now see where the word ‘Bonfire’ comes from? Fire was thought to ease the pain of souls trapped in purgatory. People walked around in scary costumes and masks, in an attempt to appease evil spirits and keep them at bay. Children spent their time carving faces out of turnips and leaving them on their doorsteps, another way of warding off evil spirits. It was common in the 19th century for children to go on “soul tours” on Samhain, collecting offerings for the souls of the departed. They knocked on doors and offered music, jokes and entertainment of all kinds, all in exchange for candy, a drink or money. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Fortune telling was also part of the festivities, with fruits, eggs and nuts to divine something about the future; the name of your spouse, the number of children you were going to have, where you were going to live, etc…
Probably the most prominent of all Halloween costumes and decorations is the Witch. In the past, witches, or those poor women accused of witchcraft, were normal women who didn’t dress much differently from those around them. In certain cultures, witches were thought to wear earth colors, browns, and greens or even dress as fairies, all due to their associations with nature and other supernatural realms. So if that were the case, where did this inaccurate and insulting image of a cone-hatted witch on a flying broom come from?
Well, the color black is commonly associated with darkness and evil in the West! It is said by some that the pointed hats alluded to the devil’s horns and that is how that conical hat was related to evildoers. After all, the easiest way back then to condemn someone and turn everyone against them was to affiliate them with Satan. Wearing conical hats was also a sign of vulgarity and backwardness, as those hats, once fashionable in Europe, were suddenly being worn by peasants. Historical finds also show Diana, the lunar huntress goddess, revered by some Wiccans and Neopagans, wearing a pointed hat decorated with symbols of the sun and moon, and scholars suggest that about 3,000 years ago, wizards and wise men wore such hats. hats. hats.
Disney’s Merlin suddenly comes to mind…
Good. I have to stop with the cartoon references. But you get the point.
It is worth mentioning that the few Wiccans I have ever met who actually practiced the craft were people who were very in tune with the world, who held the land in the highest regard and for whom I have great respect. I understand why many of them would be concerned about these unfair perceptions of witches.
Maybe doing it for the first time and playing around with some ideas for Halloween costumes and decorations this year. How old do you have to be to go trick-or-treating?
A blessed and happy Samhain… I mean, Halloween!
