Samhain:Discovering Pagan Festivals
Samhain: (sah-win)
Have I ever told you that my day of birth for this life is October 31st? As I look back on it, I believe I missed out on all of the amazing celebrations that could have happened to coincide with the day of my birth. Knowing what I know now, I missed out on learning the customs my ancestors applied to what we consider a holiday.
Granted, in the environment and society I grew up in, the celebrations around October 31st would have been limited to dressing up as a cartoon character to go trick or treating, and afterwards bobbing for apples while listening to Monster Mash at the community Halloween party.
There is so much more about October 31st than costumes, candy, parties and monsters. There is so much more to discover about ancient culture, customs and traditions that were celebrated at this time of year. There is a much deeper meaning to October 31st and we are going on a journey to discover just one tradition in this blog. Hopefully I can learn a little about my ancestry along the way.
Today's blog is going to discover one of those traditions from a culture that I am a descendant from, Samhain.
Samhain started as a Gaelic festival which signified the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker portion of the year, winter.
The festival or celebrations begin on the evening of October 31st and go through November 1st. The origin of the start time coincided with the Celtic practice of the day beginning and ending at sunset.
Having Pagan origins, early writings describe Samhain as a time of large gatherings and feasts. Burial sites would then be opened as portals to other worlds and dimensions. The spirits or aos si, were provided with offerings of food and drink to help ensure the people and livestock would make it through winter. The aos si were also considered to be fairies in the Celtic culture. The spirits or souls of relatives were thought to visit homes as well.
Bonfires were lit on hilltops and had many rituals around them. These are most common now in the Scottish Highlands, the Isle of Man, and parts of Wales and Ulster. Due to the belief that fires had protective and cleaning powers, they were utilized throughout the festivals whether it was outdoors or in people's homes.
Mumming, guising, and divination were all parts of the festival too. People would wear costumes, to imitate or hide from the spirits, and would go door to door reciting verses in exchange for food. Apples and hazelnuts were often used in household divination rituals, which included apple bobbing.
The tradition of "dumb supper" was also part of the Samhain festival. Food would be consumed but only after inviting the ancestors to join in. This would give the families an opportunity to interact with the spirits until they left.
Eventually the Western Church, yes here we go again, made November 1st All Saints Day, and together with Sawhain influenced what we know today as Halloween. Most of the American Halloween traditions that we practice today come from Irish and Scottish culture.
Today the celebration of Samhain takes on many forms. Wiccan's look at it as the passing of the year, Druids treat it as a celebration of the dead with bonfires, and American pagans will hold music and dance celebrations. However, I think in America today you can see a mixture of all of these different celebration types.
Samhain is also known as the Celtic New Year and Witch's New Year and is a time to reflect on the events and goals of the prior year. Not only is it a time for remembrance, but also a time for planning for the future.
It is not surprising to me that an organization, a religion in this particular case, has taken a ritual of a culture and constructed it to fit their own beliefs. Once that was completed, they vilified and demonized the ancient practice causing their followers to denounce and look upon those ancient cultures as demonic and evil.
Because people are different from them, celebrate differently than them, have different customs than them, they believe this makes them wrong. This is a practice and belief that we must change.
I grew up believing that Halloween, the day of my birth, was an evil and scary event. Yes, you had the candy and the celebrations, but beyond that the premise of the holiday was for the wicked. That was totally wrong.
So many times we celebrate holidays for the wrong reasons. We go along with the modern society and celebrate based on the reconstructed rituals spun on the traditions of the ancients. It does not take much effort to take a few minutes to research and discover what the traditions are truly about. After all, almost all of the holidays celebrated in America are a Christian spun version of an ancient ritual.
As we head into the fall and eventually the Samhain celebration, I encourage you to look at Halloween differently. I encourage you to look at your ancestors and what customs and rituals they have, not what you have been taught.
I encourage you to embrace the differences of others and their different customs and celebrations, and not to look at them as you have been programmed to.
Pagans, Witches, Druids and many more have been demonized by society because they were different. It is time to end those beliefs and embrace and learn about what makes them unique.
I have never been one to celebrate the day of my birth. As I have grown older it has become just another day for me. Now that I have changed my outlook on what life is about and gone on this spiritual journey, I have discovered so much more about who I am and where I came from.
Now that I know what Samhain is and that my ancestors celebrated it, I am looking to be more involved in the celebrations. I want to continue to learn and discover more about my ancestry.
Journey with me to learn more about past cultures. Journey with me to learn about past customs. Journey with me to learn about different rituals and festivals. Journey with me to learn about our ancestors.
Journey with me to discover Samhain.
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
Sources:
Wikipedia.org. Samhain
History.com. Samhain
Seawitchbotanicals.com. What is Samhain
Concentrating On deprogramming ourselves is only one key to an opening of the mind. With being part of this group, my mind has been opened to a different way of living life better and to the fullest.