Culture | October 30, 2011 | 25 comments

Blessed Samhain/Halloween

JanforGore
In the agricultural year Samhain designated the first day of winter when cattle and sheep were taken down from their summer hills and pastures to be secured in stalls for the winter while the harvest of wheat, oats, barley, apples and turnips were gathered and baled and stored. It was a time of family reunion, preserve making, and preparing for the winter feasts to come in the new year. It was also a time of divination, when women used certain methods to divine who their lovers would be. One such method was holding a candle in a dark room while looking in a mirror while chanting words that would hopefully show your intended over your shoulder.

It is a magical time of the year when the souls of those departed are given a chance to once again visit those they left behind and loved which spawned many of the customs we still practice today such as carving Jack O'Lanterns and trick or treating.

It was and is above all a time to appreciate the bounty our Earth gives to us.

So happy Samhain/Halloween
_~~~
Here is a Chant for Samhain that speaks of the true meaning of this season regardless of your beliefs:

A year of beauty; A year of plenty
A year of planting; A year of harvest
A year of forests; A year of healing
A year of vision; A year of passion
A year of rebirth; A year of rebirth
This year may we renew the Earth

Let it begin with each step we take
Let it begin with each change we make
Let it begin with each chain we break
And let it begin every time we awake
  1. groups:
    Culture,   Sustainable Agriculture,   Earth Care,   Spirituality and Humanism
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Nature,  Death,  Earth,  13 more
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