We are approaching 31st October/1st November: Halloween, Samhain, Dia de los Muertos ….
A special time of year when we can connect back to our ancestral energies and wisdoms.
Whatever we call this time of year, we know it’s origins are very old with pagan roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain (which is Old Irish for ‘Summer’s end’ and is pronounced ‘sow wen’. It marks the end of the harvest season and the true beginning of Winter and the Yin time when all goes within to be nourished and restored.
It can mean different things to different people and certainly for the kids it’s a time of great fun, but perhaps for us adults, apart from pinching the kid’s chocolate, it’s also an opportunity to take quiet time and reflect on those that have gone before, sending love and gratitude for them having been in our life. this can be done in whatever way you wish, but a little ritual does focus the mind, even if it’s just lighting a candle or incense stick, sitting quietly under the moon or enjoying a flaming bonfire … it doesn’t really matter, it’s the intention of connection that is important.
Nowadays children go from home to home, dressed up and shouting ‘trick or treat’ … it is thought that originally, people would go house to house in costume, reciting verse in exchange for food – they represented the souls of the dead and received the offerings on behalf of the dead and in return the household would enjoy good luck for the year.
We should all ‘celebrate’ this time in a way that suits our life.
I personally will be taking quiet time to go within, think about, thank and honour those (two legged and four legged) who were loved by me and important in my life and who have passed to another plane.
It will be poignant, sad but as someone once said: don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened, because they were in your life.
It will therefore be a time of gratitude for all those blessings.
it will be an acknowledgement and honouring of those we feel 'help us' from the other side
It will be a quiet time, with a small bonfire, sage, sweetgrass, incense and deep grounding into the earth.
It will be a time when I make a conscious decision to switch to more of a Yin rhythm in my life, to honour and reflect the season.
It will be a time for me to eat all the chocolate left over from the Trick or Treating children’s bowl …………..
............. well, a girl’s got to have a bit of naughtiness at Samhain!!!