Celebrating halloween

Samhain and Halloween In My Practice

/ Twist the Leaf / 2 Comments

Today’s post is brought to you by one of my Discord servers. Below are some discussion questions that were posted for a “witchy chat” that they had on their server. Although I couldn’t attend the chat, I thought I’d answer the questions here.

Samhain Questions

  • Is Samhain a holiday you celebrate or intend to celebrate?

Absolutely. Samhain is a holiday that my sister and I celebrate together each year.

  • What does Samhain mean to you?

Samhain is the time of year when the veil is at its thinnest between our realm and that of the spirit world. It is a time to acknowledge and honor our ancestors and those loved ones that have passed on. It is also the witch’s new year, and marks the end of the wheel of the year’s cycle. After Samhain, the world goes into dormancy for a time and will then begin to rouse once more following Yule in December. This makes Samhain a perfect time for letting go of the past and past habits.

  • What are your Samhain plans?

Each year my sister and I have a dumb supper to honor our ancestors and loved ones, followed by a ritual with much of the same theme. At the end of the ritual we include spellwork to assist in the letting go of things best left behind as we move forward and step into the energy of a new cycle on the other side.

  • Do you consider Samhain to be the start of a new year? Do you have any “New Year” traditions you enjoy on Samhain?

I think I pretty much covered this above. L has shifted her new year to Beltane in the spring, but she still also participates in my celebration of it during Samhain in the fall. So in essence, we’re celebrating two new years, each one distinct from the other. For the fall new year, we often will write out things we wish to leave behind on bay leaves and cast them into the fire to release their energy from our lives. This part of our ritual is something we include each year without fail.

  • Do you celebrate any other holidays around the same time as Samhain? What are they? How do you celebrate?

No. My previous holiday was Mabon in September, and my next will be Yule in December. That said, there are a lot of concepts of Samhain that are shared by other holidays in other cultures, a common theme and common thread of beliefs connecting these different holidays around the world.

  • What do you think of the way that October has become “the season of the witch”? Do you enjoy that witch-themed things become more mainstream for at least a little while?

I don’t mind it. I guess the commercialism of it all should bug me. But the thing is? It is a time of year that makes it easy to find certain supplies and decor that you just can’t seem to get your hands on any other time of year. It opens society to a more accepting (if commercialized) view, which in turn makes it less dangerous to be a witch in the first place. So, in accepting the good with the bad, I suppose a little “Season of the Witch” each year isn’t an entirely horrible thing.

  • Do you separate Samhain from Halloween and celebrate them distinctly from each other?

To me “Halloween” is about candy, parties, and trick or treating. It’s about costumes and fun and games. So yes. It is very much a separate thing from the solemn and respectful theme of Samhain.

I absolutely do celebrate both, sometimes with more leaning on one than the other… but always both.

Spooktober Quiz Reply

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

So, this question is a few days old, but I liked it and think its a fun one, and so I decided I wanted to include it here as a post.

Spooktober Challenge Decor – Decorating is a must. I love Halloween decorations, so on October first, they come out and get put up. Some years are more involved than others, but you can always bet I have some decorations up on the first and often more will follow along the course of the month.

Candles – In the summer months, I have the windows open and I’m getting all the fresh air I can. Once it starts getting cold, though, I have to limit that, and I start using candles inside, usually charged with intentions (for example, I have the Bath and Body Works Leaves scented candle at my front door. I have added cedar tips to the candle and charged it with a protection spell for the entry and front door).

Incense – I change up my inscense from season to season. Usually it’s NagChampa mixed with something else. In the summer this year, I used Nag Champa and Frankincense. For Autumn I’m using Nag Champa mixed with the “Purification of Sage” incense that came in the September Witches Moon box.

Tarot – I pull out all of my Halloween themed (and spooky themed) decks and usually use some sort of monthly challenge to give me more time with my cards so that I get a chance to work with them all a bit.

Personal – I spend a LOT of time in liminal spaces during this time of year when the veil is thin. This means I do a lot of hiking (and meditating, and napping, and just overall spending time) in the deep woods and rainforests, in the space between sleep and awake, and in other places I feel the veil is at its thinnest. These places feel very welcoming and good to me, and I get energy and nurturing from them.

Family – Throughout the month, my sister and I work together to plan our Samhain ritual. This and Beltaine are the only rituals that we dependably do together every year.

Samhain – After the trick-or-treaters are gone and the partying (if either of us go to any) has come to an end, my sister and I get together to perform our Samhain ritual.

Nov 1 – We have a mum supper together to reflect on and respect our ancestors and those we have lost and spend time with their energies.

So there you have it!  All the different little celebrations I do in October to celebrate the season.  I’m sure there are a few more I’m forgetting to list, but I think I did pretty good at bringing it together for the most part.