holidays for pagans

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.

Seasons and Holidays

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is about the holidays we choose to celebrate.

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Topic for the Week of 11/04:  “How did or do you decide what holidays to celebrate?”

Although in the wheel of the year there are eight holidays, I really only dependably celebrate two of them from year to year.  My family, as I was growing up, has always celebrated all eight.

In my case, the holidays mark seasonal transitions, and although I appreciate them and even enjoy spending time recognizing them through hiking and other activities in order to appreciate the transitions from one season to the next?   I don’t celebrate all eight holidays on a dependable year-to-year basis.

I guess, then, that I should first begin by defining “celebrate” since I did just mention that recognize each shift in seasons regardless of “celebrating them” in a traditional sense.

So, for the purpose of this post, celebrating means to include ritual and/or activities that are performed on a specific day or days surrounding the holiday in question.

The holidays that my family celebrates are Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Midsummer, Lammas, and Mabon.   Of these holidays, I dependably celebrate Samhain and Beltane every year without fail.   These are the two points in the year where the veil within liminal spaces is at its thinnest, and for me they are not just the most powerful days of the year, but also the most sacred.

So there you have it!  Although I consider the entire transition of season to season sacred and enjoyable, and appreciate them all in my own way.   As far as holidays go?  I really only go “all out” to celebrate just two of them.

Post Script Edit:    As you just pointed out to me, I also celebrate both Thanksgiving (US) and Christmas (in a far less religious way).

These two are celebrated for specific reasons.

Thanksgiving involves visiting my mother’s house, and is celebrated because it’s a holiday she loves.  A core part of her faith involves feeding others, and there is a lot of ritual and spellcraft that goes into the cooking on that day in her home.   Each year, my sister and I visit her because this day is so very important to her (and the food is so goddamn good doesn’t hurt either).

Christmas on the other hand, is not a religious holiday for me.  Instead it is something fun.  It’s a chance to give friends and loved ones gifts, show appreciation and gratitude, and get gifts from them in turn.  It’s a time for absolutely spectacular crooners music and amazing scents and sparkling lights.  I do decorate (alibi sparingly usually), and we do exchange gifts, but it’s more like the holiday is an excuse to do these things rather than a spiritual experience.

So you’re right.   Although they are not pagan holidays, nor spiritual in the sense of the other holidays that I sometimes incorporate into my year, they are absolutely holidays that I celebrate.

 

#SpeakingUpForMyBeliefs (non) VR to Shadow Harvest

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Although this hashtag was created by Shadow Harvest back in August, I originally saw Amethyst Ascension’s reply that she did the other day.   I found both of their thoughts on the matter very interesting.  I think that this topic is one that most people are a bit awkward with, whether they are under the pagan umbrella, or just of a different religion to whatever is being worshiped in the moment.

Essentially, the question is what do you do in situations where you are stuck with people worshiping where there is an expectation of the “accepted norm” of following along, or risk standing out due to lack of conformity.

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The example given was being a pagan at a Christian wedding where they request everyone to bow their heads to pray during the ceremony.  This included mention of certain scripture or vows that you do not agree with personally, or have an issue with.

For me?  This also fits into when I visit other people’s homes.  J’s parents like to hold hands and say Grace before they eat.   Out east, some of my family also say Grace (without the hand holding, because my family is NOT a touchy feely type of family).

So…. what do I do?

First, I accept that I can’t control what other people do, I can only control my own actions and behavior.

Second, it depends on the situation.    Do I wear my pagan jewelry when visiting a church?  Absolutely.    I do not see it as a disrespect to the church, but rather feel I am presenting myself as… myself, and showing that I have come FOR a reason.   I’m essentially saying “although this is not my faith, I’m here for you”.

This follows as well with prayer.  No, I do not participate in the bowing of my head and entreaty to their god.  But I am there for it.  I’m standing tall and projecting my own well wishes, my own hopes for their future, my own entreaties to my own entities and energies.   I don’t know their religion.  I don’t know their beliefs.  It would, in my opinion, be disrespectful to pretend to be doing something I don’t know anything about or does not follow MY beliefs.  It would be, essentially, being deceptive within a sacred space.   And for me?  That’s not okay.

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As for Grace…  In J’s parents home as well as other people’s homes when they want to say Grace?  I will hold hands if it is a part of their tradition, because I believe this creates a circle of energy that goes beyond prayer and into intention.   But, I do not bow my head and pray their prayer.  Instead, I again put out my own entreaties to my own energies and entities.  Entreaties that will align with the spirit of saying Grace, and will add to that circle of energy created in that moment.

This is how I deal with these situations.

There are plenty of times when life has required me to intentionally hide my faith.  There have been places I have traveled where personal safety made it an imperative.  Personal safety trumps everything else, including my feelings of being disrespectful by being dishonest in a sacred space.  That aside?   I do me, and I expect others to do them and LET me do me.

Summer Solstice – Celebrating Abundance

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

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Today was (is) the Summer Solstice (aka Midsummer or Litha), which is a holiday for me. Many consider the Summer Solstice as the “first day of summer”. You hear it on the news all day long, it’s written on a copious number of calendars that way, etc. For me, this is completely inaccurate.

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year. That means it is the absolute peak in the sun’s energy all year, and thus the peak of summer (as opposed to the beginning). After today, the days will again get shorter, the nights will become longer. This means that that bounty of energy will be waning. Thus…. Midsummer. Not the beginning of summer.

(Can you tell the whole “beginning of summer” thing is a pet peeve yet?)

The Summer Solstice is the pinnacle of growth and a time to celebrate the abundances in your life, whether they be intentions from the spring that have developed into fruition, the anticipated gifts of summer with ripe fruits and blooming flowers, or the unexpected blessings of surprise bounties.

Gratitude and celebration for these things is a key part of the Summer Solstice celebration, as is making a last bid for intentions you want to carry forward through the rest of the year. After today, as the days begin to wan into a shorter and shorter span, so too will the energies of the earth that nurture new life and buds as the time for harvesting comes in the wake of summer’s vigorous time of growth.

It is this spirit of gratitude and intention that I’ve carried with me as I moved through the day today.  I have so much to be grateful for… and you are at the top of the list, man.

I love you.