Halloween / All Souls Night originates from the Celtic Pagan Festival `Samhain´ and it's one of the most important seasonal festivals of the year.

(Samhain pronunciation ”Sow'en” from Celtic Gaelic).

The full moon of this month and on the 31st of October are the special nights of much amplified spirit activity.

Regarded and revered as the deep and sacred, mysterious time when the doors to the otherworld are wide open, allowing energies to pass through in both directions.

This mysterious time was taken and christianised by the ruling church, and became All Saints day / All Souls night in the 8th century.

Samhain is the Celtic New Year and an ancient festival of the dead. The word Samhain is also used in Celtic Gaelic for the `winter season´.

The Celtic year is rather like the progress of the soul itself, beginning in cold and darkness and proceeding through the seasons of life until it reaches maturity, fruition and death in the cold again.

The first Halloween fires can be traced back to the Great Festival Fires built on two hills 'Tlachtga' and 'Tara' in Ireland around 4500 years ago, years before the european Celtic tribes were established.

It became more popular throughout the Celtic lands approximately 2000 years later,

Samhain has three distinctive foundations. It was and still is for many folk  an important fire festival originally celebrated on and over the evening and night of 31st October.

The flames of the old fires were extinguished and ceremonially re-lit by Druids, Mystics & Elders at this time. The main hilltop fire was also the source of flame to all the smaller hearths in the local village.

Samhain yields the the power to cast out the old and move forward into the new.

To our Ancestors it was a time when all the crops would have been gathered and stored, the preserving and pickling complete, livestock brought to safety and preparations finalised in awareness of the long cold winter ahead.

Halloween may stir up thoughts of hollowed out pumpkins illuminated from the inside and groups of children knocking on the door asking for sweets but the actual pumpkin/trick or treat custom is a very recent tradition grafted on to deep roots.

In the UK for hundreds of years the custom was always the carving out of turnips to frighten away any unwanted spirit, in the same style as the recent pumpkins adding a gruesome face and adding a candle to complete the vegetable face lantern.

The scary turnips were left on gateposts, doorways and on window ledges. This turnip tradition was still very active in Parts of Europe up until 20 years ago when the pumpkin industry crowded the turnips out.

In the 1900,s immigrants to the US from Ireland and Scotland used pumpkins instead of turnips (probably because they were cheaper and more widespread) for their halloween lanterns therefore over recent years the Halloween pumpkin tradition spread across the Atlantic and back into Europe.

The term `Jack o Lanterns´ is associated with Halloween, it originates from an 18th century Irish folk story.

"Jack tricked the devil and had him climb an apple tree to take an apple, when the devil climbed up the tree, Jack cut the sign of a cross into the trunk to prevent the devil from coming down, the devil was trapped in the tree branches. When Jack died he couldn't gain access into heaven because of his life of selfishness and the devil didn't want anything to do with him because of his trapping cross carving trickery some years earlier. The devil threw a burning coal at Jack, so Jack put it in a hollow turnip to make a lantern and Jack was forced to walk the earth endlessly as a ghost."

Trick or Treating

Our ancestors would often go from door to door at Halloween time collecting offerings to donate to the pagan dieties.

The younger folk would collect old wood and stack it all on top of the ceremonial hill for the great Halloween fire.

Over the years these social practices transformed into todays `trick or treating´ where the children proceed from door to door asking for sweets and when not receiving a trick of some sort would be administered, upon the refusing house.

In 840 AD Christianity incorporated the honouring of the dead into the Christian calendar with All Saints day on November 1st in an attempt to subdue, regulate and control this seasonal pagan fire festival.

In europe these days modern day druids, pagans and witches celebrate Samhain either from sundown on October 31 through November 1 or on the full or new Moon closest to this time.

Honour and Respect to our Ancestors 

Samhain is a wonderful time to honour and remember our ancestors, especially if a loved one has  recently passed away.

 It's the perfect night to celebrate their memory. Beneficial for us and them in many ways.

Bringing balance, harmony and deep protection.

Samhain Tips:  The cycle of life and death

This time of year the earth passes away, the leaves fall, the fields become empty and the land sleeps.

Pass into this the time remembering the dead and contemplate this endless cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Decorating:

It's time now to decorate your alter/shrine with antlers, acorns, pine cones, bones and red and black candles.

Rosemary, Apples and Rowan berries are also great offerings for this time.

Honouring:

Samhain is known as the night when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest. The spirit world is now near, so honour the spirit world, and call upon those ancestors who's footsteps were before ours, if it wasn't for them we wouldn't be here now.

It's also very good to spend as much time outdoors at this time before the cold winter sets in, and while being outside become a part of this enchanting autumn season.

Let a nice flat stone find you and decorate it as your earth alter with with sacred items of this season time, and also make a herb mix of local (dried) sage and rosemary for incense to spiritually freshen up the area.

Relax, breathe deep, close your eyes and bring to mind all the people you descend from

Or a friend or family member who recently departed. These spirits are a part of you and can alter and guide and support us on your life path.

Appreciate, respect and honour them for who they were, no expectations or apologies are necessary.

Know and feel them near at this time, it's possible to see them with your inner vision and if you've had some practice able to hold communication with them.

Certainly they will show up in your dreams and communicate with you there

All of this is preparation and completion of our life paths concluding in our own final journey from this world to the next.

The name Halloween is hundreds of years old and derives from the title All Hallows Eve.

Hallow meaning sacred and eve meaning even, so over the years  `All Hallows Eve´ became `Halloween´.

There are quite a few other names for Halloween including:

All souls night, Snap Apple Night, Feast of the Dead and Witches Night.

Although Halloween has been downgraded and devolved from a first class night of deep/commemorative spiritual communion and otherworld mediation to a shallow, commercialised fright night muddle, it still remains a time of the year where social normality is turned upside down and a temporary freedom of expression takes over.

It's a thoroughly magical,enchanting time where supernatural forces are in abundance, with many spirits active so use the time wisely.

Happy Samhain.

Peter C.

October 2024