It’s well past midnight as I write this and we have crossed into All Hallows Eve or Samhain. 31st October is an ancient Celtic festival, one of four important fire festivals held throughout the year. To our ancestors, Samhain was the beginning of winter and marked the end of the Celtic year.
“At Samhain the ancients of these lands honoured the darkness and death. Living close to nature, they understood that letting go and destruction were part of the sacred cycle of life. They trusted that all new beginnings started in the darkness”. Mari Kennedy
It is also the end of the harvest season. Berries and fruits like apples have been stored and are plentiful, hence games of old like apple bobbing. Crops and plants in the fields and hedgerows are dying away and returning to the earth as compost. Samhain represents the death of the year, hence it’s long-standing association with death. It is said that the veil between our world, and the other world is thinnest, so spirits of the dead can return to visit us with ease on this night.
It’s a time to celebrate the people we love, the people we have lost and those who have died before us. A time to connect with them and their memories, to invite them in and feel close to them.
Ideas and Ways to Honour Samhain:
Light a candle for those close to you who have died and say a prayer to the living who are suffering across the world
Nestle around a fire with family and friends
Feast together in celebration of the Celtic year’s end
Set a place at the table for a loved one who has died
Carve a turnip (the traditional way, pre pumpkin era!) and add a candle lighting inside to light the way for lost loved souls to return home
Visit an ancient Celtic site
Create a Samhain nature alter and decorate with some of the season’s plants (eg) apple, oak leaves, acorns, rosemary, sage, pine cones, birch bark.
Pause - stop and introspect to reflect on your life over the last year and all that you are grateful for and perhaps try one of these prompts if you feel drawn to
Journaling Prompts:
What do I need to say goodbye to and let go of?
What / whom am I celebrating?
Like the acorns, conkers and beech masts lying in the dark earth over winter, what seeds am I sowing now for next year?
What help do I invite and welcome from my ancestors?
Oíche Shamhna shona dhuit mo chara.
Le grá,
Maeve x