Samhain Blessings
Merry Samhain, friends! Pronounced “Sow’in,” Samhain translates as "Summer's End.” It is the ancient Gaelic celebration that occurs in the seasonal cross-quarter point between the fall equinox and the winter solstice. Samhain is the official end of the harvest season and the beginning of the darker part of the year in the northern hemisphere. (For those in the southern hemisphere, I wish you a Happy Beltane instead, which occurs at the cross-quarter between your spring equinox and summer solstice!)
Also known as All Hallows' Eve, Halloween, and All Saints' Eve, Samhain is celebrated from sunset on October 31 until sunset on November 1. It's also called Geimredh, the Day of the Dead (Feile na Marbh in Gaelic), which is the same as Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. Other names for this special day are the Feast of the Dead, Spirit Night, Candle Night, November Eve, Nutcrack Night, Ancestor Night, Apple Fest, and All Saints' Eve. The Christian holidays of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day fall on November 1 and 2, respectively.
On Samhain, the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds thins out. According to tradition, celebrants dress in macabre costumes and light lanterns, candles, and jack-o'-lanterns throughout the night. This is to commemorate the natural process of death, and to welcome back loved ones who have passed into the spirit world, in hopes that their souls will visit and bring blessings.
Samhain is a deeply mystical crossing-over time in the northern hemisphere, when Mother Nature “withdraws her green mantle from the Earth, and with a last stunning flourish of color, her power withdraws into the ground. [The Celtic goddess named] Cailleach oversees this transformation. She is the one who watches over the culling of old growth. She is the Death Goddess who lets die what is no longer needed. She is the guardian of the seed, the keeper of the essential life force. She holds the very essence of power.” (Prayers for the Wild Heart Tribe, by Gail Faith Edwards, p. 95)
The Cailleach by Judith Shaw
Samhain fires were traditionally burned to cleanse the fields after harvest (known as stubble burning), but also to observe the transformation from one season to another. If you have access to a fireplace or fire pit, October 31 is a great night for fire rituals! If not, burning candles and meditating on the sunset will do. This is a time for deep reflection, looking back, and taking stock. You can write down and burn whatever it is that you want to say goodbye to, as you prepare for the hibernal season ahead.
I wish you and yours a blessed Samhain. May magic abound in the turning of the seasonal wheel, and may it bring you peace, love, happiness, and joy.