Samhain, also known as Halloween, is coming up fast. Is anyone -pagan, non-pagan, whatever- doing anything special? **************************************************************** 10-20-05, 10:40 AM Sarai I'm planning to carve some jack-o-lanterns, but not much more. I live in Mexico, where Halloween isn't really celebrated. Sometimes kids who are not in costume come by my house shouting "Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!" with the hope of receiving candy from the gringa in the neighborhood, so I'll be sure to have some on hand.
Elexina, what exactly is Samhain about? Why is it celebrated?
10-20-05, 01:41 PM Georgia85 Sarai, check out this site on Samhain.
As for myself, I've got a part time job doing f/x makeup for Spirit Halloween Superstore so I'll be making folks up for all their parties they will be attending. Then I'll go home for my date with Criss Angel Wink on A&E.
10-20-05, 06:42 PM Elexina Samhain is Gaelic for "summer's end" –a time at which many pagans celebrate the new year. This is a time when the veil between the spiritual and physical worlds is said to be particularly thin, enabling spirits to pass back and forth more readily. Many pagan believe that the spirits of the dead return to rejoice with the living on this night. Indeed, this is a time for remembering our ancestors, and an opportunity to come to terms with death. We honor the spiritual legacy of those who have passed on before us. At Samhain, the land begins to slumber; it is a quieter time as the days grow shorter and darker. We reflect on the past year, celebrate and give thanks. This is a time of endings and beginnings, of revelry and seriousness, a time for resolutions. It is said that what happens this Samhain night sets the pace for the entire year to come.
10-20-05, 10:00 PM jusork I have to remind myself that it's actually October sometimes now. Looking at my calender...I'll probably be finishing a story for class while every kid is going door to door because I've got one due the next day. I'll probably be eating some Halloween-themed cake at lunch soon and that'll probably be as close as I'll be going to the holiday. Oh the days of a sack of candy!
10-27-05, 10:16 AM Elexina "Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night." ~Steve Almond Big Grin
10-04-06, 09:36 PM Northwind Dagas It's almost that time again. I love Halloween/Samhain--it is easily my favorite sabbath.
10-04-06, 10:34 PM FredPuli Ah, these ancient American customs ! Don't you just love 'em Roll Eyes
(Don't let anyone kid you: the practice of 'trick or treat' was unknown in England until some business or other thought to promote hallowe'en here).
10-04-06, 10:37 PM honilov Very interesting!!! Never heard of Halloween being a sabbath before, but now I see it's the witches' sabbath. Smile
Main Entry: witches' Sabbath Function: noun : a midnight assembly of witches, devils, and sorcerers for the celebration of rites and orgies.
10-05-06, 07:09 AM Elexina It is a witches' sabbat. It is one of the four main cross-quarter sabbats, but merely one of eight sabbats on the turn of the wheel.
10-30-06, 01:26 PM Elexina The wheel has turned again! Here is a quick Samhain (pronounced sow-een) summary for those who might be interested...
Samhain is Gaelic for "summer's end" –a time at which many pagans celebrate the new year. This is a time when the veil between the spiritual and physical worlds is said to be particularly thin, enabling spirits to pass back and forth more readily. Many pagan believe that the spirits of the dead return to rejoice with the living on this night. Indeed, this is a time for remembering our ancestors, and an opportunity to come to terms with death. We honor the spiritual legacy of those who have passed on before us. At Samhain, the land begins to slumber; it is a quieter time as the days grow shorter and darker. We reflect on the past year, celebrate and give thanks. This is a time of endings and beginnings, of revelry and seriousness, a time for resolutions. It is said that what happens this Samhain night sets the pace for the entire year to come.
Blessed be.
10-30-06, 06:22 PM Julieta Martinez Like Sarai said, in Mexico Halloween isn´t really celebrated, especially in the small ranchos like mine. Although I do miss it. Frown
We celebrate the day of the dead on November 2nd. It´s a really nice tradition. We go to the graveyard and clean the graves and bring them candles. Then we put offerings to our departed loved ones out with fruit or anything that person liked in life. And we put candles out for every one of them, too. It´s nice because I think about when I die, people are going to remember me every year. I put out fruit and a beer out for my father, because he sure liked his beer! They say that the fruit loses it´s flavor the day after, because the dead people have sucked it out of them!
Interesting, huh.
10-30-06, 06:24 PM juanruiz You forgot the calaveras de azúcar.
10-30-06, 06:53 PM Julieta Martinez Oh that´s true! But my family usually doesn´t buy them. But I like the calaveras de chocolate the best. Wink
10-31-06, 05:37 AM tsaeb I am thinking of busting the chops of some difficult people I know on the telephone. The thought of them climbing the wall when I say, "Trick or treat!" tickles me pink.
10-31-06, 07:34 AM Elexina I've always been intrigued by the Day of the Dead, All Soul's Day, All Saint's Day... All of the holidays celebrated at this time. Ancestor-honoring is part of Samhain, too, though we're a bit lazy about it and ask them to come to us rather than going to them. Wink There aren't that many graves to care for in my family, though. Most of the recently deceased were cremated, or entombed in vaults. Kind of out of reach. But I see my Grandmother in the way her African Violets continue to bloom -despite living with me. Smile
10-31-06, 08:12 AM FredPuli Heathens may be pleased to know that our Home Office [= Ministry of the Interior in most countries] has declared that all prisoners in our jails who have declared 'heathen' as their religion are to get the day off from their work in jail. They'll be allowed to celebrate the festival. Asked whether they will be allowed to dance naked in the courtyard, if their faith so demands,the spokesman said that that was a matter for the governor of any prison concerned Big Grin He did say that they would be allowed long robes and flexible twigs.
There are 280 inmates of our jails who have declared themselves to be of the(?) heathen faith.
11-01-06, 07:26 AM Elexina I did read about that. Note, please, that along with their flexible twigs, the robes must be unhooded. Smile In my opinion, if Christians and Jews and Muslims get the day off for their religious celebrations, pagans should be permitted the same. Do the pagans and Jews and Muslims work on Christmas and Easter, though, I wonder?
11-01-06, 08:38 AM Insaf
quote: Originally posted by Elexina: In my opinion, if Christians and Jews and Muslims get the day off for their religious celebrations, pagans should be permitted the same. Do the pagans and Jews and Muslims work on Christmas and Easter, though, I wonder?
I think, most people love having public holidays. Muslims do work on Christmas in Muslim countries. However, Christians shall be given day off. Similarly in a Christian country, Muslims,(if they request), are given a day off for their relegious festival. So the best way to get more days off is either to be a christain working in a muslim country or a muslim working in a christian country.
By the way, Christmas has a pagan holiday element in it as it was earlier a pagan holiday marked with winter solstice.
11-01-06, 09:03 AM VelvetVoice My Girls Scout troop did a Haunted Hike on Sunday evening. (I didn't tell my pastor either. The rest of the congregation was participating in a review of the five points of Calvinism.) The girls have been working on the project for two months, they planned, organized and directed the entire event. Quite a feat for a bunch of 11 and 12-year-olds. Brownies and Juniors from town came, and they said it was the best one they have ever been to. Not TOO scary, but not lame either.
Victoria gave me some of her haul for lunch today, although I need to remember not to overindulge. I have got to lose the gut. I did lose a pound since Sunday.
11-01-06, 09:25 AM juanruiz
quote: I did lose a pound since Sunday.
Playing the ponies at Ascot?
11-02-06, 04:10 AM tsaeb I have 11 desserts in the refrigerator and a closet shelf full of them, while there are also 10 types of candy in the refrigerator with Swiss Colony in transit. All this is in addition to the pretzels, cheese nips, popcorn, and tons of crackers. I have never been so bad. So I bought a book about the glycemic index of foods to try to make better choices. 11-02-06, 07:48 AM Elexina
quote: Originally posted by Insaf: Similarly in a Christian country, Muslims,(if they request), are given a day off for their relegious festival.
Yes, but Muslims in a Christian country get the Christian holidays off, too, as you eluded to. Is that really fair? Shouldn't they have to work on Christmas? I mean, I wouldn't mind working on Christmas but in my business everyone else would be off so there wouldn't be much to do, but in places like manufacturing plants and the post office and such, why shouldn't non-Christians work to keep things going, just as non-Jews keep things going on Jewish holidays? ...Just some thoughts. Smile
quote: By the way, Christmas has a pagan holiday element in it as it was earlier a pagan holiday marked with winter solstice.
Oh absolutely. It has also been so bastardized and commercialized by Hallmark and the tinsel industry that it's hardly recognizable anymore.
Good for you, VV! Candy is a perfectly wonderful indulgence. And perfectly good for you -in moderation. Big Grin
Tsaeb, your closet sounds like mine.
11-02-06, 09:05 AM Insaf
quote: Originally posted by Elexina:
quote: Originally posted by Insaf: Similarly in a Christian country, Muslims,(if they request), are given a day off for their relegious festival.
Yes, but Muslims in a Christian country get the Christian holidays off, too, as you eluded to. Is that really fair? Shouldn't they have to work on Christmas? I mean, I wouldn't mind working on Christmas but in my business everyone else would be off so there wouldn't be much to do, but in places like manufacturing plants and the post office and such, why shouldn't non-Christians work to keep things going, just as non-Jews keep things going on Jewish holidays? ...Just some thoughts. Smile
. I agree with your points. However, I forgot to mention that Muslims who gets day off in a christian country is considered as unpaid leave. Atleast this is the way it works in my office as we have to subbmit timesheets. And of-course Christmas holiday are paid leaves. Plus there are more non-muslim holidays like 2 days for Easter, 4-5 days for Christmas, 1 day for Thanksgiving etc. So unless both leaves have similar unpaid/paid feature and are same in quantity; it is not justified to compare them.
11-03-06, 03:17 AM tsaeb
quote: Originally posted by Elexina: Tsaeb, your closet sounds like mine.
Elexina: Do you have a broom closet, given that you have been saying that you are a practicing witch? Otherwise, since you had begun to dabble in the Bible, did you finish reading it, and are you moving in any other religious direction?
11-03-06, 07:58 AM Elexina I have many closets but I long ago came out of the broom closet. Wink I have a broom in the garage, a broom in the basement, and a broom hanging from my wall going down the basement steps. My ritual broom, however, is always out in my ritual room, in the East. I wouldn't say I had ever "dabbled" in the Bible. I began reading it again, yes, but it's been some time since I picked it up. I found that I didn't have enough paper upon which to write all of the things with which I disagree. No, I am not moving in any other religious direction. I have many books on my bookshelves, from pagan to Buddhist to Muslim to Satanist to Santarian to Christian. I am interested in all kinds of religions, but my current path (pagan) is the only one that makes sense to me.
11-03-06, 03:39 PM tsaeb Elexina: Thanks for the entertaining update. I suspect that some others here were curious, too, but I was the nosy one.
11-06-06, 08:03 AM Elexina I would hope everyone would feel free to ask questions, either in posts here or by e-mailing me. I have to problem answering those questions that are honestly interested and curious and am glad to have the opportunity to clear up misconceptions and misunderstandings. As for entertaining, that wasn't really my intention. I didn't say anything that wasn't accurate.
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