Samhuin, Samain, Saman, Oidhche Shamhna, Hallowe'en, Halloween, Hallows, Hallowtide, Shadow Fest, Allantide, Third Harvest, Harvest Home, Geimredh, (Feile na Marbh), Feast of the Dead, Spirit Night, Candle Night, November Eve, and Apple Fest.
What is it?
Samhain is an old Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter (the "darker half" of the year)
What it represents
Samhain is a time when doorways to the spirit world are opened, allowing the dead to visit the living world. Some spirits were considered friendly, while others were not, and the Celts created ways to appease them.
It also marks the end of the Celtic year and the beginning of the new one and as such can be seen as an equivalent of New Year's Eve as we know it.
When is it celebrated
It is held on 1 November but with celebrations beginning on the evening of 31 October, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset
Who to honour
Traditionally because this festival is associated with those who no longer walk this realm in a physical form, ancestors, family members, elders of the faith, friends, pets and other loved ones who have passed on are appropriate beings to honour.
Other sprits to worship
In the case you want to explore other spirits to worship, any death deity would be appropriate for example, you may feel compelled to leave out an offering to Hades at this time of the year. You can also worship the earth itself, as we approach this time of the year many plants begin the end of their yearly cycle, this is the perfect time to take a moment to appreciate the beauty in that part of the cycle.
How to celebrate
There are many things to do to honour ancestors and not just the human ancestors but the earth ones and the animals as well, this may manifest in many ways.
Some popular ways to celebrate this festival are
dancing,
feasting,
taking nature walks,
Ancestor Stories,
cemetery visits,
Bonfire Magic.
and building altars to honour the ancestors
These are not the only activities, there are many more that I could list and many more points I could touch on, but I wanted to keep this post really easy/friendly and not to overwhelming,
I hope to at some point tomorrow get to draft up a “Samhain correspondence” post to go along with this one🥰 if there is anything else/ or any questions you have that you’d like me to touch base on I’m more than happy to do my best to answer🥰
Some ghosts I made with grey yarn. I’ve made some fabric ghosts like this in the past, but I thought they’d look nice as tassels too <|:)
They’re a very easy craft to make, just wrap yarn around something for your desired length and thickness, snip the bottom ends of the loops, and secure around the top. The faces are just circles of fabric I carefully hot glued on.
I’ll attach them to string and hang them up in my room somewhere. ༼ つ0 。0 ༽つ
It's meant to be a calm down pumpkin. It has the herbs lavender in it for peace, lemongrass for cleansing, and lemon verbena for happiness. Then, it has essential oils lavender and chamomile in it. It smells so good.
One of the odd hobbies I have is buying things from the dollar store, and repainting them. I suppose I like transforming them into something that fits me better.
In case anyone likes the results, I started by painting the whole thing black, then I coloured it using metallic acrylic paints. Lastly, I brushed on glaze to protect it(I had Sculpey gloss glaze, so I used that).
I made seven of these little grey ghosts for Samahin and Halloween last year. I used some scraps of fabric from an old shirt, and I recently got some more grey fabric scraps that I thought would work to make some more.
The original seven from last year are on the top row, all in a darker, mottled grey. The newer ones are made with scraps from a different old shirt, as well as some lighter grey, textured eyelet fabric.
They’re a pretty simple project, I didn’t do any sewing on them other than putting a thread loop through the tops of their heads so they can be added to a string or ribbon to be hung up. They’re just some fabric pieces tied around a bit of stuffing for the head, with their faces made up of three small circles of fabric, attached with hot glue.