Samhain

Samhain

By Jacey Fisher

Samhain is the night to celebrate your ancestors and the coming New Year. Despite that some view Samhain as a night of devil worship the holiday has survived to be changed to modern understanding.

The based religion is so complexd it would take years to document the entire different paths pagan, Wiccan, heathen, druid, practical and, hedge witch ECT. The religion that celebrates Samhain the most is Wiccan, a very earth-based religion. You can see this portrayed in The Green Man (also know as Milord, Father, God and, Father Earth.) The Green Man is known for being the patron god for hunter's, protection and the ever-returning energy of vegetation and wild Nature.

The Cathedrals of Europe are adorned with thousands of Green Man faces, Gargoyles and carvings. The Dark-Ages, Middle-Ages and the Renaissance saw European indigenous religions and Nature worship local healers, witches, wise women, and male elders under a barrage of constant attacks by the Christian Church. Their goal was to completely wipe out Paganism.

The Goddess also known as Mother, Maiden, Crone and, Milady. She is the patron goddess of family, fertility, farming and, also as the mother of all things (mother earth).The Maiden represents enchantment, inception, expansion, the promise of new beginnings, birth, youth and youthful enthusiasm, represented by the moon. The Mother represents ripeness, fertility, sexuality, fulfillment, stability, power and life represented by the moon. The Crone represents wisdom, repose, death, and endings represented by the waning moon.

Fact or fiction, are some of the things heard about true or false. Some say that this holiday is when the veil between this world and the next are at its thinnest and the dead can come back. Well the neopagans see this holiday as a day not only to celebrate the raising of a new year but also to celebrate the memories of our ancestors they also view this night as one of major magic's the solitary practitioners along with some covens believe that on this night the magic's from the other side can harm or help any magic rituals they use special herbs to draw in the good spirits and exclude the bad.

Stories and legends: A Samhain's Night Story Orren Whiddon from the Members Muse, Nov 1999. This story is told to children on the night of celebration it is one of the many ways people would pass time keeping the little ones occupied until sunrise. "This Samhain story is about a little girl born to an Amish family, who joined the Ancestors and the Watching Ones of the Stone Circle before she had even known the first day of her own life. A Christian girl who was given her spoken name and the rites of the dead by a Pagan people. But mostly it is about two women. One that comes from an Old Order tradition that is real and living; but may yet die. Another from a tradition long dead and buried, that may yet live. And how they chose to see each other as sisters, separated by time and place, circumstance and tradition. Sisters who could reach out together on a Samhain night, and briefly touch the faces of their dead."( Whiddon, Orren. A Samhain's Night Story. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.)

Most would dress for this holiday different ways some would chosses to do the ritrual in skyclad(nude) and wear simple robes and dresses with lilttle makeup and jewlery. Men and woman alike would wear flowers in ther hair and a sheathed athme or sword at there side.

The woman would be dressed in order to so favor to the goddess as the men would sometimes wear leather or armor to symboles the god these two would be seen as the high priest and preistess elders or any thing els that the wished to be called.

How to celebrate this holiday

For this holiday the children would crave not pumpkins but turnips as pumpkins were not in beurope but were introduced after the discovery of Latin America. also the children would dress in straw disguises to fool the spirits walk the earth they also collect candy from each house they pass the further they get wearing their disguises the more treats they get. Then before the feast but after the trick or treating everyone participates in a ritual.

Instructions

Set outside your door a glass of milk and a scone-like cake, called a Bannock Samhain, on Samhain Eve. This is a sign of welcome to any spirits of ancestors who want to join you for the holiday. Place candles in the windows to guide spiritual visitors.

Prepare a Samhain feast. Use the vegetables of the late harvest season, especially the ones that grow under the ground. Include autumn squashes, pumpkins, turnips, onions, potatoes and carrots.

Talk to the dead people in your life. Chat and laugh with them like you would if they