Samhain: Spark within the darkness

[RandySF]

The intersections of older spiritual practices and modern life are interesting and complex.

Halloween season is a bubbling brew of history, belief, contemporary attitudes and goofy good times. Within paganism, the world of Earth-centered spirituality, October is the season of the ancestors and contains our New Year on the 31st. Our cycle ends, and then begins, at the death of the growing season. Samhain (pronounced SOW-ehn) is the old Celtic name for this holiday and is the one we continue to use today.

The goofy, spooky fun of Halloween, with all its costumes and skeletons, rests atop a more somber and reflective holiday. As a whole, pagans believe the soul continues after death. We also honor the cycles of nature. The natural world is beginning its shift into the season of death and increasing darkness. We believe that as death appears around us, the veil between the living and the dead grows thin.

Samhain season includes building ancestral altars for both distant ancestors and more recent beloveds who have died. Altars can be simple or complex. Sometimes it’s as simple as taking out the old photos and putting them on the mantle where everyone can see them. Sometimes it’s a special table covered in pictures, decorations and objects we associate with our lineage. We make our loved ones’ favorite dishes for family meals. We visit cemeteries to clean off the graves and decorate them anew. And most importantly, we have a space for grief, for allowing the aching places inside us to breathe. A space to speak the words aloud: “I miss you,” and to know that they are heard.





https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/lifestyle/religion/samhain-spark-within-the-darkness/article_b546da2f-0c05-5797-821b-ed6fd2bb257a.html

[Raine]

1. THANKS for posting this! 👍 nt

[abqtommy]

2. I'm always suspicious of anyone who uses words such as "pagan" or

"paganism" in describing the behavior of others. But then if we're all pagans it
doesn't really matter.

[Withywindle]

3. Samhain is the time to remember the dead

And there are so many people dead, who would still be alive in a better world. The dead ask us to rise up and advocate for the lives hanging in the balance now: the poor, the uninsured, the disabled. They ask us to protect life, and that means demanding health care access for the working class. That means that no one should ever be turned away from a hospital, and no one should be saddled with a six-figure bill. Ever. People fear going to hospitals because they fear saddling their families with debt. That is a fundamental injustice.

I believe that the souls of the dead go on, to the Summerlands, and after that to new lives. That does not excuse a country that does not care to preserve the lives and health of individuals.

[EYESORE 9001]

4. All souls matter

It occurs to me that early Christians may have picked the day after, November 1st, as All Saints Day in an attempt to conflate the holidays and then emerge victorious - as with Saturnalia/Christmas. Samhain (Halloween) will always be top dog in this case, however.

[RandySF]

5. Kicked for visibility